James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American composer, conductor, music producer and musician. Throughout his career, he has scored over 100 films of all scales and genres, earning multiple award nominations for his work. He is the recipient of a
Grammy Award,
Emmy Award, and eight
Academy Award nominations. His best known film scores include
Pretty Woman (1990),
The Prince of Tides (1991),
The Fugitive (1993),
The Sixth Sense (1999),
Dinosaur (2000), (2001),
Treasure Planet (2002),
The Village (2004),
King Kong (2005),
Batman Begins (2005),
I Am Legend (2007),
Blood Diamond (2006),
The Dark Knight (2008),
The Bourne Legacy (2012), and
The Hunger Games series (2012-2015). He has frequently collaborated with director
M. Night Shyamalan, having scored nine of his films since
The Sixth Sense. He is renowned for composing in a fairly short amount of time, as seen on his work with
King Kong and
The Hunger Games, both of which took him around one month to finish.