Leona Lewis is hoping 'Avatar' song will be a 'Titanic' success

"AVATAR" COUNTDOWN: 27 DAYS

James Cameron's decade-long quest to deliver his sci-fi epic "Avatar" to moviegoers is nearing its climax. We're counting down the days to the Dec. 18 release with daily coverage here at the mighty Hero Complex. Today we consider the sound of "Avatar," specifically the theme song by Leona Lewis.

 

In late 1997 and early 1998, as "Titanic" sailed into box-office history, there was no escaping the film even if you never walked into a movie theater -- Celine Dion's recording of "My Heart Will Go On" was a massive hit and spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard radio airplay chart.

"My Heart Will Go On" won the Oscar for best song and also won Grammys in the marquee categories of song of the year and record of the year. The melodramatic hit, the biggest of Dion's platinum-plated career, propelled the film and vice versa -- and now Cameron and the "Avatar" team are hoping for a similar sort of synergy with the Leona Lewis recording of "I See You," the theme that will play over the closing credits of the sci-fi epic.

It's hard to imagine anyone could catch that "Titanic"-style lightning in a bottle twice, but Cameron has some familiar faces helping with the attempt. Oscar-winning composer James Horner (who shared the songwriting credit on "My Heart Will Go On" with lyricist Will Jennings) was brought into the studio as a producer on the Lewis recording, as was Simon Franglen, who was one of three credited producers of the "Titanic" track.

Lewis is a 24-year-old British singer with considerable success -- she is a three-time Grammy nominee, one in the prestigious record of the year category for her hit "Bleeding Love" -- and she was in London last week filming a video for "I See You" with U.K. director Jake Nava. Nava has worked with artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, the Cranberries and System of a Down but may be best known for two of Beyoncé's signature hits, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and "Crazy in Love." Lewis  has been in Los Angeles this week for an especially busy trip, with appearances Thursday on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and Friday on the outdoor stage of "Jimmy Kimmel Live"; tonight she will sing on the American Music Awards on ABC.)

I haven't heard the song yet but I do know that "I See You" gets its title from an expression of respect and connection used by the Na'vi, the tribe of giant blue-hued aliens who lived on the troubled moon of Pandora in "Avatar."  We'll have an interview with Horner here at the Hero Complex later this week and get some details about the Lewis sessions and the song, as well as his score for the off-world adventure. The album "Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture" goes on sale Dec. 15.

-- Geoff Boucher

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Photo: Leona Lewis. Credit: Associated Press

Listen in on sound masters at the Academy's 'Horrorshow'

Continuing our countdown to Halloween is another Susan King special touting what will be a cool look by many of the creators of audible terror at some of film's greatest scary tales -- from 1925's "The Phantom of the Opera" to "Poltergeist" and "The Thing." Just spotlighting another event for fear-seeking fanboys and followers of classic Hollywood alike. -- Jevon Phillips

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences explores the things that go boo  tonight at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. But don’t expect any scholarly examination of the use of sound in horror films at "The Sound Behind the Image III: Real Horrorshow!"

"I think what it really amounts to is a ... horror movie night in the doors with friends, pizza and some horror movies," says the program host, veteran sound editor David E. Stone, who won an Oscar for his spook-tacular work on the 1992 horror hit, "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

"What we are going to do is have a handful of basically post-production sound people each introducing clips of a horror movie where we think there is something interesting to say on how the sound was treated," says Stone. "The most exciting role that sound can play in a horror movie is that enhances what you don’t see , and that adds to the suspense."

Sometimes silence is golden in horror movies.

"Scholars tell us sound was always thought about in silent films," says Stone. "It was made part of the story by the composition of music or the characters’ miming that they heard something."

To illustrate the point, Stone will be showing the famous clip from 1925's "The Phantom of the Opera" where Mary Philbin rips off the mask of the Phantom (Lon Chaney), and her silent scream literally echoes in audiences’ ears.

Besides Stone, Oscar-nominated sound effects editors Mark Mangini and Richard L. Anderson will offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the chilling sound effects were created for 1982’s "Poltergeist." Foley artist Vanessa Theme Ament will discuss the work of master foley artist John Post, who was responsible for the terrifying sound effects on John Carpenters 1982 "The Thing." And veteran Oscar-winning production sound mixer Gene Cantamessa and supervising sound editor Don Hall will discuss their work on Mel Brooks' classic 1974 horror spoof, "Young Frankenstein."

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. For more information, go to www.oscars.org.

-- Susan King

Photo: Winona Ryder stars as Mina Murray/Elisabeta and Gary Oldman stars as Dracula in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Credit: Columbia Pictures

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U2 show at the Rose Bowl has a fanboy backbeat? [UPDATED]

The U2 show at the Rose Bowl may have been billed as the concert of the century but this is also the "decade of the fanboy" and I couldn't help but notice some overlap between the massive music event and the universe we cover here at the Hero Complex.

I was only inside the venue for 10 minutes when I saw a familiar face in the churning crowd of the stadium's outer ring. I called out to J.J. Abrams and he smiled, waved and paused but really there was no way to stop and talk amid the crowd current. "See you inside," he said.

My son, Ben, who is 8, was attending his very first concert and he recognized Abrams but not as the creative brand behind "Lost," "Star Trek" and "Fringe": "Hey, he's the guy who played keyboards in that video 'Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions,' right?" Um, wow, yeah, son, that is him.

We were lucky enough to get bracelets for the pre-show party at the Round Room, a swanky (but sweltering) VIP tent, and one of the first people we saw when we walked in was Ewan MacGregor, who was posing for pictures with some people. Ben was properly awed by the presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi and he was searching faces in the rest of the room in hopes, I suspect, that Chewbacca might be in some corner debating the merits of "Joshua Tree" with General Grievous.

The room was dotted with Hollywood execs (Tom Freston, Jimmy Iovine, Jeffrey Katzenberg) and glossy-magazine faces (Cindy Crawford, Paris Hilton) but they held zero interest for Ben. I ran into a friend, Nancy Sullivan, who said Chris O'Donnell, the former Boy Wonder of "Batman & Robin," was walking around, and not long after Colin Farrell, who probably doesn't put "Daredevil" at the top of his resume, sauntered in wearing a jaunty hat. I saw Michael Bay arrive with his statuesque date and walked over to say hello. I congratulated him on the commercial success of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (which still stands as the highest-grossing film of 2009) and got him to promise I could visit the set of the third robot film. Ben, hoping he might get to tag along, smiled like the Boucher family had just won the lottery.

It was time to head for our seats so I assumed the fanboy subplots were over but I was wrong. The startling set for the show, the cosmic claw, looks like something that Jack Kirby would have dreamed up. Bono mentioned Scarlett Johansson, star of "Iron Man 2" and "The Spirit," at one point but that was just a footnote. The great line came midway through the show (a show, by the way, that was absolutely astounding) when Bono began a tongue-in-cheek introduction of the band members. He described the Edge as a mad scientist and an alien visitor, whose mission has "gone where no other guitarist has gone before." I wondered if, somewhere in the crowd of 97,000, Abrams fell out of his seat at that line. Bono added, "He's Mr. Spock to us, he's the Edge to you."

Lovely. Live long and prosper, rock fans.

-- Geoff Boucher

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UPDATED: Fixed a misspelled name. And, no, it wasn't Bonno or Beno and Bobo.

'Twilight Saga: New Moon' and its vampy sounds

This in from Todd Martens over at the Pop & Hiss music blog, one the other fine pop-culture outposts here at the Los Angeles Times website...

A new film in the "Twilight" franchise is more than just a cinematic event. As the soundtrack to "Twilight" sold a stunning 2.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the vampire brand means serious business to the music industry as well.

The soundtrack to "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is released off-cycle today, rather than the typical music industry release day of Tuesday. It's out a month ahead of the film, which hits theaters nationwide on Nov. 20, and whether it will have the same retail impact as the music companion to the first film remains to be seen.

But this much is certain: The "New Moon" soundtrack is definitely much more of a piece than the soundtrack to "Twilight." It's moody, music-to-get-sad-to, definitely, but music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas has put together a collection of songs that captures the drama of young love without drowning in it. Released once again on Patsavas' Chop Shop label, which is associated with Warner Music Group imprint Atlantic, "New Moon" is, on a whole, more inventive than the scattered radio-ready rock that permeated its predecessor...

READ TODD'S TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEW OF ALL 14 SONGS

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Photos, clockwise from top left: Thom Yorke: Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times; Annie Clark:  Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times; Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times; "New Moon" posters: Summit Entertainment / Associated Press

Corgan talks 'Watchmen' music

Here's a guest post from Charlie Amter who is part of our stellar Soundboard crew, whose music blog you can find here.

One of the most talked about trailers to emerge from last weekend’s Comic-Con convention in San Diego was the teaser for “Watchmen.” Now all over YouTube (and playing nationwide in theaters before blockbusters such as “The Dark Knight”), the trailer features a melancholy, semi-obscure Smashing Pumpkins song titled “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning” (not to be confused with the more upbeat “rock” version, “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” that appeared over the closing credits of “Batman & Robin“).

Confused yet?

So are thousands of fans of the storied graphic novel. According to Zack Snyder, who directed “Watchmen” (and “300″), the song will not appear in the film. The director says he chose the song for the mood.

Regardless, the response toward the trailer has been massive online — earning accolades (and a huge iTunes sales spike for the Pumpkins) for how the dark lyrical content and feel of the song meshes with the stunning visuals from the forthcoming film.

We were curious what Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan thought of the attention from both old and new fans (many of whom have been unable to identify Corgan’s signature growl in the tune from just watching the trailer) regarding the resurrection of “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning.”

According to Corgan, who responded to questions by e-mail, he has already asked if the band can release the song as a video. More thoughts on the song from the Pumpkins ringleader after the jump.

Are you surprised at the reaction online from some young “Watchmen” fans who have never heard “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning,” let alone the Smashing Pumpkins?

Honestly, I don’t really keep up on what the world is doing or saying anymore. The word on the street seems to be, from what my friends tell me, that the use of the song in the trailer is intriguing to them and has created some excitement around it.

What has been Smashing Pumpkins fan reaction toward the use of the song in the trailer?

My fans seem to be confused when the outside world appreciates our work, so I can only imagine this terrifies them.

What are your personal thoughts on “Watchmen?”

Before this I’d never heard of the “Watchmen” series, but from what I’ve seen it looks very interesting.

Who approached you to use the song and do you think it’s a good fit?
I just got a call one day asking if I was cool with it, and I was surprised because it’s a version of that song that never seemed to get any notice. Months before the trailer was released I kept hearing from friends in the movie business that they loved how the song worked with the images from the movie. I love the way it’s used in the trailer. I’ve asked the movie people if it’s possible we could release it as a music video. Still waiting on that one. Certainly the massive jump in on-line sales seems to indicate it might be worth it for us and for the movie.

Finally, when can we expect to hear “G.L.O.W.” or any other new SP material?

Just finished recording “G.L.O.W.” in Memphis at the famed Ardent Studios and hope to release it in early September. We feel we have finally turned the corner with these last 2 releases (“American Gothic” and “G.L.O.W.” to come) where it’s starting to feel like our music again, and not theirs, whoever “they” might be. Have plans to start recording a new multi-year, multi-release concept album by the end of this year. It will be very trippy and hopefully unique, and we’ll probably keep putting out singles here.

–- Charlie Amter

Update: In an earlier version of this post, Billy Corgan's name was spelled wrong in one spot.

Photo by Yelena Yemchek/For The Times