(It’s like the artist was inside my head!)

Most people know Danny Elfman as the famous composer responsible for the music on Tim Burton movies and The Simpson‘s theme song — though to me and Roman Polanski, he’ll always be the guy who sang “I Love Little Girls“.  Elfman recently composed an entire score for the new Wolf Man starring Benicio Del Toro, but according to Cinemusic, none of it will be used.  And this is after the film already lost original director Mark Romanek because of creative differences.

Elfman has already written and recorded what, by all accounts was a traditional, grandly gothic effort a la Kilar’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Ultimately, it appears at this point that none of it will be used in the film. Rather than have Elfman come back and make changes due to major picture rehauls (and likely with his hands full scoring Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, he is unavailable), Cinemusic has confirmed that Paul Haslinger (Death Race 2000) will step in and record an entirely brand new score.

Firstshowing claims the change is due to Universal not liking Elfman’s score, even though he was new director Joe Johnston’s top choice:

“If Danny Elfman does do it, I’m going to basically just let him run loose. I’m going to run the movie for him without music and without the temp track and say, “Do what you have never done before and see what comes out of it.” I think he’s fantastic. I can still listen to his score for Beetlejuice.” [to AICN in 2008]

It might seem weird to fire a proven composer like Danny Elfman when you’re just an exec at Universal, but to be fair, they have been listening to the latest Now That’s What I Call Music all week. 

Additional fake trivia: “Danny Elfman” was once a stage name once used by Danny De Vito.

[banner pic via cocoypollo.tumblr.com, which is very NSFW]