John Debney
John Debney (born 1956) is an American film, television and video game composer. A protege of both Disney composer Buddy Baker and television composer Mike Post, Debney began his career doing music for rides at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. After leaving Disney, Debney went into television (scoring for shows as diverse as Star Trek: The Next Generation to much of the Hanna-Barbera output). While serving as a composer for Hanna-Barbera, he did his first film Jetsons the Movie. He went into film full-time after James Horner recommended him to score Hocus Pocus three years later and got his big break when he replaced David Arnold on 1995's Cutthroat Island.
Steadily working since then, he has tackled multiple genres and is known to adapt to any style given to him. He also mentored director Robert Rodriguez on scoring and has collaborated with him on a few scores. Debney has received an Oscar nomination for The Passion of the Christ and won three Emmys, for The Cape (not this one), SeaQuest DSV and The Young Riders.
Among the films scored by Debney
- Jetsons the Movie (1990)
- Hocus Pocus (1993) - with James Horner
- White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994)
- Little Giants (1994)
- Cutthroat Island (1995)
- Sudden Death (1995)
- Doctor Who (Made for TV Movie) (1996)
- The Relic (1997)
- Liar Liar (1997) - theme by James Newton Howard
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
- Inspector Gadget (1999)
- Dick (1999)
- End of Days (1999)
- The Replacements (2000)
- The Emperors New Groove (2000)
- Spy Kids and its first sequel (2001, 2002) - with Robert Rodriguez (both films), Danny Elfman (first film) and Harry Gregson-Williams (first film)
- Cats and Dogs (2001)
- The Princess Diaries and its sequel (2001, 2004)
- Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius (2001)
- Snow Dogs (2002)
- The Scorpion King (2002)
- The Tuxedo (2002) - with Christophe Beck
- The Hot Chick (2002)
- Bruce Almighty and its sequel (2003, 2007)
- Elf (2003)
- Looney Tunes Back in Action (2003) - last quarter only (rest of the film scored by Jerry Goldsmith)
- The Passion of the Christ (2004) - nominated for Academy Award
- Spider Man 2 and Spider Man 3 (2004, 2007) - with Danny Elfman (2 only) and Christopher Young (2 and 3)
- Sin City (2005) - with Robert Rodriguez and Graeme Revell
- Chicken Little (2005)
- Zathura (2005)
- The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) - with Randy Edelman
- Hotel For Dogs (2009)
- Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
- Valentine's Day (2010)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Predators (2010) - also adapted Alan Silvestri's theme
- Machete (2010) - with Robert Rodriguez and his band, Chingon
- Yogi Bear (2010)
- No Strings Attached (2011)
- The Change Up (2011) - with Theodore Shapiro
- Dream House (2011)
- New Years Eve (2011)
- A Thousand Words (2012)
- The Three Stooges (2012)
Debney has also written the themes for the following TV shows:
- The Cape
- Dink the Little Dinosaur
- Dragon's Lair
- The Lazarus Man
- The Pretender (first season)
- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
- SeaQuest DSV
- Supah Ninjas
- Tiny Toon Adventures (two episodes: "Hollywood Plucky" and "Gang Busters")
- The Young Riders