Danny Elfman Says He Was Told to Collaborate With Prince for the BATMAN Score, and He Ended Up Walking Away

Musician Danny Elfman is best known for leading the ‘80s band Oingo Boingo, as well as writing the scores for so many films and TV shows, including Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, The Simpsons, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and so many more. But before he majorly broke onto the scene, director Tim Burton was just a fan of Elfman’s work in Oingo Boingo, and Burton asked him if he’d want to try his hand at composing for the strange little comedy Pee Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985. He took it on, and their partnership was sealed.

But it was when Elfman was approached to take on the Batman movie in 1989 that he wondered if he had gotten in over his head. He understood the stakes and playfulness of the quirky Pee Wee film, but this was much larger in scale, and a film that would undoubtedly be a blockbuster hit. Elfman felt very in over his head. In a recent interview with GQ, the musician talked about creating the score for Batman, and as it turns out, he originally walked away from the movie, but things worked out in the end. 

"I've never done anything harder than Batman because first off, I had to prove myself. You know, it's like, okay, he's the quirky comedy guy, and here I am doing like this Batman movie. Understandably, I think they were like, 'We need somebody who knows how to do this kind of music.' But nobody knew what kind of music it was. There really was no superhero music. There was just Superman. And we said we know we don't want it to be Superman, John Williams. And then there was an element with the producer in the studio of wanting it to be a pop score. There was definitely this moment of like, 'Danny, we want you to collaborate with Prince and co-write the score.' And I go, 'I can't do that. People, 'You really said that?' I love Prince, but not for that score. I already knew what the score was, and I knew that if I collaborated, he'd be writing tunes, and I'd be orchestrating his tunes, and I would be essentially a glorified arranger rather than a composer, you know, because he was world-famous, and I was still nothing. I had to walk away."

Elfman continued:

"I was so depressed. I felt like I just blew up my own career. And then a month later I got the call saying, 'Danny, you're back on. We gotta get moving. Come on, come on.' It's like [heavy sigh] this gamble paid off. But it was a miserable period of time. On the other hand, I already heard the music in my head. I knew what it was, and I was determined that that was gonna be the score. The producer was so hard on me, John Peters, and then there finally he's in I think it's the third presentation. And I didn't know how to do presentations. I was playing this weird music stuff that was all like inspired, you know, crazy. And then Tim says, 'Play the march, play the march play the march.' And that's what he called the titles. I go, 'Oh yeah, I got this piece here.' And of course, now I know, you lead with your headline, obviously. I didn't really know, understand that back then. And I put this piece of music on and John starts conducting in his chair. And then at a certain point he stands up, and he's going like this. And I, and Tim looks at me and he's like, 'Yeah, we got it,'" he added with a laugh.

And that paved the way for Elfman to be a major contributor to the soundtracks we know and love today. Some you may not have even known were Good Will Hunting, Big Fish, and the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man movies. What are you favorite Danny Elfman-scored movies?