Latest news with #JohnPowell
Forbes
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘How To Train Your Dragon' Earns Composer John Powell His Biggest Hit Album
John Powell's How to Train Your Dragon debuts on the Official Soundtrack Albums chart and on the ... More Official Album Downloads chart, earning the composer his new career peak. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 07: John Powell attends Universal Pictures presents the Los Angeles premiere of DreamWorks "How To Train Your Dragon" at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on June 07, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by) Since being released in mid-June, How to Train Your Dragon has quickly become one of the highest-grossing movies of 2025 globally. The live-action remake of the animated film of the same name, which was originally released back in 2010, ranks among the 10 most successful titles this year, with more than $370 million earned thus far, and it's still just getting started. The media property is so popular that the music backing the film has also become commercially success in the United Kingdom. John Powell Returns to the Charts John Powell scored How to Train Your Dragon – both the live-action reworking and the original – and this week, he earns a new hit on the charts in the U.K. The accompanying music opens at No. 13 on the Official Soundtrack Albums chart and No. 41 on the Official Album Downloads ranking. How to Train Your Dragon Opens High This week, How to Train Your Dragon secures the top start on the Official Soundtrack Albums chart. Powell's latest effort outpaces M: Son of the Century by Tom Rowlands, the album connected to Death Stranding 2 by Woodkid, and The Ballad of Wallace Island, which is credited to both Carey Mulligan and her co-star Tom Basden. Over on the Official Album Downloads chart, competition is much tougher. On that ranking, Powell is up against all musical acts — not just soundtracks — and How to Train Your Dragon doesn't manage to beat new projects from stars like Van Morrison, The Cure, Queens of the Stone Age, and Neil Young, which all launch in higher positions. John Powell Hits a New Career High Powell earns just his second hit on the Official Album Downloads chart, and he reaches a new career high as a credited artist. In 2019, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – the soundtrack tied to the animated film's sequel – spent a single frame at No. 51. On the Official Soundtrack Albums chart, the two-time Oscar nominee scores a milestone tenth appearance, though he misses his all-time peak by just one space. Back in 2007, the music Powell created for The Bourne Ultimatum climbed as high as No. 12 — just one position above where he sits now.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'How to Train Your Dragon' music composer John Powell recalls making the music during Palisades fire; escapes with two poodles and a backup drive
'How to Train Your Dragon' music composer took his job way too seriously, to the extent that his life was in danger during the savage Palisades fire in January. But when he did, the 61-year-old ran out of the house with two poodles and a 12 terabyte backup drive containing every single piece of music he had ever written. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now John Powell and the Palisades disaster In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, John Powell revealed that he was working on the music for 'How to Train Your Dragon.' However, during the initial warnings, Powell paid no attention to the inferno, solely because he had been living in Palisades for over 20 years, and the fire hazards were part of his life. This time, it was different. The updates about the risk were escalating by the hour, and later by the minute. Covering the vents and holes, and spraying with the pool pumps, he was exhausted and panicked about the situation, but the score did not leave his mind. Two poodles and a backup drive 'When I'm writing, it's very hard to get me out of that brain set,' Powell said, adding that he thinks he is neurodivergent. After persistent announcements and calls from his son, he decided to escape with two poodles and a 12 terabyte backup drive containing every single piece of music he had ever written. While John's house did not burn down, it was affected after 30 of the 60 houses on his street suffered a great loss. However, his former home, where he used to live on rent, was damaged. He went from Airbnb to Airbnb and contacted his fellow composer, . 'It wasn't like I could call Universal and say, can we move the recording dates and the mixing dates and the release date? I have a responsibility to make sure that I get the music done on time,' John said, adding that he only had a month before he had to record with the orchestra. 'You've just got the work in front of you, and that becomes the most important thing at that moment, which is slightly sad to say, but it's a useful thing under those sort of circumstances,' the composer stated.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘How to Train Your Dragon' Used Bagpipes, Sheep Fur and the Faroe Islands to Bring the Remake to Life
When Dreamworks released the animated feature 'How to Train Your Dragon' in 2010, it seemed almost inevitable that a live-action feature would come along. Cinematographer Roger Deakins gave the feature a stunning cinematic style that felt almost live-action, and composer John Powell added a sweeping score to the narrative. More from Variety Box Office: 'How to Train Your Dragon' Lifts Off With Fourth-Biggest Opening Day of 2025, 'Materialists' Serving Third Place Debut 'How to Train Your Dragon' Director on the Big Changes Made and the Storylines He Expanded for Live-Action Remake 'How to Train Your Dragon' Star Nico Parker Says Astrid Is a 'Boss Bitch' in New Live-Action Film Director Dean DeBlois heard a live-action movie was in the works, and he called Powell. The animated feature was not only beloved, but it had also become part of pop culture history. His first call asked Powell, 'Should we do a live-action?' Powell says, DeBlois next said, 'Well, if I do it, would you do it?' Powell said yes. After spending over a decade scoring all three films in the animated feature trilogy, Powell felt a sense of responsibility to the music of the franchise. And who better to do it than he to breathe new life into a beloved score? The new film follows Hiccup (Mason Thames), a young and scrawny Viking boy who refuses to follow his tribe's tradition of hunting dragons. This is much to the chagrin of his proudly traditional father, Stoick (Gerard Butler), who happens to be the village leader and a legendary dragon slayer. The film also stars Nico Parker as Astrid, Julian Dennison as Fishlegs, Gabriel Howell as Snotlout, Bronwyn James as Ruffnut, Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut and Nick Frost as Gobber. In his approach to breathing new life into the live-action score, Powell looked to make subtle changes in tempo, density and clarity. He says, 'There's some stuff that was made to be very much the same, and there are not many changes for 20-30 seconds, and then suddenly you might see something shift.' One noticeable change in scoring the live-action was the use of bagpipes. This time around, Powell was able to use a real bagpipe player, Lorne MacDougall, founder of the Red Hot Chili Pipers. With DeBlois expanding the story, Powell relied on the familiar, but he also found room to expand his score. In the father-son relationship between Stoick and Hiccup, Powell says that the theme did a lot of the heavy lifting. 'We called it 'He's Not That Boy,' which is funny because Marc Platt also produced this and 'Wicked.' During the end title, we have a song that is sung by a choir, and I said to Dean, 'Do you want to write some words?' and he did. It became this whole tune that threads through the movie.' Costume designer Lindsay Pugh wanted to keep the essence of the characters that had been established through the animation and be respectful of that. Still, she also needed to find a characterization that would work in real life. Says Pugh, 'It was trying to find that balance, but being respectful to what everybody wants to see.' Pugh maintained Hiccup's calmness from the original. 'I didn't want him to be very colorful,' she says behind her decision to anchor his palette in natural tones and green. 'It's very calming and a very gentle color.' However, she wanted to give his outfit texture, and so she took a dive into historical references of embroidery, needlework and weaving techniques. 'We found all of these different textures that we could use, and we wove all of the embroidery. So it gives us visual interest in what, from a distance, would be quite a simple garment,' but on closer inspection, that fine detail would reveal itself. Pugh also paid attention to Viking culture. Since DeBlois was extending this universe, Pugh's designs were 'specifically Viking, as we would automatically imagine, because that's sort of what the world was.' She draped them in sheepskin and explained, 'One of the very first scenes in the movie was the dragons going down and stealing or trying to steal these poor decoy sheep, so it's a really perfect setup of having that.' The film has environmental goals, and aside from using sustainable materials where possible, any fur was made from sheepskin. She adds, 'They have great fur, great wool and skins on that. Ecologically, they were not something that is as detrimental to the planet.' Butler has previously joked that his outfit weighed over 90 pounds. Pugh's response is, 'I just want to say Gerry, it was with the helmet, the cape, the sword and the shield.' She notes she wanted to give him weight and a foundation so he could push against it. 'We have Gerry on the inside, and then all of these layers. We have leather and layer upon layer of natural fabrics,' explains Pugh, who used 3D printing wherever she could; it wasn't always possible. 'The intricacy of the work in everything adds a little bit of weight.' Production designer Dominic Watkins wanted to make the world of dragons feel plausible. Watkins says, the world building was 'very challenging and we wanted to make it feel real so that people believed that these were characters involved with dragons.' During a location scout, Watkins felt the geography of the Faroe Islands lent itself how Berk should look. 'There was one island on the Faroe Islands that we decided we were going to mold the village on, and that was going to be the epicenter of all the action,' Watkins explains. That became the center point of where the dragons and the rest of the world were. He saw the colors of the building and was inspired by what palette to choose from. 'The rust, corn colors and greens were very specific, and we took that palette from there and brought that to the village.' He adds, 'A lot of the medieval stuff in reality was quite grim, so we wanted to make it more colorful.' Other real-world locations included Ireland and Scotland. Watkins also utilized the Belfast Titanic studios where he built out the rest of Berk on backlots and sounstages. 'We built the center of Berk, but it was extended from ther. We built 16 houses around the center square.' Elsewhere, he wanted to give the Vikings believability. Their purpose was to slay dragons, so Watkins carried that lore into his designs. 'We had lots of carvings of dragons and motifs on the pinnacles of the and the eaves of the houses to just show there was a hatred of them.' As for the film's dragon arena, Watkins built a chain dome, but needed beams to hold it upright. 'We found these ironwood beams that had sunk in Belfast harbor over 100 years ago, and coincidentally, they were pulling these 3040 foot beams out of Belfast Harbor. Our construction manager knew about them, and somehow he managed to get his hands on them.' The beams had become fossilized after being in the water for so long and needed heavy cranes to be moved. 'We were now repurposing them and putting in the arena, and it was pretty incredible.' Watkins adds, 'We used them in a few other places, but that was predominantly where all the spiked beams were in the set. They were beautifully aged, beautifully tarnished, and they worked out.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
CBC
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How to Train Your Dragon: We can get one good live-action adaptation. As a treat
There are legitimate reasons to remake a movie. There are the remakes of old, unnoticed hidden gems — like 1999's Scarface or 2021's West Side Story — reinterpreted for modern audiences. There are the re-imaginings of non-English-language fare that, as in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, still find something new to say. And then, there are remakes like O Brother Where Art Thou: wild retellings so cavalier and intentionally uninformed, they can hardly be counted as remakes at all. The results, whether good or bad, typically wear that originality on their sleeves. But this week's big new release — How to Train Your Dragon — initially seems more like typical nostalgia bait than something remade for any legitimate reason. At least, that is, before you watch it. WATCH | How to Train Your Dragon trailer: Granted, the Dreamworks revisit of the 2010 animated classic hews particularly close to the original: It still follows a Viking teen, Hiccup, uncovering the secretly kind heart of the mythical beasts his brethren have been slaughtering for centuries. It even features some of the same cast (Gerard Butler returns as Hiccup's father, Stoick) and crew (composer John Powell and Canadian writer-director Dean DeBlois). But, one would wonder, doesn't it still have the same cold beating heart of all remakes of its type? And wouldn't it be doomed to the same fate? Soulless and average at best — plainly boring at worst — many remakes simultaneously insult the medium of animation, while also exposing the often horrifying realities of rendering cartoonish gags photo-realistically. Any yet, this time, one is left wondering something else: How did the new How to Train Your Dragon end up sort of … actually good? WATCH | DeBlois on live-action adaptations: Why director Dean DeBlois is 'not a fan' of live-action remakes 15 hours ago Duration 0:45 Avoiding the missing soul This is an uncomfortable admission for someone who can't stop complaining about the destructive neo-tradition of remaking cartoons as live action. But the first reason this movie works may be that its director felt the same: In an interview with CBC News, DeBlois was quick to point out his own antipathy toward live-action remakes of animated movies — how "they often miss the soul." To avoid that, his strategy was to deliver what's nearly a shot-for-shot remake. We are treated to a revisit so slavishly faithful that moments as small as Stoick brushing a burning ember from his cloak are recreated. Hiccup, this time played by The Black Phone 's Mason Thames, channels Jay Baruchel's Chandler-esque patter to an almost uncanny degree, while cannily seeding in virtually all the same jokes. And even Toothless — the catlike "Night Fury" dragon that Hiccup befriends and eventually chaotically defends against ignorant humans, Free Willy -style — looks virtually ported over from the 2010 version. And aside from mildly reduced expressive capabilities, that makes sense. The original's already digitally rendered, video-game-like dragons are more or less indistinguishable when CGI-ed into our live-action Viking paradise, while DeBlois years ago told the New York Times he aimed to ape real-world cinematography with these films. Thumpy realism That vision lends itself to the limited benefits 2025's version have over 2010's: The action-first set pieces hit harder when they're flying through the hauntingly beautiful rock spires of the Faroe Islands. And both chases and fiery fights pack an extra oomph when given the thumpy realism of, well, reality. It all culminates in a final boss battle that effectively makes a case for the rest of the movie. Those with megalophobia, look out: Our mommy dragon here looks and feels miles more gargantuan than the original's comparatively puny queen. But outside that hyper-specific improvement, it's also true this update does nothing better than the original. The few additions and changes are either too small to care about or too small to justify. WATCH | DeBlois on finding their perfect Hiccup: Director Dean DeBlois on casting Mason Thames as Hiccup 15 hours ago Duration 0:45 In an interview with CBC News, Canadian director Dean DeBlois shares how Mason Thames landed the role of Hiccup in the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon. DeBlois said Thames grew up with the character, even dressing as him for Halloween, which helped the actor understand and embody the role. While some side characters are given slightly more backstory, it's spread far too widely — and thinly — to do anything other than show how a less faithful reproduction could have actually found more opportunities to improve itself. There's the now-ethnically diverse Viking tribe — proudly highlighted in Stoick's opening monologue, then unceremoniously shunted off into the background, never to be reintroduced or talked about again. Or the shrunken romantic subplot between Hiccup and Astrid (Nico Parker) — ostensibly changed to give room for her character to grow, only for it to get clumsily reintroduced right at the end. Or how Snotlout (Gabriel Howell) now has a reason for his bullying: He's trying to earn his father's affection and pride. You'd assume this would lead to a climactic, character-driven moment where he earns his father's adulation, instead of essentially stumbling into a largely off-screen happy ending. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. Less magic to miss Admittedly, these are minor complaints for a children's movie that already operates leagues above its low-effort (are you paying attention, A Minecraft Movie?) contemporary fare. But it doesn't quite answer the question: Why does a movie that's already in English — and whose most recent sequel came out just over five years ago — need a remake that does virtually nothing to reinterpret the original? There are various possible excuses. DeBlois's passion for the story is clearly evident. There's the improved action in an already action-oriented film, and we can forgive the relatively minor missteps in between. But maybe, it's also something a tad more pessimistic. Because as Pixar's 3D style has come to dominate so successfully over dust-binned 2D, we have now reached the point where our animated remakes have exhausted timeless IP like The Jungle Book and Snow White, and must now draw from a decade where animated films were virtually indistinguishable from high-budget video-game cut scenes. So, as adequate and exciting as How to Train Your Dragon is, maybe its passing grade doesn't come from anything extra it offers. Maybe, there's just less magic to lose.
Scottish Sun
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Abandoned iconic UK stadium left to rot with track ripped up 110 years after hosting FA Cup final
There is hope the facility can be restored to its former glory ROT RACE Abandoned iconic UK stadium left to rot with track ripped up 110 years after hosting FA Cup final AN ICONIC athletics stadium that formerly hosted the FA Cup final is being given a new lease of life. Crystal Palace National Sports Centre fell into disrepair after closing almost four years ago. 7 Crystal Palace National Sports Centre has been closed for almost four years Credit: The Times 7 The stadium has fallen into a state of disrepair Credit: The Times 7 The athletics track is in dire need of repair and has been ripped up in parts Credit: The Times 7 The diving and Olympic swimming pools lie empty Credit: The Times 7 Nature has begun to claim back certain areas of the facility Credit: Getty The South London complex was shut in November 2022 following unexpected safety concerns. Concrete pillars holding up the floodlights were discovered to have been unsafe. Prior to 2012, the 19,000-capacity ground hosted the London Grand Prix before the event was switched to the nearby London Stadium. The FA Cup final was also held on the same site between 1895 and 1914, with the current stadium opened at the same address in 1964. READ MORE ON SPORT GUNNER GUESS Ex-Arsenal star so unrecognisable even Sky Sports commentator 'can't name him' Following its surprise closure, the site quickly grew into a state of disrepair. The running track was partially ripped up, with the scoreboard and stands littered with fox and rat poo. An Olympic-sized swimming and diving pool on the site has also been closed. The move has frustrated local coaches, who maintain the facilities must reopen to help train new talent. Most read in Athletics GOLDEN ROMANCE I'm a Team GB Olympian but my boyfriend is a medal winner in extreme sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK John Powell, chair of Crystal Palace Sports Partnership, told the Guardian: "At the moment you've got an indoor track with rats on it and pigeon excrement all over the place. "There are trees growing out of the West Stand and then there was the floodlight farce, which meant no one can train there after dark now. Former top flight stadium left abandoned and overgrown just two years after club last played a game there "London is the only capital city in Europe that doesn't have a dedicated athletics centre. "Crystal Palace is the most accessible athletics stadium in the country so it's a total joke what has been allowed to happen." Extra funding has now been provided to restore Crystal Palace to its former glory. 7 Track repair at the site began in late 2023, with more work expected in the coming year Credit: x/CPSP2020 7 The facility is set for a phased reopening between 2027 and 2028 Credit: The Times The track has now been relayed, while the reopening of the 50m and diving pools remains the key priority for the project. London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, Thomas Turrell, said: "The phased target openings for facilities across the estate remain for 2027 and 2028. "The project is currently at the mid-point of the contractor procurement process, aiming to have a contractor on board by Spring 2025. "A planning submission will follow later in the year with works programmed to start on site in 2026. 'I am pleased to this project developing. While there is still a lot to do, and I know local people are keen to see the pool in particular opened as soon as possible, it is good to see progress finally being made. "The Centre has been forgotten for too long and I am really excited by this plan. "It is time to bring UK athletics home to Crystal Palace!"
