The Golden Child was Eddie Murphy’s next project after the mega success of Beverly Hills Cop.
It hardly set the world on fire.
Originally written as a wise-cracking Raymond Chandler detective yarn with supernatural elements; the tone shifted once Murphy was cast in the central role. Out went the sardonic quips from the script and in their place Murphy attempted to ad-lib new jokes throughout most scenes. But the spark wasn’t there the same way it had been for Axel Foley. Possibly it was the PG-13 rating holding back his trademark crude humour or the mix of genres not gelling properly. But either way, test audiences were not kind to it.
Their consensus was that at 2 hours the film was too long and slow. And it was decided the orchestral score by John Barry was not helping with the pacing. So with only a couple of weeks to go before its release the choice was made to cut 30 minutes out of the runtime and replace the music. Michel Colombier was brought in to hastily deliver a contemporary synth soundtrack and the rest is history. The reviews at the time were mixed and despite being one of the top 10 earners that year, it hasn't had the same staying power in the public consciousness as Murphy's other 80’s hits.
And that is usually where these stories would end. Another abandoned score lost to time. That was until La-La Land Records released a 3 disc set containing the entirety of John Barry’s discarded work. All it took was for me to listen to his version of the opening sequence while the film played on mute to know what I had to do...
Fanedit Goals:
1) Replace Michel Colombier’s score with John Barry’s rejected cues.
2) Trim comedy bits that really don’t land or go on too long. Assuming it can be done without compromising the flow of the music.
As the deleted 30 minutes of footage have never been released I’ll be working with the theatrical version of the film. So I’ve roughly 2 hours of score to put into a 90 minute film without it being all music, all of the time! A couple of Barry’s cues did make it into the theatrical release so those will be kept as is.
Example Sequences:
"The Child Is Taken"
"Underground Passage"
It hardly set the world on fire.
Originally written as a wise-cracking Raymond Chandler detective yarn with supernatural elements; the tone shifted once Murphy was cast in the central role. Out went the sardonic quips from the script and in their place Murphy attempted to ad-lib new jokes throughout most scenes. But the spark wasn’t there the same way it had been for Axel Foley. Possibly it was the PG-13 rating holding back his trademark crude humour or the mix of genres not gelling properly. But either way, test audiences were not kind to it.
Their consensus was that at 2 hours the film was too long and slow. And it was decided the orchestral score by John Barry was not helping with the pacing. So with only a couple of weeks to go before its release the choice was made to cut 30 minutes out of the runtime and replace the music. Michel Colombier was brought in to hastily deliver a contemporary synth soundtrack and the rest is history. The reviews at the time were mixed and despite being one of the top 10 earners that year, it hasn't had the same staying power in the public consciousness as Murphy's other 80’s hits.
And that is usually where these stories would end. Another abandoned score lost to time. That was until La-La Land Records released a 3 disc set containing the entirety of John Barry’s discarded work. All it took was for me to listen to his version of the opening sequence while the film played on mute to know what I had to do...
Fanedit Goals:
1) Replace Michel Colombier’s score with John Barry’s rejected cues.
2) Trim comedy bits that really don’t land or go on too long. Assuming it can be done without compromising the flow of the music.
As the deleted 30 minutes of footage have never been released I’ll be working with the theatrical version of the film. So I’ve roughly 2 hours of score to put into a 90 minute film without it being all music, all of the time! A couple of Barry’s cues did make it into the theatrical release so those will be kept as is.
Example Sequences:
"The Child Is Taken"
"Underground Passage"
