Composer James Horner on scoring THE ROCKETEER in 1991 interview

THE ROCKETEER is a kind of a story that

needs a very straight ahead, traditional,

go-get-'em type score and if I took,

really, many chances in any direction I'd

be doing a disservice to the film. That's

a - that's the kind of a project, that if,

to be very careful that you really get

just right, because it needs a certain

approach.

Joe Johnston, the director, he'd asked

me to do the music a year and a half

before it went into production, I mean,

because we're friends and I've known him

forever, he was a special-effects wizard

for George Lucas right from the days

when I first got started. He was editing,

I knew the date I had to deliver my

music, but I couldn't write anything

because the movie was in shreds. It was

editing and editing and previewing and

editing and previewing, and, finally, I

started to write, I think about two and a

half weeks before I had to deliver all

the music. And there was almost 90 - a 100

minutes of music in that film, it's the

kind of film it is. And - but I only had

about two and a half weeks total, to

write the music, and even while I was

writing it they made - they made picture

changes, because they would preview it or

the studio would want to preview it for

a different type of audience, a younger

audience or an older audience, and they'd

want to make picture changes to affect

that audience.

Owh, we're losing 'em.

Maybe not, look!

Temporary music is vital when

you play it for a studio, because you're

not going to get a bunch of executives

sitting there in the dark watching a