..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

January 16, 2006

For Immediate Release

OSCAR®-WINNING COMPOSER HANS ZIMMER
TO SCORE COLUMBIA PICTURES’ THE DA VINCI CODE

Oscar®-winner Hans Zimmer will compose the score to Ron Howard’s film adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. This highly-anticipated film from Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany and Sir Ian McKellen, and is set for release on May 19, 2006.

From director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar®-winning team of A Beautiful Mind, and producer John Calley (the Oscar®-nominated The Remains of the Day), comes the film version of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, one of the most popular and talked about novels of our time, with a cast headed by two-time Academy Award® winner Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Paul Bettany and Jean Reno.

Produced by Grazer and Calley, The Da Vinci Code begins with a spectacular murder in the Louvre Museum. All clues point to a covert religious organization that will stop at nothing to protect a secret that threatens to overturn 2,000 years of accepted dogma.

One of Hollywood’s most respected composers, Zimmer has the distinction of having scored more than 100 films during his illustrious career. In 1994, he won the Academy Award® for Best Original Score for the animated feature The Lion King, and has also been nominated for his work on six other films: Gladiator, The Prince of Egypt, The Thin Red Line, As Good As It Gets, The Preacher’s Wife and Rain Man. Other career highlights include The Last Samurai, Black Hawk Down, Thelma & Louise and Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy. Additionally, he is also the winner of three Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, and countless other accolades for his musical achievements.

The Da Vinci Code marks the second collaboration between Zimmer and director Ron Howard. They previously joined forces on Backdraft. The Da Vinci Code recently completed filming in France, Scotland and England. Zimmer, having visited the European sets on several occasions, is at work constructing his musical approach to the film.

Zimmer started his career playing keyboards and synthesizers in the band The Buggles, famed for the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” He also served as an apprentice to composer and mentor Stanley Myers. His first film was My Beautiful Laundrette, but his breakthrough as film composer came in 1988 with Barry Levinson’s Rain Man, for which he received his first Oscar® nomination. Since that time, his use of electronic music in combination with orchestral and choral arrangements have made him an innovative cinematic force, and its influence on the art form is prevalent not only in his works but also the works of his contemporaries today.

His work spans a variety of time periods and genres, yet Zimmer is equally comfortable scoring the animated feature Shark Tale and the historical epic The Last Samurai. In 2005, Zimmer continued to make film history by scoring the acclaimed summer blockbuster Batman Begins in collaboration with composer James Newton Howard, the first pairing of its kind since 1954 when Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman collaborated on The Egyptian. Recently, Zimmer’s music was featured in the smash-hit animated feature Madagascar and Gore Verbinski’s The Weather Man.

 

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