The truth behind Nacho's music

A while back we wondered what exactly was up with the complicated situation revolving around the score of NACHO LIBRE. It was announced early on that Beck would compose his first feature score for NACHO. Then came word during post-production that Beck was being replaced by Danny Elfman. Then we heard just prior to the release of the film that Elfman wanted his credit removed and that the final product would be a weird amalgam of the composed works of Beck and Elfman. So what really happened behind the scenes? JoBlo.com did some investigative reporting and tracked down the real skinny.

As stated earlier, Beck (who once said of NACHO director Jared Hess, "No filmmaker since Fellini has had such an eye for amazing characters."), was approached and asked to compose the score as well as a few original tracks for NACHO LIBRE. Beck, who had just come off the distinctively Mexican inspired album "Guero" agreed happily, talking openly and giddily about the prospect to Rolling Stone and other press outlets. As production continued, Beck worked on his score and things progressed rather smoothly. That is until Paramount, the studio behind the film, first heard Beck's early cuts.

You would think Paramount would know what they were getting themselves into when they had a film about a Mexican priest/wrestler, starring Jack Black, directed by Jared Hess and scored by Beck. All four are pretty quirky in their own right so bring them altogether and what do you expect? The studio though was somewhat concerned by Beck's score, which they felt was a little too offbeat for their big summer comedy, especially one released under their Nickelodeon Films banner. Word about Paramount's concerns spread through Hollywood and eventually made its way to the reps of Danny Elfman who thought this would be the perfect project for their client.

Paramount knew they wanted Elfman but also knew that Hess and Beck had established a pretty strong relationship. Not wanting to upset Hess, who was dealing with tumultuous reshoots as well as the impending birth of his second child with wife and NAPOLEON DYNAMITE co-writer Jerusha, Paramount executives hired Elfman without Hess' knowledge. Their hope was that they could have Elfman surreptitiously record portions of the score then using those samples to convince Hess to use his work. Weeks later, that's exactly what they did. They called in Hess and broached the subject of the score with him. The studio explained they were only looking to use Elfman's work to "fill out" Beck's work and that if he didn't like what he heard, he was under no obligation to use it. Hess listened to some early recordings of Elfman's work and did not like at all what he heard.

Hess explained to Paramount that, with all due respect to Elfman, he felt the score was all wrong for his style and wanted to stick with what Beck was recording. But as Hess began flying back to Utah to spend more time with his wife as she gave birth to their daughter Greta, the studio became more and more involved in post-production and Elfman's work creeped further into cuts of NACHO LIBRE.

As Elfman's score became more prominent in NACHO LIBRE, his representatives began asking the studio for sole music credit on the film. Hess began to get word and flat-out refused to allow the studio to remove Beck's credit from the film. Elfman, when he found out he wouldn't be receiving sole credit on the film (also knowing that Hess wasn't particularly fond of Elfman's work), basically told the studio, "You can't fire me; I quit" and demanded that his name be removed from the film.

In the end, it was too late to re-score the film and the Beck/Elfman mash-up stayed for the most part (by most accounts it's approximately 2/3 Elfman and 1/3 Beck). Elfman and his reps eventually came to an agreement with the studio that would have him receive credit for his portion of the score in the end credits of the film (Beck got the same treatment).

For the record, I enjoy the work of both Danny Elfman and Beck, though I have to admit that I was really excited to hear what Beck's first theatrical score would sound like. Hopefully one day we'll be able to hear Beck's unedited score to see exactly what he came up with.

Source: JoBlo.com