The Dark Knight’s chances to win an Oscar have just been reduced by one award. Variety reports that the movie’s score has been disqualified by the Academy. It is now no longer eligible to be nominated.
It seems the Academy thinks too many people were involved in making Batman's music. Why that matters is a mystery, but apparently 5 names were listed as composers on the documentation they received from the studio. Those three names are Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Alex Gibson, Mel Wesson, and Lorne Balfe. The last three people in that list have signed an affidavit stating that the score was primarily the work of Zimmer and Howard, but the Academy isn’t buying it.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for The Dark Knight, which almost certainly had a good chance of being nominated in the category. Multiple collaborators are becoming more and more the norm in Hollywood, but as always the Academy is slow to get with the times. Tron was cheating when it used computers to generate special effects, and now The Dark Knight is cheating by having more than one person write its music. Ridiculous. Note to the Academy: Make it up to us by handing The Dark Knight Best Picture.
