'The Magnificent Seven' director Antoine Fuqua received an unexpected gift in the form of James Horner's musical score for the upcoming film. Meanwhile, Walter Mirisch, the original 1960s film's executive producer, also received the KCET Cinema Series Lumière Award.
In an interview with NPR.org, Fuqua talked about his admiration for the legendary composer Horner calling him a friend, "an incredible human being" and "a filmmaker through and through." He detailed how Horner wrote the musical score secretly to give to him as a gift. Fuqua said, "And he did it for nothing.
He paid his crew out of his own pocket. And I just found out a couple days ago his team flew out here to Baton Rouge, and they brought me all the music from "Magnificent Seven" - he had already wrote it for me based on the script."
He added, "He wanted to surprise me. And I thought it was a gift or something. And they all came out here and they said, Antoine, James wrote the music for "Magnificent Seven" already, and it's just glorious. And that's my memory of James."
The late film score composer garnered numerous awards in his lifetime. According to Bustle.com, Horner had no fewer than 50 awards and 64 nominations in his name. This included two Oscars, two Golden Globes and several ASCAP awards. He wrote scores for movies such as 'Titanic', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'Apollo 13', 'Braveheart' and 'Avatar'.
Horner passed away last June 22, 2015 in an aviation accident at the age of 61 years old. His single-engine aircraft, a S-312 Tucano MK1 turbo-prop with two seats, crashed in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara, California.
In another report by KCET.org, Walter Mirisch was recently honored at an exclusive red carpet screening of his renowned western film 'The Magnificent Seven' from 1960. It was a private event hosted by Pete Hammond of Deadline.com at Santa Monica's Aero Theatre on July 14 for the KCET Cinema Series Lumière Award.
The award recognized Mirisch's lifetime achievements in contribution to the film industry. The Oscar-nominee worked in numerous critically acclaimed films including 'In The Heat of the Night' for which he won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
'The Magnificent Seven' reboot is set for release on January 13, 2017 under the direction of Antoine Fuqua. It features a massive cast of Hollywood favorites including Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Matt Bomer, and Peter Sarsgaard.
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