In the 2000s, Zimmer has composed scores for Hollywood blockbuster films including Gladiator (2000), Black
Hawk Down and Hannibal (2001), The Last Samurai (2003), Madagascar (2005), The Da Vinci Code (2006) The Simpsons Movie (2007), Angels & Demons (2009) and Sherlock Holmes (2009). While writing the score for The Last Samurai, Zimmer felt that his knowledge of Japanese music was extremely limited. He began doing extensive
research, but the more he studied, the less he felt he knew. Finally, Zimmer took what he had written to Japan for
feedback and was shocked when he was asked how he knew so much about Japanese music.[12]
During the scoring of The Last Samurai in early 2003, Zimmer was approached by the producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with whom he had worked previously on Crimson Tide, The Rock and Pearl Harbor. Bruckheimer had finished shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but was unhappy with the music composed for the
film by Alan Silvestri and wanted a replacement score.[20] Bruckheimer wanted Zimmer to rescore the film, but due
to his commitments on The Last Samurai, the task of composing and supervising music for Pirates of the Caribbean:
The Curse of the Black Pearl was given to Klaus Badelt, one of Zimmer's colleagues at Media Ventures. Zimmer
provided some themes that were used in the film, although he is not credited on screen.[21][22] Zimmer was hired as
the composer for the three subsequent films in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006),
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011),
collaborating with Rodrigo y Gabriela.[23]
For the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, "The Daily Variety" reported that Zimmer purchased an out-of-tune piano for 200 dollars and used it throughout the scoring process because of its "quirkiness".[24] For the 2011 sequel Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Zimmer and director Guy Ritchie incorporated authentic Roma gypsy music, which
they researched by visiting Slovakia, Italy and France. The gypsy music in the film is played by Roma virtuoso musicians.[25][26]
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Hans Zimmer in 2008
Zimmer is also noted for his work on the scores of Christopher Nolan's
Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), on which he
collaborated with James Newton Howard.[10] For the soundtrack of
The Dark Knight, Zimmer decided to represent the character of The
Joker by a single note played on the cello by his long-time colleague Martin Tillman. Zimmer commented "I wanted to write something
people would truly hate."[27] The scores for these films were
disqualified from receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score due to too many composers being listed on the cue
sheet.[28] Zimmer succeeded in reversing the decision not to nominate
The Dark Knight in December 2008, arguing that the process of
creating a modern film score was collaborative, and that it was important to credit a range of people who had played a part in its
production.[29] Zimmer explained his approach to scoring with other
musicians in an interview with Soundtrack.net in 2006:
"Originally I had this idea that it should be possible to create some kind of community around this kind of work, and I think by muddying the titles – not having "you are the composer, you are the arranger, you are the orchestrator" – it just sort of helped us to work more collaboratively. It wasn't that important to me that I had "score by Hans Zimmer" and took sole credit on these things. It's like Gladiator: I gave Lisa Gerrard the co-credit because, even though she didn't write the main theme, her presence and contributions were very influential. She was more than just a soloist, and this is why I have such a problem with specific credits."[30]
Zimmer works with other composers through his company Remote Control Productions, formerly known as Media Ventures. His studio in Santa Monica, California has an extensive range of computer equipment and keyboards,
allowing demo versions of film scores to be created quickly.[31] His colleagues at the studio have included Harry
Gregson-Williams, James Dooley, Geoff Zanelli, Henning Lohner, Steve Jablonsky, Mark Mancina, John Van Tongeren, John Powell and Thomas J. Bergersen.
In October 2000, Zimmer performed live in concert for the first time with an orchestra and choir at the 27th Annual
Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent.[32] He has received a range of honors and awards, including the
Lifetime Achievement Award in film Composition from the National Board of Review, the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement, and BMI's Richard Kirk Award for lifetime achievement in 1996. Recent work includes the Spanish language film
Casi Divas,[33] Sherlock Holmes, The Burning Plain (2009), and Inception (2010). He composed the theme for the
television boxing series The Contender, and worked with Lorne Balfe on the music for Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2, which was his first video game project.[34] Zimmer also collaborated with composers Borislav Slavov
and Tilman Sillescu to create the score for the video game Crysis 2.[35]
In December 2010, Zimmer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He dedicated the award to his publicist
and long term friend Ronni Chasen, who had been shot dead in Beverly Hills the previous month.[36]
In 2012, Zimmer composed and produced the music for the 84th Academy Awards with Pharrell Williams of The
Neptunes.[37] He also composed a new version of the theme music for ABC World News.[38]
Zimmer also composed the score for The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The film was released in July 2012.[39] Zimmer described himself as "devastated" in the aftermath of the
2012 Aurora shooting, which occurred at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, commenting "I just feel so incredibly sad for these people." He recorded a track entitled "Aurora", a choral arrangement of a theme from the
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Zimmer lives in Los Angeles with his wife Suzanne, and has four children.[41][42]