January 13, 2005 - Legend and myth surround us all the time. Whether you're a housewife, a mailman, stockbroker, or film composer--there is undoubtedly some form of legendary tale linked to you and your life. To this end, legend has it that noted Hollywood composer Christophe Beck began playing piano at age 5 and by the time he was 11 he was writing his own music. Of course everyone is aware that legends are almost always comprised of exaggerated truths and Beck is the first to laugh off the myth surrounding his upbringing. "I would say that I was writing "music" [at the age of 11]," he jokes.

As clich� as it sounds, music has not only been a common bond, but a long lasting one, within Beck's family structure. His brother relocated from their Canadian homeland to Berlin and began recording "cabaret style hip-hop" under the moniker Chilly Gonzales. Beck, however, brushed off the call of international rap stardom and instead felt the call of Hollywood, which led him to enroll in the prestigious USC film scoring program headed up by Jerry Goldsmith upon graduation from Yale. From there his career manifested itself pretty much in standard fashion: the requisite stint scoring for television before moving into the big league of major motion picture composition. Beck's most recent example of the latter is the score to the Jennifer Garner starring Elektra.

Looking at Beck's list of credits it's easy to pigeonhole him as a romantic comedy/teen slapstick composer. After all, his most high profile compositions have accompanied films like Cheaper By The Dozen, Without A Paddle, Garfield, American Wedding, and Big Fat Liar. The mere mention of these films elicits a chuckle from Beck, who is acutely aware of how he is often perceived. "What do you think I am known for in the business" he mock challenges. "Comedies?"
Um, yeah…
"Well, that's absolutely true," he continues, overriding his own laughter.

In addition to being an accomplished composer, Christophe Beck is also a masterful Karaoke singer.

Elektra, however, has provided Beck with his first bona fide feature length action film scoring job. "I worked on a couple action/comedies, but those were totally different from a serious action movie, so this really does feel like a departure." All of which brings us to the most logical question: how did Beck, best known for scoring comedies, get involved with Elektra? "Well, Dave Jordan, who was the music supervisor, he and I had worked together on a couple of comedies and he really pushed me as much as he could to the director, Rob Bowman," explains Beck. "Rob had listened to a stack of CDs and I guess I got lucky. Mine was the one he responded to—the only one, as far as I was told. So from there I got the gig."