Music from the Movies reports that after composer Danny Elfman finishes the scores to Tim Burton's upcoming fantasy films, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride, he'll be moving forward with the soundtrack to the big screen adaptation of Charlotte's Web...

He has been hired to provide the original score for Charlotte's Web, Paramount Pictures' adaptation of E.B. White's beloved children's tale, and A Day with Wilbur Robinson, a computer animated Disney picture.

Both films are fairytales fitting Elfman's style and vision perfectly. Charlotte's Web is directed by Gary Winick (13 Going on 30) and is a live-action/CG-animated movie. It tells the story about a girl who teams up with a spider named Charlotte in order to save Wilbur the pig from the butcher's knife. Dakota Fanning stars as the young girl, Julia Roberts does the voice for the spider. A Day with Wilbur Robinson, based on William Joyce's 1990 book, is about a boy genius who invents a machine that recovers forgotten memories.

On 23 February, Danny Elfman will also make his debut as a symphonic concert work composer. The 30 minute piece is entitled "Serenada Schizophrana" and is described by the American Composers Orchestra (who will perform the premiere performance at Carnegie Hall) as a "symphonic tour-de-force bringing audiences into the composer's radical and highly anticipated compositional shift to a new musical realm." In a comment, the orchestra's music director Steven Sloane said that "America's greatest musical influence around the globe has been through the work of Hollywood composers. That was true during Hollywood's golden age and it remains so today. In the early 21st century, with the great breakdown of the walls that divide the musical landscape, it makes sense for us to do what we can to encourage film composers to stretch themselves musically, just as we do for all the composers we commission. I can think of nobody with a fresher musical imagination than Danny Elfman. I don't know what to expect, and I can't wait!"

Elfman's Serenada Schizophrana is scored for large orchestra, electronics, two pianos, and female voices. Joining ACO in the premiere are the ACO Singers, directed by Judith Clurman.

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