Beltrami on the Terminator 3 controversy

Huge score for orchestra, choir, extended percussion and electronics - orchestral version of Brad Fiedel's Terminator theme recorded.

When Marco Beltrami was signed to score Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the choice of composer resulted in two different reactions in two different fan communities: excitement among film music fans, and skepticism among fans of the Terminator movies. Further controversy was triggered when Beltrami told the Music from the Movies web site in December, that instead of using music from Brad Fiedel's original scores, he would try all his "own material". Fans at various Terminator message boards on the internet were outraged by the possible outcome that Marco Beltrami wouldn't use the original Terminator theme. Today, in an exclusive interview with MftM, the composer tells us the true story behind the controversy surrounding the T3 score.

"I never had the idea to omit the original theme. In fact, it wasn't really up to me and I prepared an updated, orchestral version of the Fiedel theme," Beltrami says. "However, as I worked on the movie, we found that this theme sort of took the audience out of the movie when we tried to insert it because this movie is not T2 and the theme automatically puts you back in T2 land. In fact, this theme is actually used very little in T2 as well - only in the ending scene and the credits! As it stands now, if they decide to use my updated version of the T2 theme, it will be only in the end credits and even this I cannot promise."

In other words, we don't know for sure that the final version of the film will include the original Terminator theme - but one thing we know for sure is that Marco Beltrami arranged and recorded an orchestral version of it. The orchestral approach is what makes the T3 score unique in comparison with the music for the first two films - Brad Fiedel's scores were all-electronic.

The following facts and figures will make a lot of soundtrack fans drool in anticipation of the score: the Terminator 3 score was recored with a 94 piece orchestra, a 30 piece choir, 13 percussionists and electronic sounds.

"I spent a few weeks before even writing, to come up with a palate of sounds, some of which were inspired by sounds from previous Terminator movies. I wanted to give the female TX an identity by altering some human voice/breath sounds. Also, since the John Connor is a major role, I needed to come up with a theme for him."

Beltrami composed approximately 85 minutes of music for the film. The film, which is directed by U-571 director Jonathan Mostow and presents Arnold Schwarzenegger in his year's most anticipated big screen comeback as the Terminator, is slated for premier on July 2. A score album featuring Beltrami's music is being planned. The composer tells us that he will put his orchestral version of the Terminator theme on the score album, even if it turns out that it's not used in the final cut of the film.

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