Fear may be the mind-killer, but those pesky Oscars rules? Well, those are the music-killers. Case in point: The Academy has officially disqualified Hans Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part Two from Oscars eligibility, Variety reports. There have been some concerns about the sequel’s music not getting a nomination because sequels typically do not receive the honor due to rules and restrictions regarding pre-existing music. The Oscars rules forbid a sequel score from using “more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.” Dune: Part Two must have used more than 20% of Han Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part One, which, to be clear, won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
The BAFTAs also joined the Oscars in putting a crysknife through Zimmer’s awards season prospects. However, the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes, which can’t afford to be so particular, will allow Zimmer to submit the score. Zimmer also won awards for his Dune score from both shows.
Ever the Liasn al Zimmer, Denis Villeneuve rejected the Academy’s ruling, telling Variety, “I don’t think this is over yet.” He argues Zimmer wrote a “tremendous amount of music” and that “Part Two is a new score.” Revealing some bias for the score that helped him drive a harvester to boffo B.O., Villeneuve says, “I don’t accept this because it’s one of the most beautiful scores Hans has ever written, and I would love it, at least, to be considered.”
Meanwhile, Zimmer joined the director in arguing that Dune: Part Two was not a sequel but the second half of a whole. “It’s called Dune: Part Two, not Dune 2,” Zimmer said. “The story starts the second we finish the first movie. We are still within that story, those characters, and it would be foolish and completely uncinematic to go and write new themes for the characters instead of enlarging the theme.”
Not to be a mentat about it, but Zimmer wouldn’t have to write a whole new score—just 81% of a new score.
