Steve Jablonsky

Summary

Steve Jablonsky (born October 9, 1970) is an American composer for film, television and video games, best known for his musical scores in the Transformers film series and The Sims 3.[1] Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors Michael Bay and Peter Berg, and fellow composer Hans Zimmer.

Steve Jablonsky
Born (1970-10-09) October 9, 1970 (age 53)
GenresFilm score, video game music, post-rock, alternative rock, electronic, classical
Occupation(s)Film composer, video game composer
Instrument(s)Piano, keyboards, guitar, drums
Years active1997–present
Websitesteve-jablonsky.com Edit this at Wikidata

Early life edit

Jablonsky's mother was born in a Japanese internment camp.[2] He went to the University of California, Berkeley for college and studied computer science at first, but switched to music composition a year later.[3] After graduation, he became an intern at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions after cold calling the studio to ask if they needed any help.[4] During that time, Jablonsky met Harry Gregson-Williams, a fellow composer of Zimmer, and started working as his assistant. Later, he became more engaged with Zimmer and started composing for works such as Desperate Housewives and the Transformers film series.[5]

Career edit

Jablonsky has composed the soundtracks to the films The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Steamboy (2004), The Island (2005), Transformers (2007), D-War (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Battleship (2012), Ender's Game (2013) (replacing renowned film composer James Horner), Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). He was also a contributor on Team America: World Police (2004) among many others. In addition, he helped compose some of the music to the video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and composed the theme music for BBC's Seven Wonders of the Industrial World in 2003. He also has written music for the television show Desperate Housewives (2004 - 2012) since the fourth episode. His track "Trailblazing" served as the opening theme for WrestleMania X8 and WrestleMania XIX, as well as the soundtrack to the TNA Hall of Fame induction of Sting.

Jablonsky also wrote the music for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, taking the place of the former Command & Conquer music composer Frank Klepacki who was unable to write the game's score due to his involvement with Universe at War: Earth Assault.

Jablonsky has worked for Harry Gregson-Williams at Media Ventures, the music production company which was conceived and founded by Jay Rifkin and Hans Zimmer, for seven years. His most recent projects include the scores for the South Korean film D-War, Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360 gaming console, and music for The Sims 3.

Currently, Jablonsky is employed at Zimmer's studio, Remote Control Productions, having been mentored by the company's members Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith, as well as former members Harry Gregson-Williams and Klaus Badelt.

In February 2015, Jablonsky was hired to compose the score for the film The Last Witch Hunter.[6] He also composed the soundtrack for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the 2016 Peter Berg film Deepwater Horizon, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell.

Filmography edit

Film edit

Year Film Director Additional Music Studio / Developer Notes
1998 Border to Border Thomas Whelan Stage 15 Productions
2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Marcus Nispel Jay Flood New Line Cinema
2004 Steamboy Katsuhiro Otomo Sony Pictures Entertainment
2005 The Amityville Horror Andrew Douglas
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Island Michael Bay
  • Ramin Djawadi
  • Clay Duncan
  • Trevor Morris
  • Blake Neely
Warner Bros. Pictures
2006 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Jonathan Liebesman Jay Flood New Line Cinema
2007 The Hitcher Dave Meyers
Rogue Pictures Incidental music by Holeg Spies
Transformers Michael Bay
Paramount Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
D-War Shim Hyung-rae Jay Flood Freestyle Releasing
2009 Friday the 13th Marcus Nispel
New Line Cinema
Paramount Pictures
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Michael Bay
  • Ryeland Allison
  • Lorne Balfe
  • Clay Duncan
  • Jay Flood
  • Tom Gire
  • Linkin Park
  • Matthew Margeson
  • William J. Parker
  • John Sponsler
  • Hans Zimmer
Paramount Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
Featuring original song by Linkin Park "New Divide"
2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street Samuel Bayer Jay Flood Warner Bros. Pictures New Line Cinema
2011 Your Highness David Gordon Green Universal Pictures
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Michael Bay
  • Andrew Kawczynski
  • Jacob Shea
Paramount Pictures
2012 Battleship Peter Berg Universal Pictures
2013 Gangster Squad Ruben Fleischer Warner Bros. Pictures
Pain & Gain Michael Bay Clay Duncan Paramount Pictures
Ender's Game Gavin Hood Jacob Shea Summit Entertainment Orchestra conducted by Gavin Greenaway
Lone Survivor Peter Berg
  • Clay Duncan
  • Jacob Shea (Acoustic Guitar)
  • Jon Jablonsky (Drums)
Universal Pictures Composed with Explosions in the Sky
2014 Transformers: Age of Extinction Michael Bay Paramount Pictures Featuring original song By Imagine Dragons "Battle Cry"
2015 The Last Witch Hunter Breck Eisner
  • Gary Dworetsky
Lionsgate Films Orchestra conducted by David Shipps and performed by Nashville Music Scoring Orchestra
2016 Keanu Peter Atencio Elgin Thrower Jr. Warner Bros. Pictures Composed with Nathan Whitehead
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Dave Green
  • Gary Dworetsty
  • David Fleming
  • Jay Flood
  • Corey Jackson
Paramount Pictures
Nickelodeon Movies
Orchestra conducted by James Sale
Deepwater Horizon Peter Berg Jon Jablonsky (Drums) Summit Entertainment Featuring original song by Gary Clark Jr.
2017 Transformers: The Last Knight Michael Bay
  • Gary Dworetsky
  • David Fleming
  • Luke Richards
Paramount Pictures Orchestra conducted by James Sale & Nick Glennie-Smith
2018 Game Over, Man! Kyle Newacheck Christian Wibe Netflix
Skyscraper Rawson Marshall Thurber
  • Jon Jablonsky (Drums)
  • Bryce Jacobs
  • Christian Wibe
  • Luke Richards
Universal Pictures
Legendary Entertainment
Featuring original song by Jamie N Commons "Walls"
Morning Express II Randall Miller Mediacorp Onetree Pictures
mm2 Entertainment
2020 Spenser Confidential Peter Berg Jared Fly Netflix
Bloodshot David S. F. Wilson
  • Sven Faulconer
  • Christian Wibe
Columbia Pictures Orchestra conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith
2021 Red Notice Rawson Marshall Thurber
  • Sven Faulconer
  • Jared Fly
  • Roger Suen
Netflix Orchestra conducted by Jasper Randall
2022 DC League of Super-Pets Jared Stern Warner Bros. Pictures Replaced Dominic Lewis[7]
2024 The Tiger's Apprentice Raman Hui
  • Elisa Alloway
  • Freddy Avis
  • Sophia Blake
Paramount+
The Electric State Anthony Russo
Joe Russo
TBA Netflix
Borderlands Eli Roth TBA Lionsgate Films Replaced Nathan Barr[8]

Additional music credits edit

Year Film Director Additional Music Studio / Developer Notes
1997 Smilla's Sense of Snow Bille August Fox Searchlight Pictures Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer
Deceiver Jonas Pate
Josh Pate
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
1998 Border to Border Thomas Whelan Stage 15 Productions
Armageddon Michael Bay
Touchstone Pictures Score composed by Trevor Rabin
Antz Eric Darnell
Tim Johnson
DreamWorks Pictures Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell
1999 Light It Up Craig Bolotin
  • P.J. Hanke
  • Steve Jablonsky
20th Century Fox Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
Deep Blue Sea Renny Harlin
  • Tim Heintz
  • Steve Jablonsky
  • Paul Linford
Warner Bros. Pictures Score composed by Trevor Rabin
2000 The Tigger Movie Jun Falkenstein
Walt Disney Pictures Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
The Magic of Marciano Tony Barbieri Cape Atlantic Productions
Chicken Run Peter Lord
Nick Park
  • James McKee Smith
  • Geoff Zanelli
  • Gavin Greenaway
  • Steve Jablonsky
DreamWorks Pictures Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell
2001 Pearl Harbor Michael Bay
Touchstone Pictures Score composed by Hans Zimmer
2002 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Kelly Asbury
Lorna Cook
DreamWorks Pictures
2003 Tears of the Sun Antoine Fuqua
Columbia Pictures Score composed by Lisa Gerrard and Hans Zimmer
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Gore Verbinski
Walt Disney Pictures Score composed by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer
Bad Boys II Michael Bay
Columbia Pictures Score composed by Trevor Rabin
2019 6 Underground
  • Steve Jablonsky
Netflix Score composed by Lorne Balfe

Television edit

Year Title[9] TV Channel Notes
1999 Swing Vote Television film
Additional music only
Score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
2002 AFP: American Fighter Pilot CBS
Live from Baghdad HBO Television film
National Geographic Explorer National Geographic Channel Episode: "Lost Subs: Disaster at Sea"
2003 Seven Wonders of the Industrial World BBC 7 episodes
Threat Matrix ABC 3 episodes
2004—2012 Desperate Housewives 157 episodes
2005 The Contender NBC
Threshold CBS
2006 Him and Us Television film
2008 Amas de Casa Desesperadas Univision 24 episodes
2009 WWII in HD History Only composed "Trailblazing"
2011 Vietnam in HD
2013 The List Television film
Occult A&E
2014 The Last Ship TNT Season 1
2015 You, Me and the Apocalypse NBC 10 episodes
2021 Why Women Kill Paramount+ 3 episodes

Video games edit

Year Title Publisher Notes
2001 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Konami Additional music only
Music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and Norihiko Hibino
E3 Best Original Score
2007 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Electronic Arts Composed with Trevor Morris
Transformers: The Game Activision Composed with Jonathan Flood, David Whittaker and Adam Hay
2008 Gears of War 2 Microsoft Game Studios
2009 The Sims 3 Electronic Arts Composed CAS, Map View, Buy and Build mode music
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Activision Additional music by Julien-K and Bobby Tahouri
2010 Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Ubisoft Main Title, Cinematics and Front Music
PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 versions
2011 Gears of War 3 Microsoft Game Studios
2013 Gears of War: Judgment Microsoft Game Studios Composed with Jacob Shea
2014 Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Activision Composed with Jeff Broadbent, Bobby Tahouri and Troels Brun Folmann

References edit

  1. ^ "Steve Jablonsky". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2016. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016.
  2. ^ @jablonsky_steve (January 28, 2017). "My mom was born in a Japanese internment camp. I almost did not exist because of policies similar to what's happening right now" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Michael Bay's 'Transformers' Composer Steve Jablonsky Talks Making Music For Movies, TV, Video Games And More!". Mstarz. July 31, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  4. ^ "Episode #6 | Steve Jablonsky, Behind the Score: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross & Name That Score". SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY. April 24, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  5. ^ Newman, Melinda (June 26, 2014). "Composer Steve Jablonsky on Transformers: Age of Extinction: This was the craziest film of all". Uproxx. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  6. ^ "Steve Jablonsky to Score 'The Last Witch Hunter'". filmmusicreporter.com. February 12, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  7. ^ "Steve Jablonsky Scoring Jared Stern's 'DC League of Super-Pets' | Film Music Reporter".
  8. ^ "Steve Jablonsky Scoring 'Borderlands' Film Adaptation". Film Music Reporter. October 9, 2023. Retrieved October 15, 2023.
  9. ^ "Steve Jablonsky". Hans-Zimmer.com. Retrieved January 25, 2016.

External links edit

  • Official website  
  • Steve Jablonsky at IMDb