Klaus Badelt

Summary

Klaus Badelt (born 12 June 1967) is a German composer, producer, and arranger of film scores. He is known for his collaborations with Hans Zimmer, helping to write scores for dozens of critically acclaimed films including The Thin Red Line, The Prince of Egypt, and Gladiator. Independently, he is known for his work on Hollywood blockbuster films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Equilibrium, K-19: The Widowmaker, Basic, and TMNT, and for his work in French and Chinese cinema as well as a number of films by Werner Herzog.

Klaus Badelt
Klaus Badelt, 2007
Klaus Badelt, 2007
Background information
Born (1967-06-12) 12 June 1967 (age 56)[1]
Frankfurt, West Germany
OriginFrankfurt, West Germany
GenresFilm score
Occupation(s)Composer, producer, Arranger
Years active1990s-present
Websiteklausbadelt.com

Life and career edit

Badelt was born in Frankfurt, West Germany. He started his musical career composing for movies and commercials in his homeland. In 1998, Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer invited Badelt to work at Media Ventures in Santa Monica, California, his studio co-owned by Jay Rifkin. Since then, Badelt has been working on a number of his own film and television projects such as The Time Machine and K-19: The Widowmaker. He also collaborated with other Media Ventures composers, such as Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, and Zimmer; and mentored several others like Ramin Djawadi and Daniel Rojas.

While collaborating with Zimmer, Badelt contributed to the Oscar-nominated scores for The Thin Red Line and The Prince of Egypt, and wrote music for many well known directors and producers including Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Terrence Malick, John Woo, Kathryn Bigelow, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Werner Herzog, Sean Penn, Gore Verbinski, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg.

Badelt co-wrote and co-produced the score to Hollywood box office hit Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, along with Zimmer and singer/composer Lisa Gerrard. Having contributed music to Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2 and Michael Kamen's score for X-Men, Badelt was involved in the three most successful movies in 2000. Badelt also collaborated with Zimmer on other successful films, such as The Pledge, and 2001 blockbusters Hannibal and Pearl Harbor. One of his more famous and popular scores was for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[2]

In 2004, Badelt founded his own film music company, Theme Park Studios, in Santa Monica. Since then, he has scored films such as Constantine, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, Premonition, and TMNT.

Among Badelt's most critically celebrated scores are the Chinese fantasy film The Promise[3][4][5] and DreamWorks' remake of The Time Machine, the latter of which earned him the Discovery of the Year Award at the World Soundtrack Awards 2003. He also wrote the music for the closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and was commissioned to write an opera about China's First Emperor, to be premiered in 2015.[needs update]

Badelt worked on the soundtrack for The Promise for almost 6 months. The song which can be heard in the movie's end credits is an ancient folk song in China, and very few people can still sing it. For that, Badelt traveled almost two weeks in China to find someone who was able to sing the whole folk song in order to rearrange it for the score.

Badelt founded the digital film distribution startup Filmhub to create a platform for content creators to list their titles and get deals with global streaming services. Under the leadership of Badelt and CEO Alan d'Escragnolle, Filmhub now enables thousands of filmmakers to directly distribute to more than 100 streaming channels such as IMDb TV, Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, and Plex. In 2021, Filmhub was recognized by Variety [6] as "a dynamic disruptor in the distribution space."

Filmography edit

Film edit

As score composer edit

Year Title Director Notes
1998 The Polar Bear Til Schweiger
Granz Henman
Composed with Henning Lohner
2001 Invincible Werner Herzog Composed with Hans Zimmer
The Pledge Sean Penn
Extreme Days Eric Hannah Composed with TobyMac
2002 The Time Machine Simon Wells World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year
K-19: The Widowmaker Kathryn Bigelow
Teknolust Lynn Hershman Leeson Composed with Ramin Djawadi
Equilibrium Kurt Wimmer
2003 The Recruit Roger Donaldson
Ned Kelly Gregor Jordan Composed with Bernard Fanning
Basic John McTiernan
The In-Laws Andrew Fleming Composed with James S. Levine
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Gore Verbinski Replaced Alan Silvestri

ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Film
Nominated- Saturn Award for Best Music
Nominated- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score
Nominated- World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year

Beat the Drum David Hickson Composed with Ramin Djawadi
2004 Catwoman Pitof Replaced Graeme Revell

Nominated- Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Most Intrusive Musical Score

2005 Constantine Francis Lawrence Composed with Brian Tyler

ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Film
Nominated- IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Horror/Thriller Film

The Promise Chen Kaige
2006 16 Blocks Richard Donner
Ultraviolet Kurt Wimmer
Poseidon Wolfgang Petersen
Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog Composed with Ernst Reijseger
2007 Premonition Mennan Yapo
Redline Andy Cheng Composed with Ian Honeyman & Andrew Raiher
TMNT Kevin Munroe Replaced Marco Beltrami
Skid Row Ross Clarke
Niva Dorell
Marshall Tyler
Documentary film
Composed with Craig Eastman
2008 Dragon Hunters Guillaume Ivernel
Arthur Qwak
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder Edward Neumeier Themes by Basil Poledouris
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior Russell Mulcahy
Anything for Her Fred Cavayé
Killshot John Madden
2009 Solomon Kane M.J. Bassett
Little Nicholas Laurent Tirard
2010 Heartbreaker Pascal Chaumeil
The Extra Man Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
22 Bullets Richard Berry
Among Wolves Gerardo Olivares Composed with Andrew Raiher
Shanghai Mikael Håfström
Point Blank Fred Cavayé
Small World Bruno Chiche Composed with Jean-Michel Bernard
Waking Madison Katherine Brooks
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Kevin Munroe
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga Dmitry Vasyukov
Werner Herzog
Documentary film
2011 The Prodigies Antoine Charreyron
The Floating Shadow Jia Dongshuo
Jock the Hero Dog Duncan MacNeillie Composed with Ian Honeyman
Seven Days in Utopia Matt Russell Composed with Christopher Carmichael
Rebellion Mathieu Kassovitz
The Oranges Julian Farino Composed with Andrew Raiher
War of the Buttons Yann Samuell
2012 30° couleur Lucien Jean-Baptiste
Philippe Larue
Shanghai Calling Daniel Hsia Composed with Christopher Carmichael
Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia Laurent Tirard
A Perfect Plan Pascal Chaumeil
2014 Supercondriaque Dany Boon
The Identical Dustin Marcellino Composed with Christopher Carmichael
Le Père Noël Alexandre Coffre
2015 Queen of the Desert Werner Herzog
2016 Radin! Fred Cavayé
The Warriors Gate Matthias Hoene
2017 Leap! Éric Summer
Éric Warin
Legend of the Demon Cat Chen Kaige Composed with Misha Segal

As composer of additional music edit

Year Title Director Composer Notes
1998 The Prince of Egypt Brenda Chapman
Steve Hickner
Simon Wells
Hans Zimmer
Stephen Schwartz
The Thin Red Line Terrence Malick Hans Zimmer
1999 Chill Factor Hugh Johnson Hans Zimmer
John Powell
The Devil and Ms. D Bernd Eichinger Henning Lohner
2000 The Tigger Movie Jun Falkenstein Harry Gregson-Williams
The Road to El Dorado Bibo Bergeron
Don Paul
Hans Zimmer
John Powell
Gladiator Ridley Scott Hans Zimmer
Lisa Gerrard
Mission: Impossible 2 John Woo Hans Zimmer
X-Men Bryan Singer Michael Kamen
King of the Jungle Seth Zvi Rosenfeld Harry Gregson-Williams
2001 Hannibal Ridley Scott Hans Zimmer
Pearl Harbor Michael Bay
2004 Wimbledon Richard Loncraine Edward Shearmur
2006 Miami Vice Michael Mann John Murphy
2009 Lilly the Witch: The Dragon and the Magic Book Stefan Ruzowitzky Ian Honeyman
2015 Help, I Shrunk My Teacher Sven Unterwaldt, Jr. Leland Cox
Karim Sebastian Elias
2017 Lilly's Bewitched Christmas Wolfgang Groos Anne-Kathrin Dern

Television edit

Year Title Notes
1994-95 Peter Strohm 10 episodes
1997-98 Tatort 16 episodes
2000 The Others Theme music;
13 episodes
2004 Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King Television film
2007 Random! Cartoons Episode: "Kyle + Rosemary"
2008 The Charlemagne Code [de] Television film
2010 Spear of Destiny [de]
Ein Haus voller Töchter 35 episodes
Tatort Internet 10 episodes
2011 Marco W. - 247 Tage im türkischen Gefängnis Television film
2013-14 Lanfeust Quest 26 episodes
2014 Halo: Nightfall Miniseries
2018 BaseBoys 2 episodes

Other edit

Video Games edit

Awards edit

Year Category Project Result
2001 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score Gladiator Nominated
2002 World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year The Time Machine Won
2004 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Top Box Office Films Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Won
2004 Saturn Award Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Best Music Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Nominated
2004 Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Nominated
2004 World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Nominated
2005 International Film Music Critics Association: Best Original Score for a Horror/Thriller Film Constantine Nominated
2006 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Top Box Office Films Constantine Won
2008 German Television Awards Best Music Die Jagd nach dem Schatz der Nibelungen Nominated
2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival Crystal Image Award N/A Won

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Klaus Badelt". IMDb. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Hans-Zimmer.com". hans-zimmer.com.
  3. ^ "The Promise (Klaus Badelt)". Filmtracks. 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
  4. ^ THE PROMISE- KLAUS BADELT Archived January 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Other reviews by Mike Brennan (2006-02-08). "The Promise (2006) Soundtrack Album". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
  6. ^ "Producers Guild Announces 'PGA Create' Immersive Lab for Underrepresented Producers — Film News in Brief". 11 May 2021.

External links edit

  • Official website
  • Klaus Badelt at IMDb
  • Klaus Badelt at AllMusic  
  • Interview with Stumped Magazine
  • Remote Control Fan Site
  • ScoreNotes Interview