Joel McNeely was born in
Madison, WisconsinMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
. Both of his parents were involved in music and theater, and as a child he played the piano, saxophone, bass, and flute. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studied jazz at the
University of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida within Miami-Dade County...
, and earned a masters degree as a composition major at the
Eastman School of MusicThe Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York, United States. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
.
LucasfilmLucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
chose McNeely to compose the
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
to the 1996
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
novel
Shadows of the EmpireStar Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a multimedia project created by Lucasfilm Ltd. in 1996. The original idea was to create an interquel, a story set between the movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release,...
. This was an experimental project where he conveyed general moods and themes instead of writing music to flow for specific scenes.
He is also notable for conducting a series of re-recordings of
Bernard HerrmannBernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
, Franz Waxman, John Barry and other's scores under the label of Varèse Sarabande, notably
VertigoThe music score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was composed by Bernard Herrmann between 3 January and 19 February 1958. The recordings were made in London and Vienna, with orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson...
,
PsychoPsycho is an American suspense/horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein....
and
Citizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, and the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. It was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, but won only for Best Original Screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles...
, and selected scores from the
Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and remains syndicated to this day. The show consisted of unrelated vignettes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events, usually...
television series, among others.
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Biography
Joel McNeely was born in
Madison, WisconsinMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
. Both of his parents were involved in music and theater, and as a child he played the piano, saxophone, bass, and flute. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studied jazz at the
University of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida within Miami-Dade County...
, and earned a masters degree as a composition major at the
Eastman School of MusicThe Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York, United States. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
.
LucasfilmLucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
chose McNeely to compose the
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
to the 1996
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
novel
Shadows of the EmpireStar Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a multimedia project created by Lucasfilm Ltd. in 1996. The original idea was to create an interquel, a story set between the movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release,...
. This was an experimental project where he conveyed general moods and themes instead of writing music to flow for specific scenes.
He is also notable for conducting a series of re-recordings of
Bernard HerrmannBernard Herrmann was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures.An Academy Award-winner , Herrmann is particularly known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, most famously Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo...
, Franz Waxman, John Barry and other's scores under the label of Varèse Sarabande, notably
VertigoThe music score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo was composed by Bernard Herrmann between 3 January and 19 February 1958. The recordings were made in London and Vienna, with orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson...
,
PsychoPsycho is an American suspense/horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein....
and
Citizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, and the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. It was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, but won only for Best Original Screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles...
, and selected scores from the
Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and remains syndicated to this day. The show consisted of unrelated vignettes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events, usually...
television series, among others. He also composed the score for
The AvengersThe Avengers is a 1998 American film adaptation of the British television series of the same name from the 1960s.The film was directed by Jeremiah Chechik...
and the theme and music for FOX's
Dark AngelDark Angel is an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television program created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. Dark Angel premiered in the United States and Canada on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, but was canceled after two seasons...
also scored the movies
Terminal Velocity,
Iron Will,
Flipper,
Gold Diggers,
Samantha,
Virus,
I Know Who Killed Me (2007). He also scored a multitude of Disney animated films (
Mulan II,
Peter Pan: Return to Neverland (2002),
Tinker BellTinker Bell is a 2008 computer animated film based on the Disney Fairies franchise produced by DisneyToon Studios. It revolves around Tinker Bell, a fairy character created by J. M. Barrie in his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, and featured in the 1953 Disney animated film, Peter...
and many others).
Filmography
- Samantha
Samantha is a 1992 American movie starring actress Martha Plimpton. Though at the time already a film actress for nearly ten years, this was the first vehicle in which Plimpton was the star. The film co-starred Mary Kay Place, Hector Elizondo, Ione Skye and Dermot Mulroney...
(1992)
- Iron Will
Iron Will is a 1994 family film and adventure film directed by Charles Haid. It is based on the exploits of Albert Campbell, who won the 1917 race from Winnipeg to Saint Paul, and Fred Hartman, the American hope in the race. According to Albert Campbell, he won the race to fulfill his father’s...
(1994)
- Radioland Murders
Radioland Murders is a 1994 black comedy mystery film directed by Mel Smith and co-written/produced by George Lucas. Radioland Murders is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the 1930s...
(1994)
- Squanto: A Warrior's Tale
Squanto: A Warrior's Tale is a 1994 theatrical live action Disney film. It was written by Darlene Craviato and directed by Xavian Koller. It is very loosely based on the actual historical Native American figure Squanto, and his life prior to and including the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. It...
(1994)
- Terminal Velocity
Terminal Velocity is a 1994 action movie starring Charlie Sheen as a daredevil skydiver who becomes mixed up with Russian spies. It was written by David Twohy and directed by Deran Sarafian. Originally, Sheen's role was written for Tom Cruise, although William Baldwin was also considered. The...
(1994)
- Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain
Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain is a 1995 drama film starring Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky. It takes place in the fictional town of Wheaton, Washington, but was filmed on location in Vancouver, Nelson, and Pemberton, British Columbia....
(1995)
- Flipper
Flipper is a 1996 remake of the 1963 film of the same name, starring Elijah Wood. The movie is about a boy who has to spend the summer with his uncle Porter , who lives in the Florida Keys...
(1996)
- Vegas Vacation
Vegas Vacation is a 1997 comedy film. It is the fourth film in the Vacation film series centering around the fictitious Griswold family, following National Lampoon's Vacation, National Lampoon's European Vacation, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...
(1997)
- Wild America
Wild America is a 1997 adventure-comedy, directed by William Dear and written by David Michael Wieger. It stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Devon Sawa, Scott Bairstow, Frances Fisher and Jamey Sheridan.-Plot:...
(1997)
- The Avengers
The Avengers is a 1998 American film adaptation of the British television series of the same name from the 1960s.The film was directed by Jeremiah Chechik...
(1998)
- Soldier
Soldier is a 1998 science fiction-action film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Kurt Russell as Sgt. Todd, a soldier trained from birth. The film also features Gary Busey, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and Michael Chiklis in supporting roles.It was written...
(1998)
- Virus
Virus is a 1999 science fiction-horror film directed by visual effects artist John Bruno and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland...
(1999)
- Return to Never Land
Return to Never Land is a 2002 animation film sequel to the 1953 film produced by the DisneyToons studio in Sydney, Australia and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The original "Return to Never Land" DVD & Video was released on June 18, 2002...
(2002)
- Ghosts of the Abyss
Ghosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was Disney's first film produced in 3-D and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic...
(2003)
- Holes
Holes is a film based on the novel of the same title by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay, with Shia LaBeouf as the lead role of Stanley Yelnats...
(2003)
- Uptown Girls
Uptown Girls is a 2003 comedy directed by Boaz Yakin and adapted from the story by Allison Jacobs into screenplay by Julia Dahl, Mo Ogrodnik and Lisa Davidowitz. It stars Brittany Murphy as a 22-year-old living a charmed life as the daughter of a famous rock and roll musician...
(2003)
- America's Heart and Soul
America's Heart and Soul is a 2004 film produced by Blacklight Films and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a documentary and was directed by Louis Schwartzberg. The film was nominated for two MovieGuide Awards, winning one....
(2004)
- Stateside
Stateside is a 2004 romantic drama film film based on a true story. It's an adventurous love story about a high school rich kid serving in the Marine Corps to avoid jail, who eventually falls in love with a schizophrenic actress. However, those around them ask them to keep their distance from each...
(2004)
- Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is an animated Winnie the Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2005. This is the third theatrical feature-length film based on Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise to not be a collection of previously-released shorts....
(2005)
- I Know Who Killed Me
I Know Who Killed Me is a American mystery/thriller directed by Chris Sivertson.In 2008, the film won eight Golden Raspberry Awards, a new record including Worst Film, Worst Actress and the first ever award in a new category, Worst Excuse For A Horror Movie.-Plot:The quiet suburb of New Salem is...
(2007)
External links