With productions moving into the next stage soon for several movies, a shift has had to happen on the scoring front. Due to big commitments already lined up for both Dark Shadows and Men in Black III (which had delays in filming for a wide range of reasons), Danny Elfman has had to drop out of scoring the first Hunger Games movie since there was simply no time. Considering there are three movies planned after this, and the second one is already in pre-production stages, it’s also something where he’d likely be back for those as well so it would have drawn a heavy commitment from him beyond just the first. And with the two projects that he’s sticking to, it’s not a surprise, especially with Dark Shadows since that’s a Tim Burton film and he’s worked on the majority of Burton’s films.
While Lionsgate had no comment on his leaving the project, it has come to light that James Newton Howard with T Bone Burnett still very involved in the score as he was originally set to collaborate with Elfman on it.
[Source: Latino Review]
