JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Robert Longo, 1995)

[Ivan, Jr.]

Quick video of Henry Rollins still crying about Dolph accidently punching him in the face during a fight scene rehersal

[preacher]

What is up with that?
Who goes around whining in public about someone who you did not get along with/was mean to you (at this point it doesnt matter what Dolph did) 20 YEARS AFTER IT HAPPENED?

[Jox]

I don't know, from seeing other stuff and his Q&A with Longo, my guess is Rollins a showman always trying to get reactions and laughs, and this kind of story as told in these contexts (interviews and such) just gets him that (not mentioning just bring up the name 'Dolph Lundgren' will make most people crack up). So he'll bring anytime he can like some people in need to be the center of attention who always tell the same jokes and "war stories"...

[Jox]

Korean ad
http://cfile235.uf.daum.net/image/19610 ... 1FA33470D8

[Jox]

Composer Brad Fiedel on JM:

And then, of course, Johnny Mnemonic, which didn’t really take off. I got to do some really interesting experimentation with brass, with live instruments, in the way I used to experiment with synth. I had two brass bands sections, one on either side of the studio, and they were just playing answering phrases, but everybody thought I was nuts, including the engineer and the conductor.



But it ended up working because I was so tired of competing with sound effects. I figured, “Well, if a phrase happens on the left and then it’s picked up on the right, then if the explosion buries the one on the left then maybe the right one will poke through and you’ll get the through line of the music.” So I enjoy that score for the experimentation that I got to do and the freedom I had to do it. By the time I did that, there was really no director on the picture, so I was kind of on my own, and I love working with directors but it was interesting to get to do this experiment without having to explain it.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/04/s ... erminator/


(as a reminder, Fiedel was brought in late, after the Black Rain band -who did the rejected score- and Michael Danna -who did the original score that remained in the Japanese cut)

[Jox]

More from Brad Fiedel

If there was one or more scores of your own work that you personally would love to see a release, which one (or ones) would they be and why?

BF: There were some elements of experimentation I did in "Johnny Mnemonic" that I would love to see out there. The soundtrack only contained on of my pieces and if I remember correctly it was only an electronic mock up of what was a full orchestra score. I had this idea to do a session with two brass sections on opposite sides of the studio that echoed phrases in a live stereo, creating a kind of organic panned delay. I felt this would help the composition better survive all the very loud sound effects because if a phrase got cut out by a loud explosion on the left , the repeat of the phrase on the right would get through. This led to some interesting writing. I remember that Shirley thought I had lost my mind, but was game, and did a great job conducting it. In the end she was surprised at how well it worked. I also did a score for a wonderful independent film called "Eden" directed by Howard Goldberg that I’d like to see out there. I orchestrated it myself and it is a very different kind of score than I am usually known for.

http://www.examiner.com/article/brad-fi ... terminator

Johnny Mnemonic had its challenges as a movie, and I think the world out there was ready to trash Keanu Reeves, so I think the movie got a critical beating that was maybe beyond what it deserved. It had its flaws, but I had a lot of fun with the music on that. I was experimenting using two completely separate brass sections on different sides of the studio and they would have to kind of battle each other in true stereo and having the different phrases go back and forth across the room. Of course, there were so many very loud sound effects that I got very tired of writing musical lines that would get buried so that they would be incomplete. I thought, ‘Wow, if I could find a way to repeat the line and do it not electronically and more organically in the composition, so if the first statement of a horn call or a phrase got buried by an explosion, you would hear the repeat. I think it worked out pretty well and it served the movie and had a lot of depth to it.

http://regenmag.com/interviews/brad-fie ... e-machine/



And finally some unreleased tracks from Fiedel's website:
http://bradfiedel.net/wp-content/upload ... nic-13.wav
http://bradfiedel.net/wp-content/upload ... nic-15.wav

I was working on the score for Johnny Mnemonic and a thought occurred to me. Often in big action scenes the through line of the music gets cut off by various loud sound efx. Explosions, crashes etc. In watching the scenes I had a thought. What if some of the important phrases were stated on the left and then quickly repeated on the right (or vice versa). The chance that one of them would be heard might be greatly increased and the through line of the score might survive. This would have to be done as an organic part of the composition and style of the piece or it might come off as gimmicky or distracting. I didn’t want the audience to really notice what we were doing. I had done something like this in some of my electronic scores (a panned digital delay kind of has that effect), but this was an orchestral score with some electronic mixed in. I wanted to try this acoustically. Kind of like doing a live stunt instead of relying on CGI. So here’s what we did.

First of all, I was very lucky to have the wonderful Shirley Walker conducting for me. If anyone could hold the players together on this it would be her. First, we recorded the full orchestra on these special cues including percussion but without the brass. Then we let all those players go home as we reset the studio for two complete brass sections. One on the left and one on the right. We had booked many of the best players in LA to meet this large demand for brass. There was a lot of chuckling and I got a lot of looks like”what the hell!” and “this dude is nuts” as it became clear what we were wanting to do. I started to wonder a bit myself…
We rehearsed the first cue. I was in the booth with engineer Tim Boyle and we were having some problems with the balances. We tried to fix it with levels, but weren’t getting it to our satisfaction. Shirley came in and said that she thought we had to do some reorganizing of the players so they were better matched. Kind of like starting a basketball game with the top pros and asking certain players to change sides. There was a tense moment, but soon everyone was laughing and seeing this as some kind of nutty musical sporting event. I apologized for not having different colored t shirts for the left and right team and we were off and running.
In the end I thought it went very well. Shirley told me after we were finished, that she had had serious doubts about the approach when I had described it to her, but thought it really worked. Here’s a few of the cues, see what you think….

http://bradfiedel.net/johnny-mnemonic-b ... ttle-cues/

[Travis]

Henry Rollins says Dolph is not a nice person and Robert Longo threw Dolph under the bus.

[Jox]

1995 LA TIMES article I had not seen before:

It's Just Art on a Big Screen : How did a New York artist land $27 million and star Keanu Reeves to make his very first Hollywood movie? Robert Longo says it's just that he always wanted to direct.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1995- ... bert-longo

In addition to modifying the look of Johnny's world, Longo also overhauled several of the characters in the story--the Street Preacher, played by Dolph Lundgren, being an extreme case in point.

"Originally, the character I play was a heavy-metal biker who was a preacher, but Robert and I reinvented him as a Christ figure with flowing robes, long hair and a beard, who speaks in biblical language," Lundgren says. "We wanted him to play off ideas most people have from childhood about Christ and biblical imagery, which is something both Robert and William know a lot about, William being from the South and Robert being a Catholic. We then tossed in a little Albrecht Durer and Caravaggio to add another dimension to him."

Adds Longo with a laugh: "Dolph's character is on the verge of tears in every scene--he's insanely over the top."

[Jox]

Italian VHS

[dude hallenbeck]

I finally watched this for the first time last night. Much to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. William Gibson's writing prose is not for me (Too many made up calloquialisms and he's near impossible to follow) but I can't deny he's a legend of cyberpunk and science fiction in general. The film's themes of pharmacutical corporations and their excessive control is scarily accruate.

Dolph completely steals the show with his limited screen time. With a very natural American accent might I add.

It's a shame Vincenzo Natali's Neuromancer adaptation never came to light, there's a role in the book Dolph is perfect for. Maybe it even inspired John Hyams when writing for Andrew Scott in the Universal Soldier films.

[Jox]

JM might have worked better and would have been a success had it been done in the mid or late 80s (which is when Longo and Gibson started on the project) and with no studio interference, or later. If James Cameron had succeeded getting his Burning Chrome adaptation with Carolco (where JM was at some point as well) made, it would have helped too. I was drawn with his Gibson's short stories at the time and they were quite powerful. In some way Kathryn Bigelow's STRANGE DAYS was a stronger rendition of Gibson's world.

On paper, JM was a really good project for Dolph to get involved in and depart from his usual work, if only it had been more successful both artistically and commercially. I still think it's not as bad as most people tend to say/think.

PS: It's been 2 or 3 decades people cut their teeth trying to adapt NEUROMANCER and nothing came out of it, even with today's technology...

PS 2:
I'm sure John Hyams is a fan of William Gibson's work and has been influenced in some way or another whether it's conscious or not.

[Jox]

New UHD (4K) edition with Auro 3D audio ?
http://surround-sound.info/news/johnny- ... rack-5438/

[Jox]

A 3 discs German Mediabook edition in the works from Turbine Medien including the longer Japanese cut (if only this could be in HD) and a laminated 35mm frame, more details to be announced...
http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-news/ ... rhaeltlich

http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme ... u-ray-disc

It will feature a new Atmos 7.1 audio track:
http://surround-sound.info/news/johnny- ... o-3d-8350/

[Jox]

Release is scheduled February 24th:
http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-news/exklusiv/107831-johnny-mnemonic-vernetzt-feiert-seine-blu-ray-premiere-mit-dolby-atmos-und-auro3d-sound-sowie-japan#

[Moltisanti]

I'm sorry, is it certain that the Japanese cut isn't in HD? Or we just don't know yet?