Nope, you weren't hallucinating. Zimmer was there in the credits (more noticeably than Badelt, in fact), not as the composer, but as the producer of the score (which in his case means he likely composed as much as 1/4-1/2 of it, or even more). Badelt, the composer of record, is a Zimmer protege and a member of his production company, Media Ventures, which no doubt accounts for at least part of the similarities between their styles (here's (http://www.mediaventures.com/bio2003.html) a blurb on the Media Ventures party line, if you're bored or curious).
A number of the big-name film composers currently working, like Horner and Silvestri**, have students and proteges whose styles they've noticeably shaped, but Zimmer and Media Ventures are really notorious for it (Badelt, Gregson-Williams, Powell and the rest sometimes get called the "Mini-Zimmers" in the snarkier movie music magazines like Film Score Monthly). As far as I'm concerned, they might not be the most original scores ever to grace the movies, but they're generally enjoyable, so I don't mind the "house style". Whatever works.
**Alan Silvestri was the composer originally tapped for PotC, actually, but he walked (in a huff, "they" say) over "creative differences" with Verbinski and co. Luckily for him, Craig Armstrong had just gotten fired from the new Lara Croft movie, so Silvestri walked into his job, and Armstrong went off to do Love Actually for Richard Curtis.
Er, sorry about all that. I rarely get a chance to gossip about film composers, and I tend to get carried away.
no subject
A number of the big-name film composers currently working, like Horner and Silvestri**, have students and proteges whose styles they've noticeably shaped, but Zimmer and Media Ventures are really notorious for it (Badelt, Gregson-Williams, Powell and the rest sometimes get called the "Mini-Zimmers" in the snarkier movie music magazines like Film Score Monthly). As far as I'm concerned, they might not be the most original scores ever to grace the movies, but they're generally enjoyable, so I don't mind the "house style". Whatever works.
**Alan Silvestri was the composer originally tapped for PotC, actually, but he walked (in a huff, "they" say) over "creative differences" with Verbinski and co. Luckily for him, Craig Armstrong had just gotten fired from the new Lara Croft movie, so Silvestri walked into his job, and Armstrong went off to do Love Actually for Richard Curtis.
Er, sorry about all that. I rarely get a chance to gossip about film composers, and I tend to get carried away.