Jurassic Park III: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a score of the 2001 film of the same name. It was orchestrated, composed and conducted by Don Davis and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Davis incorporated John Williams' themes from the previous films into the score.
John Williams had previously composed the film soundtracks Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). As Jurassic Park III was underway, Williams was busy working on the A.I. Artificial Intelligence soundtrack and suggested Don Davis to handle the Jurassic Park III score. According to Davis: "I suspect he wasn't too interested in doing the third part of a franchise that he said goodbye to sometime before". Despite a rumor, James Horner was never considered to compose the film's score.[1][2]
After signing on to the project, Davis became unsure if his score could live up to Williams' work.[3][4] He listened to the previous Jurassic Park scores, hoping for his own to maintain consistency with them. Some of Williams' prior themes, mostly from the first film, were used in Jurassic Park III, but some were shortened or lengthened to fit certain scenes.[1][2][3][4] Williams provided his original handwritten scores to Davis.[2] One of Williams' themes is used for the returning character of Dr. Alan Grant.[2][3][5] Davis also composed a new theme which was supposed to recreate the mending relationship between Paul and Amanda Kirby.[2][4]
The score was recorded with a 104-piece of the Hollywood Studio Symphony and a 60-person choir at the Newman Scoring Stage, with Davis orchestrating and conducting.[1] One track, "Clash of Extinction", was created for a battle scene between a T. rex and Spinosaurus, although Johnston ultimately removed the track.[1][5]
Aside from Davis' score, Johnston chose to include "Big Hat, No Cattle", a song by Randy Newman from his 1999 album Bad Love.[3][5]
A promotional release of the score was gifted to friends of Don Davis and includes nearly the entire score. The promotional score's mix is narrow because of a direct downmix from the original 5.1 masters, without any correction or remixing for stereo performance.[6]
