Geoff Zanelli
Encyclopedia
Geoff Zanelli is a composer working primarily in the medium of film music. His early career was notable for scoring additional music on roughly 30 film scores written by Hans Zimmer
, Harry Gregson-Williams
, John Powell
, Klaus Badelt
and Steve Jablonsky
including several blockbuster films. He has since moved on to more solo work.
Aside from film and television scores, Zanelli has also worked with recording artists, writing string arrangements for the bands Mest
, Story of the Year
, and for Robbie Williams
. He has also been credited as a guitarist/bassist/synthsist on the song "I'm Not Dead" from recording artist Pink
.
, and is a graduate of Berklee College of Music
. Zanelli began his musical career as a guitar player and songwriter for numerous local acts in Southern California. While attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music
on scholarship, Zanelli dual majored in Film Scoring and Music Production/Engineering. He was the recipient of both the Doug Timm Award in recognition of his film scoring work and the Music Production and Engineering Scholar Award.
In 1994, Hans Zimmer
recognized Zanelli as a promising young talent, prompting Zimmer to invite him to Los Angeles to join his group of extraordinary film music talent. Zanelli quickly earned his reputation as a workhorse, becoming versed in many facets of music while working as an engineer on the debut album from Goldfinger
as well as Zimmer's Oscar Award-nominated score for The Preacher's Wife
.
. Throughout the following years he would build the foundation for his scoring career, being called on to compose with Powell, Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Harry Gregson-Williams and Steve Jablonsky on many feature films, including:
Pirates Of The Caribbean 1, 2 and 3, the Golden Globe-nominated scores for The Last Samurai
and Pearl Harbor
, Hannibal
, Live From Baghdad
, Antz
and Chicken Run
, Shark Tale
and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
The composing experience Zanelli accrued while collaborating with such industry luminaries prepared him for a kinetic start to his solo career. One of his earliest solo works, Steven Spielberg's miniseries Into The West
, earned him an Emmy.
Showcasing his versatility, in just over one year Zanelli scored the films Disturbia
, Hitman
, Outlander
, Delgo
, Ghost Town
and Gamer, each with a unique approach. Harkening back to his earlier days as a songwriter, he co-wrote the song "Don't Make Me Wait" for Disturbia.
Zanelli has written music for an impressive group of distinguished filmmakers including Steven Spielberg
, Jerry Bruckheimer
, Gore Verbinski
, Jeffrey Katzenberg
, DJ Caruso, David Koepp
, Ed Zwick, Ridley Scott
, John Woo
, Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor, Howard McCain and Michael Bay
.
Zanelli is known for his versatility, often combining music from different genres and cultures to produce an original, contemporary result. He brings with him a formidable combination of composition skills, production technique, and love of all kinds of music. With a reputation for consistent quality and boundless energy, Zanelli continues to be attached to a slate of landmark projects. He currently writes at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions.
2010
2009
2008
2007
2005
2004
2001
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
, Harry Gregson-Williams
Harry Gregson-Williams
Harry Gregson-Williams is a prolific British composer, orchestrator, conductor, and music producer. He is best known for his film scores, of which he has composed over sixty using electronic music and orchestral pieces...
, John Powell
John Powell
John Powell is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, and collaborating with...
, Klaus Badelt
Klaus Badelt
Klaus Badelt is an award-winning German composer, best known for composing film scores.-Life and career:Badelt was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He started his musical career composing for many successful movies and commercials in his homeland...
and Steve Jablonsky
Steve Jablonsky
Steven Jablonsky is an American music composer for film, television and video games. He has been the music director for all the Michael Bay movies produced and directed since The Island...
including several blockbuster films. He has since moved on to more solo work.
Aside from film and television scores, Zanelli has also worked with recording artists, writing string arrangements for the bands Mest
Mest
Mest was a pop punk band from Blue Island, Illinois. The band's lineup, prior to their breakup in 2006, consisted of vocalist and guitarist Tony Lovato, guitarist Jeremiah Rangel, bassist Matt Lovato, and drummer Nick Gigler...
, Story of the Year
Story of the Year
Story of the Year is an American rock band formed in St. Louis, Missouri in 2000. The band was initially named 67 North but was then changed to Big Blue Monkey...
, and for Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
. He has also been credited as a guitarist/bassist/synthsist on the song "I'm Not Dead" from recording artist Pink
Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
.
Early life
Zanelli is from Westminster, CaliforniaWestminster, California
-Government:In the state legislature Westminster is located in the 34th, Senate District, represented by Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Tom Harman respectively, and in the 67th and 68th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Jim Silva and Van Tran respectively...
, and is a graduate of Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. Zanelli began his musical career as a guitar player and songwriter for numerous local acts in Southern California. While attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
on scholarship, Zanelli dual majored in Film Scoring and Music Production/Engineering. He was the recipient of both the Doug Timm Award in recognition of his film scoring work and the Music Production and Engineering Scholar Award.
In 1994, Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
recognized Zanelli as a promising young talent, prompting Zimmer to invite him to Los Angeles to join his group of extraordinary film music talent. Zanelli quickly earned his reputation as a workhorse, becoming versed in many facets of music while working as an engineer on the debut album from Goldfinger
Goldfinger (band)
Goldfinger is a Los Angeles pop punk/ska punk band that formed in 1994. Currently, the band is composed of vocalist/guitarist John Feldmann, guitarist Charlie Paulson, bassist Kelly LeMieux, and drummer Darrin Pfeiffer...
as well as Zimmer's Oscar Award-nominated score for The Preacher's Wife
The Preacher's Wife
The Preacher's Wife is a 1996 romantic-family-dramedy-christmas film directed by Penny Marshall, and starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Loretta Devine. It is a remake of the 1947 film The Bishop's Wife....
.
Career
Zanelli's experience and desire to collaborate led him to work with British composer John Powell on his first Hollywood feature, Face/OffFace/Off
Face/Off is a 1997 action thriller film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The two both play an FBI agent and a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume the physical appearance of one another....
. Throughout the following years he would build the foundation for his scoring career, being called on to compose with Powell, Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Harry Gregson-Williams and Steve Jablonsky on many feature films, including:
Pirates Of The Caribbean 1, 2 and 3, the Golden Globe-nominated scores for The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
and Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor (film)
Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American action drama war film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay...
, Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
, Live From Baghdad
Live from Baghdad (film)
Live from Baghdad is a television movie produced in 2002 by HBO. It was directed by Mick Jackson and written by Robert Wiener . The movie was released during the prelude stage of the Iraq War....
, Antz
Antz
Antz is a 1998 American computer animated action adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It features the voices of well-known actors such as Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, and Danny Glover as...
and Chicken Run
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...
, Shark Tale
Shark Tale
Shark Tale is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish named Oscar falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favour with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing...
and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
The composing experience Zanelli accrued while collaborating with such industry luminaries prepared him for a kinetic start to his solo career. One of his earliest solo works, Steven Spielberg's miniseries Into The West
Into the West (TV miniseries)
Into the West is a 2005 miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks, with six two-hour episodes . The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television on six Fridays starting on June 10, 2005...
, earned him an Emmy.
Showcasing his versatility, in just over one year Zanelli scored the films Disturbia
Disturbia (film)
Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window...
, Hitman
Hitman (2007 film)
Hitman is a 2007 film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. He is hired by a group, 'The Organization' and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by...
, Outlander
Outlander (film)
Outlander is a 2008 science fiction film directed by Howard McCain and starring James Caviezel. Caviezel has described Outlander as a light combination of Braveheart and Highlander.-Plot:...
, Delgo
Delgo
Delgo may refer to:* Delgo, Sudan* Delgo , 2008 animated feature film...
, Ghost Town
Ghost Town (film)
Ghost Town is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by David Koepp, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Kamps. It stars English comedian Ricky Gervais in his first leading feature-film role, as a dentist who can see and talk with ghosts, along with Téa Leoni as a young widow and Greg...
and Gamer, each with a unique approach. Harkening back to his earlier days as a songwriter, he co-wrote the song "Don't Make Me Wait" for Disturbia.
Zanelli has written music for an impressive group of distinguished filmmakers including Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Eleventh Hour, Without a Trace, Cold Case, The...
, Gore Verbinski
Gore Verbinski
Gregor "Gore" Verbinski is an American film director, writer and musician. He is best known for directing the films The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Rango.-Early life:...
, Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...
, DJ Caruso, David Koepp
David Koepp
-Career:As a writer, Koepp has worked on such blockbuster Hollywood films as Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man. Koepp had a cameo as the "Unlucky Bastard" in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, in which he was serving as Writer and Second Unit Director.His work as a director has not had...
, Ed Zwick, Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, John Woo
John Woo
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...
, Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor, Howard McCain and Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
.
Zanelli is known for his versatility, often combining music from different genres and cultures to produce an original, contemporary result. He brings with him a formidable combination of composition skills, production technique, and love of all kinds of music. With a reputation for consistent quality and boundless energy, Zanelli continues to be attached to a slate of landmark projects. He currently writes at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions.
Filmography (as principal composer)
2011- Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger TidesPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 adventure fantasy film and the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series...
(composer: Spain theme) - RangoRango (2011 film)Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated Western Comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. In the film, a chameleon named Rango accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff...
(composer: Rattlesnake Jake theme, Mayor's theme, Holy Spigot theme) - Beneath The DarknessBeneath the DarknessBeneath the Darkness is an American horror-thriller film directed by Martin Guigui, and starring Tony Oller, Dennis Quaid, Devon Werkheiser and Aimee Teegarden.-Premise:...
- Should've Been Romeo
2010
- The PacificThe Pacific (miniseries)The Pacific is a 2010 television series produced by HBO, Seven Network Australia, Sky Movies, Playtone and DreamWorks that premiered in the United States on March 14, 2010....
(miniseries) -- Emmy Award nominated score - You May Not Kiss The BrideYou May Not Kiss the BrideYou May Not Kiss the Bride is an American romantic comedy film, directed by Rob Hedden. The film stars Dave Annable, Katharine McPhee, Mena Suvari, Kathy Bates, and Rob Schneider.-Synopsis:...
2009
- Gamer
2008
- Ghost TownGhost Town (film)Ghost Town is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by David Koepp, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Kamps. It stars English comedian Ricky Gervais in his first leading feature-film role, as a dentist who can see and talk with ghosts, along with Téa Leoni as a young widow and Greg...
- OutlanderOutlander (film)Outlander is a 2008 science fiction film directed by Howard McCain and starring James Caviezel. Caviezel has described Outlander as a light combination of Braveheart and Highlander.-Plot:...
- DelgoDelgo (film)Delgo is a 2008 computer-animated fantasy film. The film was produced by Fathom Studios, a division of Macquarium Intelligent Communications, which began development of the project in 1999....
2007
- HitmanHitman (2007 film)Hitman is a 2007 film directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series of the same name. A gun-for-hire "Hitman" is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. He is hired by a group, 'The Organization' and becomes ensnared in a political conspiracy. He finds himself pursued by...
- DisturbiaDisturbia (film)Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window...
2005
- Into the WestInto the West (TV miniseries)Into the West is a 2005 miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks, with six two-hour episodes . The series was first broadcast in the U.S. on Turner Network Television on six Fridays starting on June 10, 2005...
(miniseries) -- Emmy Award winning score
2004
- House of DHouse of DHouse of D is 2005 drama film directed by David Duchovny as his directorial debut in film, having previously directed an episode of The X-Files for television. The film stars Erykah Badu, Frank Langella, Téa Leoni, Zelda Williams, Anton Yelchin, and Robin Williams...
- Secret WindowSecret WindowSecret Window is a 2004 psychological horror film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King, featuring a musical score by Philip Glass and Geoff Zanelli. The story appeared in King's...
2001
- Feast