Hans Zimmer used to have vertigo, but has overcome it to the point that he was able to perform from the helipad of the Burj Al Arab, one of the tallest hotels in the world.
The revered composer, 67, features in the jaw-dropping scene for his new documentary, Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert, which opened this week to a limited release in select global cinemas.
Directed by Paul Dugdale with Jerry Bruckheimer serving as executive producer, the film captures a live performance by Zimmer and his orchestra of some of his best known works, including the scores to films such as Gladiator, Dune, The Lion King, Interstellar and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Interspersed between footage of the concert at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai are dramatic performances such as the one at the Burj Al Arab, along with interviews with some of the German musician’s close collaborators, from directors Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan to actors Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.
“I think I have the best band in the world right now,” Zimmer told The Independent’s new podcast, Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations. “We were in the Middle East and Denis [Villeneuve] was shooting Dune around the corner, so we thought… you know, why not?”
He said it was important to be able to capture the sheer scale of his tour operation, which now includes “15 articulated lorries and 13 buses”, so that fans can enjoy it “all over the world”.
“I used to get vertigo,” he said, while discussing the scene at the Burj Al Arab, “but I also, for 40 years, wouldn’t set foot on a stage either because I got stage fright.
“And the whole thing of being terrified by 20,000 people every night and at the same time, loving everything that’s going on… suddenly I don’t have vertigo anymore. You just know how to plant your feet. And I went right up to the edge!”
Zimmer is now so accustomed to the stage that he was able to summon the courage to propose to his partner, hotelier and film producer Dina De Luca, during a live show at the O2 Arena in London, back in 2023.
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The romantic gesture was not planned, he revealed: “I just had to do it. She looked so beautiful. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t dare to do it. And so I said, ‘I have some, I have some important questions to ask you… Uh, did you put the milk back in the fridge? Did you lock the back door? Will you marry me?”
He confirmed that she accepted, and praised his partner for being “incredibly supportive” of his career.
In the same interview, Zimmer discussed how he continued writing music after completing the score for Villneuve’s adaptation of Dune starring Chalamet and Zendaya, only to learn later that this made him ineligible for the Oscars when Dune: Part Two was submitted.
“I got disqualified by the Oscars because the music that Dune 2 used was created before the movie,” he said.
“One of their reasons was because I used the tunes again from the first movie, but of course I used the tunes again from the first movie, since it was the completion of a story with the same characters!”
He joked: “Maybe we should have recast [the sequel] as well.”
Zimmer won the Oscar for Best Score in 2022 for his work on the first Dune film. His first Academy Award win was in 1994 for The Lion King.
The current Academy rules for music eligibility from sequels state: “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20 per cent of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.”
Villeneuve also hit back at the idea that Zimmer’s second score should be deemed ineligible, telling Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast that he did “a tremendous amount of music” and that Part Two was a new score.
The composer is the first to admit that he has, on occasion, had to be persuaded to do things, such as when Pharrell and Johnny Marr first convinced him to take his music on tour. The trio discuss their conversations in the documentary, with Marr joking that Zimmer now tours more than him.
Meanwhile, Marr’s son Nile, also a musician, was apparently the one who told him to “get over himself” and perform the score to The Lion King at Coachella festival in 2017.
“I didn’t want to play it. I’m going, no, this is a kid’s movie,” Zimmer explained. “And Nile goes, ‘Hans, this was the music of my youth, get out there.’ And we played it, and 80,000 people started crying.”
Zimmer’s daughter, graphic artist, photographer and model Zoë Zimmer, has also been telling him he should perform at Glastonbury: “I think it’s on the cards,” he said. “I’d love to be the weird guy who drags an orchestra and a choir around.”
The full episode of ‘Good Vibrations’ with Zimmer will be available from Wednesday 26 March on all streaming platforms. ‘Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert’ is in cinemas now for a limited time.
