Graeme Revell

Graeme Revell is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial rock/electronic rock group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer.

Some of Revell's best known film scores include Dead Calm (1989), The Crow (1994), Street Fighter (1994), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), The Craft (1996), The Saint (1997), The Negotiator (1998), Bride of Chucky (1998), Titan A.E. (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Daredevil (2003), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Sin City (2005). He is also known for his frequent collaborations with director David Twohy, having scored Below (2002) and the Riddick franchise. He is an eight-time recipient of the BMI Film Music Award, including the Richard Kirk Career Achievement Award, and an AACTA Award winner.

Biography

Early life Revell attended Auckland Grammar School, where he finished his final year in 7A. As an orderly in an insane asylum in Australia in the late 70's, he and another psych nurse, Brett Guerin, formed one of industrial music's first bands, SPK, as an outgrowth of interest in music therapy. He spent the next decade making music that ranged from extreme to beautiful to academic and earning a reputation for wild stage stunts that included accidentally setting an audience member on fire with a flamethrower. Revell's break came in 1989, when he scored the Australian film Dead Calm. A Hollywood agent, Richard Kraft, heard it and tracked him down. Since then, he moved to Hollywood, working with everything from 85-piece orchestras for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, to Tuvan singers and Armenian stringed instruments for The Crow, to brassy jazz and hip-hop rhythm loops for Fled, with Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin.

Vocational pursuits He worked as a regional planner in both Australia and Indonesia, and was also an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital.

Musical career Revell was a founding member of the industrial music band SPK, playing keyboards and percussion. The SPK single, "In Flagrante Delicto", was the basis for the Dead Calm film score (his first) that won him an Australian Film Industry award in 1989.

In 2002–03, he assisted the rock band Evanescence on their debut album, Fallen, in which he is credited for doing most of the string arrangements. He has also done string arrangements for Ludus, Stefy, Biffy Clyro and The Wombats.

Style Revell's musical style is predominantly electronic and computer-based, yet often utilises classical instruments or entire arrangements for certain pieces (similar to his contemporary counterparts, Hans Zimmer and Mark Isham). The orchestral scores that Revell has composed have changed throughout his career—from Bernard Herrmann-like pieces to Ennio Morricone-influenced works. "Whenever I write songs, I always have visual images in mind, and I have always changed styles dramatically. That's not good for a long-term rock career, but it's good if you want to score films."

Awards and nominations On 18 May 2005, Revell was honored at the annual BMI Film & TV Awards with the Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA 1994 Nominee Saturn AwardBest Music Hard Target (1993)

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards 1993 Winner ASCAP AwardTop Box Office Films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA) 2008 Nominee IFMCA AwardBest Original Score for a Documentary Film Darfur Now (2007)

World Soundtrack Awards 2001 Nominee World Soundtrack AwardBest Original Score of the Year Not Released on an Album Blow (2001)

Venice Film Festival 1997 Winner Golden OsellaBest Score Chinese Box (1997)

Online Film & Television Association

Source:

2001Winner OFTA Television AwardBest Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Dune (2000)Nominee OFTA Television AwardBest Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Dune (2000)Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)

Fangoria Chainsaw Awards

Source:

2003Nominee Chainsaw AwardBest Score Below (2002)1997Nominee Chainsaw AwardBest Score From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)1994Winner Chainsaw AwardBest Soundtrack The Crow (1994)

BMI Film & TV Awards 2009 Winner BMI Film Music AwardPineapple Express (2008)

Works Theatrical film 1980s Year Title Director 1989 Dead Calm Phillip Noyce

1990s Year Title Director Notes 1990 Spontaneous Combustion Tobe Hooper Child's Play 2 John Lafia Till There Was You John Seale 1991 Deadly Esben Storm The People Under the Stairs Wes Craven "Additional Orchestral Music" credit Until the End of the World Wim Wenders 1992 The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Curtis Hanson Love Crimes Lizzie Borden Traces of Red Andy Wolk Body of Evidence Uli Edel 1993 Boxing Helena Jennifer Lynch Hear No Evil Robert Greenwald The Crush Alan Shapiro Faraway, So Close! Wim Wenders Hard Target John Woo Composed with Tim Simonec Ghost in the Machine Rachel Talalay 1994 No Escape Martin Campbell Composed with Tim Simonec The Crow Alex Proyas S.F.W. Jefery Levy Street Fighter Steven E. de Souza 1995 Tank Girl Rachel Talalay The Basketball Diaries Scott Kalvert Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie Bryan Spicer Killer: A Journal of Murder Tim Metcalfe The Tie That Binds Wesley Strick Strange Days Kathryn Bigelow 1996 From Dusk till Dawn Robert Rodriguez Race the Sun Charles T. Kanganis The Craft Andrew Fleming Fled Kevin Hooks The Crow: City of Angels Tim Pope 1997 The Saint Phillip Noyce Spawn Mark A.Z. Dippé Chinese Box Wayne Wang Suicide Kings Peter O'Fallon 1998 The Big Hit Kirk Wong Phoenix Danny Cannon All I Wanna Do Sarah Kernochan The Negotiator F. Gary Gray Lulu on the Bridge Paul Auster Bride of Chucky Ronny Yu The Siege Edward Zwick 1999 Idle Hands Rodman Flender Buddy Boy Mark Hanlon Composed with Michael Brook and Brian Eno Three to Tango Damon Santostefano Bats Louis Morneau The 13th Warrior John McTiernan Rejected Score

2000s Year Title DirectorNotes 2000 Pitch Black David Twohy Gossip Davis Guggenheim Titan A.E. Don BluthGary GoldmanFirst score for an animated film Calle 54 Fernando Trueba Attraction Russell DeGrazier Red Planet Antony Hoffman 2001 Double Take George Gallo Blow Ted Demme Human Nature Michel Gondry Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Simon West 2002 Collateral Damage Andrew Davis High Crimes Carl Franklin Below David Twohy 2003 Daredevil Mark Steven Johnson Freddy vs. Jason Ronny Yu Out of Time Carl Franklin Open Water Chris Kentis 2004 Walking Tall Kevin Bray The Chronicles of Riddick David Twohy 2005 Assault on Precinct 13 Jean-François Richet Sin City Robert RodriguezFrank Miller The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D Robert Rodriguez Goal! Danny Cannon Harsh Times David Ayer The Fog Rupert Wainwright Æon Flux Karyn Kusama 2006 Bordertown Gregory Nava Man of the Year Barry Levinson 2007 Marigold Willard Carroll Planet Terror Robert Rodriguez The Condemned Scott Wiper Darfur Now Ted Braun Awake Joby Harold 2008 The Ruins Carter Smith Street Kings David Ayer Pineapple Express David Gordon Green Days of Wrath Celia Fox

2010s Year Title Director 2010 Unthinkable Gregor Jordan The Experiment Paul T. Scheuring Kites: The Remix Anurag Basu Kites 2011 Shark Night David R. Ellis 2013 Riddick David Twohy

Television film Year Title Director 1990 Psycho IV: The Beginning Mick Garris 1995 Down Came a Blackbird Jonathan Sanger 1998 Dennis the Menace Strikes Again Charles T. Kanganis

Television series Year Title 1988 Bangkok Hilton 2000 Frank Herbert's Dune 2001 Anne Frank: The Whole Story 2002–2003 CSI: Miami 2008–2009 Eleventh Hour 2009–2010 The Forgotten Dark Blue 2012 The River 2014–2015 Gotham

Video games Year Title 2005 Call of Duty 2 Call of Duty 2: Big Red One