Danny Elfman has pulled out of scoring The Wolfman, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts. The film was originally scheduled to be released at the end of 2008 but now has a planned release date of February 12th next year.

This shifting release date is a perfectly understandable reason, until you learn that apparently his music for the film was already virtually completed. It’s hard not to make the assumption then that Elfman got the elbow because his music either wasn’t good enough or just didn’t suit the filmmakers vision? Out of the two I’m gonna say it was because it didn’t suit the filmmakers vision because Elfman is a great film music composer. This is probably my favourite of his -

Elfman had previously talked about the project with optimism -

“The lucky thing for me is that the original ‘Wolf Man’ did not have an extremely famous musical score. (So) at least I’m not going to have a mountain of people madly in love with the original,” the Grammy winner and three-time Oscar nominee says, laughing. “There’s a little bit of relief.”

The new choice of composer perhaps speaks volumes about the style of the film. Elfman’s score was rumoured to be a typically gothic affair which surely would be suited to The Wolfman. His replacement Paul Haslinger’s (Shoot ‘Em Up) film music has a more rock based sound. I’m not questioning his quality as a composer but I would have thought that Elfman was the the better fit. Cinemusic.net pointed out that -

“This composer casting choice seems to make sense when you consider the second trailer for The Wolfman, which eschews atmospheric chills for rhythmic music propelling quick cuts of creature effects and CGI transformations.”

That definitely seems a fair analysis and as far as I am concerned it is a shame because I actually prefered the first trailer and was hoping that Wolfman would be an atmospheric chiller in the vain of the old Hammer and Universal horror films. Instead maybe we are looking at another Van Helsing in the making.

Sources: Cinemusic, Dark Horizons