Hans Zimmer Quiz

Test your knowledge of Hans Zimmer’s film scores, from The Lion King to Dune.

1000+ questions in this theme

20 of them, with the answers

The questions, with answers

1. Dunkirk’s sound designer handed the composers one recording that became a playable part of the score. What had he taken it from?

   AnswerThe Moonstone’s diesel engine

2. What did Zimmer do to prepare for Kung Fu Panda that he rarely does for a film?

   AnswerTravelled to China to research it

3. Zimmer paid his way in early-1980s London by writing music for what?

   AnswerRadio and television adverts

4. How much music did Zimmer and John Powell write for The Thin Red Line?

   AnswerOver four hours

5. Heitor Pereira scores the Despicable Me films from Zimmer’s studio. Before film music, he played guitar for years in which band?

   AnswerSimply Red

6. Why did the Academy rule the Batman Begins and Dark Knight scores ineligible?

   AnswerFive names sat on the cue sheet

7. A trumpeter who co-founded A&M Records plays a solo on Zimmer’s score for The Holiday. Who?

   AnswerHerb Alpert

8. Zimmer passed on Gladiator II, saying he had already done that world. Which of his former assistants scored it instead?

   AnswerHarry Gregson-Williams

9. Zimmer could not take Face/Off, so his assistant John Powell did. What did Zimmer offer the producers?

   AnswerTo fix the score himself

10. Batman Begins credits a single featured soloist, Martin Tillman. Which instrument does the credit name?

    AnswerElectric cello

11. For Blitz, Hans Zimmer built the score on a school instrument he called the sound of hell. Which one?

    AnswerThe treble recorder

12. Zimmer’s score for I’ll Do Anything replaced something that previews had destroyed. What was cut from James L. Brooks’s film?

    AnswerEvery musical number

13. Whom did Zimmer send to Gore Verbinski in his place for The Curse of the Black Pearl?

    AnswerKlaus Badelt

14. Which jazz pianist appears among the musicians on the Hidden Figures score?

    AnswerHerbie Hancock

15. Which conventional skill has Zimmer repeatedly said he simply does not have?

    AnswerReading musical notation

16. Hans Zimmer says he writes his scores not for directors or studios but for one imaginary listener. What is her name?

    AnswerDoris

17. What had Zimmer never done before scoring Dune, despite knowing the book?

    AnswerWatched David Lynch’s version

18. From what humble material did Zimmer’s team build breathy new flutes for Dune?

    AnswerPVC pipe

19. On 8 November 1984 in Segovia, Zimmer walked on stage as a guest keyboard player while a Spanish band recorded its first live album. Which band?

    AnswerMecano

20. Roughly how long did Zimmer have to deliver the whole of No Time to Die?

    AnswerAbout six weeks