John Powell would do a killer Avatar score, but I wouldn't mind if someone lesser known had a crack at it. Andrew Lockington? Federico Jusid, Fernando Velasquez all would bring something interesting I think...Lockington's scores for San Andreas and the Journey films are fantastic.
I think Steven Price would be an interesting choice for "Avatar 2". He just scored a big BBC natural history documentary series, "The Hunt," and did a fine job on the WW2 flick, "Fury."
My vote would be for a composer who has been involved with numerous scores & genre for several years - Bear McCreary. If you listen to his recent work for Outlander; you can hear a close resemblance to Braveheart. Black Sails & Da Vinci's Demons is similar to early Horner in his Star Trek period. I would suggest he take the existing Avatar music & remix it for the new film. There is a great deal of existing music that Horner composed that was never used in the final release of the film. Finally he should enlist 2 of Horner's close associates to help McCreary complete the project. J.A.C. Redford & Simon Rhodes. They worked with James Horner on numerous projects & their insight would be invaluable to the final score. It could be as close as we will ever get to hearing a Horner score for Avatar 2.
Composers don't partially like to be told to write like another composer. Whom ever it is, should have free reign to do their own thing, assuming their style fits the needs of the film.
Not worrying at all. I'd love to hear a Junkie XL AVATAR score, but the likelihood of that happening is very slim. Cameron will no doubt go for something a little more traditional.
No question. Give it to the guys who scored Magnificent 7. They handled Horner’s sketches with so much care. Bet they would be the best filling James’ shoes.
A very worrying development considering that Cameron is producing this film with Landau.
Worrying for Avatars 2-through-1000? I don't see why, unless you're just concerned that Cameron would associate in any way with Mr. XL, even on a very different film directed by somebody else. Do you really think that Cameron is going to go for a completely different sound for future Avatars? I think the odds of him going with electronica is about the same as him going with a madrigal choir.
Also, after seeing this trailer, I have sworn off all movies forever.
No question. Give it to the guys who scored Magnificent 7. They handled Horner’s sketches with so much care. Bet they would be the best filling James’ shoes.
I'm not really clear on how much original material (vs. arrangement) Franglen and team composed for The Magnificent Seven. Much of the score sounded very James Horner to me, but that may have been because they made extensive good use of his sketches. Now, if one just wanted good adaptations of his original Avatar themes, having the same team might work just fine to support the film, but I suspect the result would be something more akin to Ken Thorne's Superman II, a fine adaptation but minimal on new material. I could be wrong! But can Franglin and co. actually compose *new* thematic material that has a Horner sound?
I'd be more inclined to go with James Newton Howard (who is very good at a similar ethnic orchestral sound to the first Avatar, and has shown he can do well with other composers' thematic material) or have Cameron reunite with Joel McNeely (his ability to imitate other composers' styles coming in handy here, and the man also knows how to write great themes himself). But if it goes to Franglin I will certainly be interested to hear what he can come up with.
