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In the picture with Danny Elfman

Scott Murphy

His favourite Hong Kong films: 'Boy that's a hard one. There have been a lot. Kung Fu Hustle. I could go on and on. I'd love to score a film here.'

His first Disney film: 'Fantasia. I didn't see a lot of Disney films until I had my own kids, but that was the exception. I used to see it in Los Angeles at a Cinerama. That was a big thing. I would love to score something that was purely visual. That would be my dream.'

On scoring The Simpsons theme: 'I wrote it in the car on the way from my meeting Matt Groening, who showed me some pencil sketches and I just said 'Do you want something retro? I'm the guy. If you want something modern, I'm not.' It was a total of two days' work.'

On creativity: 'I hope that I do keep my creativity. I was recently at the Venice Film Festival as a juror and I was sitting with Quentin Tarantino and he was discussing just that dilemma. The terrifying feeling is that every time you start a new piece of work, it's like lowering a bucket into a well and you have no idea if you're going to find water or not.'

On his biggest achievement: 'I think I'm most proud of the fact that I've worked on so many different projects. When I first started out, my hero was the composer Bernard Herrmann. The thing I liked most is that he could do so many different projects. He could do a film like Psycho and he could do Citizen Kane and something like the Ghost of Mrs Muir and Jason And The Argonauts. If there's anything that I'm proud of after 25 years ... first off that I've lasted 25 years and secondly that I've been able to move around and do different types of things.'

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