Klaus Badelt (born 12 June 1967) is a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

, producer, and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

of film scores. He is known for his collaborations with

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

, helping to write scores for dozens of critically acclaimed films including '' The Thin Red Line'', ''

The Prince of Egypt ''The Prince of Egypt'' is a 1998 American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The first feature film from DreamWorks to be traditionally animated, it is an adaptation of the B ...

'', and ''

Gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

''. Independently, he is known for his work on Hollywood blockbuster films such as '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Equilibrium, K-19: The Widowmaker,

Basic BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

,'' and '' TMNT,'' and for his work in French and Chinese cinema as well as a number of films by

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

Life and career

Badelt was born in Frankfurt, West Germany. He started his musical career composing for movies and commercials in his homeland. In 1998, Oscar-winning film composer

invited Badelt to work at Media Ventures in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

, his studio co-owned by Jay Rifkin. Since then, Badelt has been working on a number of his own film and television projects such as '' The Time Machine'' and '' K-19: The Widowmaker''. He also collaborated with other Media Ventures composers, such as

Harry Gregson-Williams Harry Gregson-Williams (born 13 December 1961) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and record producer. He has composed music for video games, television and films including the ''Metal Gear'' series, '' Spy Game'', ''Phone Booth'' ...

, John Powell, and Zimmer; and mentored several others like

Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (, fa, رامین جوادی; born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian and German score composer. He is known for his scores for the 2008 Marvel film ''Iron Man'' and the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Gramm ...

and Daniel Rojas (film composer). While collaborating with Zimmer, Badelt contributed to the Oscar-nominated scores for '' The Thin Red Line'' and ''

'', and wrote music for many well known directors including

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades th ...

Tony Scott Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as '' Top Gun'' (1986), '' Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''D ...

Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include ''Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay ...

John Woo John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun ...

Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American filmmaker. Covering a wide range of genres, her films include '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Point Break'' (1991), '' Strange Days'' (1995), '' K-19: The Widowmaker'' (2002), ''The Hurt Loc ...

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and C ...

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...

, Gore Verbinski,

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use ...

and

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

. Badelt co-wrote and co-produced the score to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

box office hit ''

'', directed by Ridley Scott, along with Zimmer and singer/composer

Lisa Gerrard Lisa Germaine Gerrard (; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique ...

. Having contributed music to ''

'', '' Mission: Impossible 2'' and

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was bor ...

's score for ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

'', Badelt was involved in the three most successful movies in 2000. Badelt also collaborated with Zimmer on other successful films, such as '' The Pledge'', and 2001 blockbusters ''

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pu ...

'' and ''

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

''. One of his more famous and popular scores was for the 2003 film '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl''. In 2004, Klaus founded his own film music company, Theme Park Studios, in Santa Monica. Since then, he has scored films such as '' Constantine'', ''

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as ...

'', ''

Rescue Dawn ''Rescue Dawn'' is a 2006 American epic war drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his 1997 documentary film '' Little Dieter Needs to Fly''. The film stars Christian Bale and is based on th ...

'', '' Premonition'', and '' TMNT''. Among Badelt's most critically celebrated scores are the Chinese fantasy film '' The Promise'' and DreamWorks' remake of '' The Time Machine'', the latter of which earned him the Discovery of the Year Award at the World Soundtrack Awards 2003. He also wrote the music for the closing ceremonies at the '' Beijing Olympics'' in 2008, and was commissioned to write an opera about China's First Emperor, to be premiered in 2015. Klaus worked on the soundtrack for ''The Promise'' for almost 6 months. The song which can be heard in the movie's end credits is an ancient folk song in China, and very few people can still sing it. For that, Klaus traveled almost two weeks in China to find someone who was able to sing the whole folk song in order to rearrange it for the score. Klaus founded the digital film distribution startup Filmhub to create a platform for content creators to list their titles and get deals with global streaming services. Under the leadership of Klaus and CEO Alan d'Escragnolle, Filmhub now enables thousands of filmmakers to directly distribute to more than 100 streaming channels such as IMDb TV, Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, and Plex. In 2021, Filmhub was recognized by Variety as "a dynamic disruptor in the distribution space."

Filmography

Film

As score composer

As composer of additional music

Television

Other

* Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony *'' MotorStorm: Apocalypse'' (video game) *'' Lords Mobile'' (video game)

Awards

References

External links

* * *
Interview with Stumped Magazine

Remote Control Fan Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badelt, Klaus 1967 births 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians 21st-century German composers 21st-century German male musicians German film score composers German television composers Living people Male film score composers Musicians from Frankfurt Varèse Sarabande Records artists