Composer Danny Elfman says he started composing the score for Tim Burton’s “Batman” during a flight to Los Angeles after visiting the movie’s set in London.
Elfman said he got the inspiration for the score while he was in the flight and he was scared that he may “forget everything” once he landed.
The composer told Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast that he always carried a recorder with him and decided to start composing the music but his frequent trips to the bathroom had the flight attendants freaked out.
I start running in the bathroom (and hum phrases) and I go back to my seat, and I’m thinking, I’m thinking. Ten minutes later, back in the bathroom. And then back to my seat and then back to the bathroom, because I couldn’t do this with the guy sitting next to me,” he recalled.
Ten minutes later, I am back in the bathroom, And I open the door and this time there are three flight attendants. And they were probably going, What the f*** he is doing so frequently? … What is he doing in there?!’ And I piece by piece was working out the Batman score in my head.
Elfman’s Batman score won him a Grammy Award. The composer is returning to superhero movies by working on the music for Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.