John Powell (born 18 September 1963) is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films.Contents [hide] 1 Life and career 1.1 Notable films scored by Powell 2 Discography 3 Awards and Nominations 3.1 Awards 3.2 Nominations 4 External links 5 References
[edit] Life and career
Powell originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band "The Fabulistics". On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.
In 1995, he co-founded the London-based commercial music house Independently Thinking Music, which produced scores for more than 100 British and French commercials and independent films. [edit] Notable films scored by Powell
Since moving to the U.S. in 1997, he has scored a number of comedy and action films, including Robots, The Italian Job, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Antz and Shrek and Chicken Run (co-composed with Harry Gregson-Williams), Endurance, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Jumper, Face/Off, Bolt, Horton Hears a Who!, and the recently released How to Train Your Dragon.
Powell's additional credits include Drumline, X-Men: The Last Stand, United 93, and Happy Feet, for which he received the first ever Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for an Animated Feature Film. He is one of the best known former members of the Remote Control (formerly known as Media Ventures) team of film composers and has a scoring style that incorporates both traditional orchestral and more modern, synthesized elements. A good example of this is his opening cue for the Sean Penn film, I Am Sam, which features found sounds (for example, cups scraping on tabletops, and the percussive sounds of cutlery being laid) as part of the music. [edit] Discography John Powell discographyReleases ↙ Soundtracks 52 Year Title 1990 Stay Lucky 1994 The Wild Heels 1996 High Incident Human Bomb 1997 Face/Off 1998 Antz (with Harry Gregson-Williams) With Friends Like These… Endurance 1999 Chill Factor Forces of Nature 2000 Chicken Run (with Harry Gregson-Williams) The Road to El Dorado (with Hans Zimmer) 2001 Evolution I Am Sam Just Visiting Rat Race Shrek (with Harry Gregson-Williams) 2002 The Bourne Identity D-Tox Drumline The Adventures of Pluto Nash Two Weeks Notice 2003 Agent Cody Banks Gigli Paycheck Stealing Sinatra The Italian Job 2004 Alfie Mr. 3000 The Bourne Supremacy 2005 Be Cool Mr. & Mrs. Smith Robots 2006 Ice Age: The Meltdown United 93 X-Men: The Last Stand Happy Feet 2007 The Bourne Ultimatum Stop-Loss PS, I Love You 2008 Horton Hears a Who! Jumper Kung Fu Panda (with Hans Zimmer) Hancock Bolt 2009 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 2010 How to Train Your Dragon Green Zone Knight and Day 2011 Mars Needs Moms! (taking over as composer from Hans Zimmer) Rio (with will.i.am and Sérgio Mendes) Happy Feet 2
