A British composer has made history by working on both the highest and lowest budget films nominated at this year’s Oscars.
John Powell, 61, has written the scores to hits like How to Train Your Dragon, Happy Feet, the Bourne film series, X-Men: The Last Stand and Don’t Worry Darling.
He is favourite to win the Oscar for Best Original Score this year for his work on Wicked, the blockbuster starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, which cost $150 million to make.
But he also wrote the score for The Last Ranger, a 28-minute long film about rangers protecting endangered rhinos in Africa, which is also up for an Oscar in the Best Short Film category, but cost just $87,000 to make.
John, who is originally from Crowborough, East SusSєx, recently lost his LA home in the Palisades Fire and reflected on the whirlwind few weeks he’s had.
He said: ‘This has to be the weirdest time I’ve ever spent in Los Angeles – one day I’m running from a literal firestorm with nothing but my poodles and a phone, waking up a few days later on a pull-out couch to be told I’ve been nominated for an Oscar on ‘Wicked’.
A British composer has made history by working on both the highest and lowest budget films nominated at this year’s Oscars
John Powell, 61, has written the scores to hits like How to Train Your Dragon, Happy Feet, the Bourne film series, X-Men: The Last Stand and Don’t Worry Darling (pictured in 2022)
He is favourite to win the Oscar for Best Original Score this year for his work on Wicked, the blockbuster starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo , which cost $150 million to make (pictured)
‘Then to top that, the lowest budget film I’ve ever written a score for, the wonderful live action short drama ‘The Last Ranger’ is also nominated for an Oscar? 2025 is turning out the strangest year!’
John is considered one of Hollywood’s most prolific and successful composers and has written the scores to more than 70 films.
He was previously nominated for an Academy Award for How To Train Your Dragon in 2011, but lost to Trent Reznor (of the rock band Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross who won for writing the music to The Social Network.
John started his career in the UK working on TV shows like Stay Lucky starring Dennis Waterman in the 1990s.
He then moved to Hollywood and hit the big time writing music for Shrek, Alfie and Mr & Mrs Smith, the film on which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie started their affair and led to Brad dumping then-wife Jennifer Aniston.
The composer is now working on the sequel film, Wicked: For Good, which completes the Wicked story and will be released later this year.
Darwin Shaw, producer of The Last Ranger said: ‘Working with John was one of the most amazing creative experiences of my life.
‘John, above being a master musician, is one of the most thoughtful and wise humans.
‘His ability to create incredibly complex scores and also to lend his artistic inspiration more humble projects like our film, The Last Ranger, speaks to his spirt. We could not have got here without him’
But he also wrote the score for The Last Ranger, a 28-minute long film about rangers protecting endangered rhinos in Africa, which is also up for an Oscar in the Best Short Film category, but cost just $87,000 to make (picutred at Wicked premiere in November)
John is considered one of Hollywood’s most prolific and successful composers and has written the scores to more than 70 films (pictured last year)
