April 4, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert”
Directed by Paul Dugdale
Culture Representation: The concert documentary film “Hans Zimmer & Friends” (filmed in Dubai, New York City, and Los Angeles, in 2024) features a predominantly white group of people (with some black people and Asian people) performing or talking about the music of Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Culture Clash: In off-stage segments, Zimmer talks candidly about his insecurities and conflicts that he’s had in his career and personal life.
Culture Audience: “Hans Zimmer & Friends” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Zimmer and music scores of popular mainstream films.
“Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert” is not as pretentious as the title suggests. This candid and immersive concert documentary could have been a vanity project for Oscar-winning music composer Hans Zimmer, but it’s actually a showcase for how he’s generous and astute when it comes to talented people whom he chooses as collaborators. The music performances are outstanding, of course, but the visual presentation is just as stellar, by combining a winning combination of theatrics and technology.
Zimmer (born on September 12, 1957, in Frankfurt, Germany) does frequent world tours. The tour performances captured in this documentary are among the best. John Williams is considered the most celebrated movie music composer of all time. Zimmer comes a close second, in terms of being prolific, but he’s much more experimental than Williams, who sticks to classical music, while Zimmer often explores the music of international cultures.
Directed by Paul Dugdale, “Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert” was filmed at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai and Al Wasl Plaza dome at Expo City Dubai on May 31 and June 1, 2024, with highlights (not the entire set list) from both shows. Zimmer (who usually plays guitar or keyboards on stage) is backed by his touring 18-piece band for the on-stage performances. For these two concerts, the band had musical accompaniment by the National Symphony Orchestra of the United Arab Emirates. The documentary also features concept segments with visual effects of Zimmer performing in a skyscraper and exotic areas such as deserts.
The songs performed are from the music scores of “True Romance,” “Inception,” “Batman v. Superman,” “Man of Steel,” “Gladiator,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Dark Knight,” “Dark Phoenix,” “Dunkirk,” “Dune,” “Dune: Part Two,” “The Lion King” and “Interstellar.” The concert highlights include songs performed from “The Dark Knight” (which has a laser light show), “The Pirates of the Caribbean” (absolutely epic), “Dune” (a triumph of otherworldly music), “Gladiator” (with a stunning desert setting), “The Lion King” (a tribal celebration, which included Zimmer going out into the audience) and “Interstellar” (a high point of Zimmer’s work). Not all of these performances are without vocals. “Gladiator” features solos from singers Lisa Gerrard and Loire Cotler. “Dune” has Cotler’s iconic haunting vocals. “The Lion King” features a solo turn from Lebo Morake, whom Zimmer praises on stage as “the true Lion King.”
Zimmer is gracious in continually praising the musicians and vocalists on stage. It’s obvious that he wants them to get just as much and sometimes more recognition than he does from the audience. Tina Guo, a cellist with an unforgettable stage presence that might remind people of a warrior queen, was a standout during the “Pirates of the Caribbean” section and got enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Zimmer singles out lead guitarist Guthrie Govan for particularly high praise. Zimmer says on stage that Govan is “the greatest guitarist in the world” and “one of the nicest human beings in the world.” It’s unknown how Zimmer’s other guitarst—Nile Marr, son of “Inception” collaborator/former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr—felt at that that moment to hear that type of superlative compliment, but there you have it.
All of the musicianship in the concert is top-notch. Other members of Zimmer’s band are music director Nick Glennie-Smith (keyboard/piano/accordion), Judith Sephuma (vocals), Pedro Eustache (woodwinds), Juan Garcia-Herreros (electric bass), Aleksandra Suklar (percussion), Holly Madge Jaspal (drums), Aicha Djidjelli (drums), Steven Doar (keyboards/percussion), Andy Pask (bass/electric bass), Rusanda Panfili (violin), Leah Zeger (violin/vocals) and Molly Rogers (violin/vocals).
In between the performances are segments of conversations (filmed in black and white in New York City and Los Angeles) of Zimmer with some of the people who’ve been cast members or collaborators in some of the most well-known movies for which Zimmer has composed. These creatives include filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight” trilogy, “Interstellar,” “Inception” “Dunkirk”); sibling songwriters Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (“No Time to Die”); guitarist Johnny Marr (“Inception”); songwriter/producer Pharrell Williams (“The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” “Hidden Figures”); producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“The Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, “Top Gun: Maverick”); and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, producer Tanya Lapointe, actor Timothée Chalamet and actress Zendaya (the “Dune” trilogy movies).
The conversation with Bruckheimer is a lovefest. “I don’t know where my career would be without you,” gushes Bruckheimer, who is an executive producer of “Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert.” Bruckheimer says that Zimmer “saved us on [the first] ‘Pirates of the Caribbean'” because the composer who was originally hired for the movie dropped out. Zimmer says in multiple segments that he does his best work when he’s panicking under deadline pressure.
Bruckheimer adds, “My experience with you is you have to be in pain to write something great.” Zimmer, who admits he can be difficult in wanting to stay true to his musical vision, compliments Bruckheimer for sticking by Zimmer when other people would give up on him and leave. “It’s a degree of friendship that goes beyond professionalism,” Zimmer comments on his relationship with Bruckheimer.
Zimmer’s conversations with Gen Z artists Eilish, O’Connell, Chalamet and Zendaya show that they are completely in awe of him. He accepts their flattery humbly. Eilish thanks Zimmer for not being condescending to her during the time they worked together. Eilish and O’Connell won numerous awards, including an Oscar, for their theme song to the 2021 James Bond film “No Time to Die,” the first original song that the sibling duo wrote for a movie.
In this conversation, Zimmer says that he doesn’t have an orchestra conductor for his live shows because “I hate the pretentiousness of a conductor.” Zimmer also confesses that “Man of Steel” (the 2013 Superman origin movie) was the hardest film score he ever composed because he had writer’s block. He was able to overcome this writer’s block by coming up with something on the piano by keeping in mind that the story was about a man who could never be human. Zimmer says the core of the “Man of Steel” music score was about someone who wanted to find the basis of humanity.
“Dune” co-stars Chalamet and Zendaya (who do separate interviews with Zimmer) tell Zimmer that his music has been the soundtrack of their lives. “Your music transcends across generations. It’s timeless,” says Chalamet. Zendaya says that people who visit her at home are required to listen to the “Interstellar” score soundtrack, which she says is music that is “deeply emotional to me.”
Zimmer says that “Interstellar” (a 2014 sci-fi movie know for its melancholy piano music) is the favorite score that he’s written for a Nolan movie. However, you get the feeling (even though Zimmer doesn’t say it out loud) that “Interstellar” is Zimmer’s favorite score that he’s ever written in his career. Zimmer’s conversation with “Interstellar” director Nolan is the most relaxed and natural-looking, since they both talk about things that go beyond music.
Nolan and Zimmer mention that “Interstellar” had about 48 music sessions that were recorded for the movie. (A typical major studio film has 12 music sessions recorded for the movie.) Nolan calls those 48 sessions “proper Zimmer madness.” Zimmer says of the movie scores he’s written, “Every movie is a life-or-death experience for me. I’m willing to die for it.”
In the conversation with Nolan, Zimmer confesses that the 1994 “The Lion King” music score was something he was reluctant to do at first because he didn’t see himself as a composer for animated films. The subject matter (a lion whose childhood is damaged when his father dies) was also touchy for him because Zimmer’s father died when Zimmer was 6. Zimmer comments, “The whole score for ‘The Lion King’ was a requiem for my father.” The risk paid off for Zimmer, who won his first Oscar for composing the score for 1994’s “The Lion King.”
Zimmer’s conversation with Williams is at times unnatural and awkward, mainly because Williams (who’s a self-confessed eccentric) talks in New Age platitudes, as if he’s attending a yoga session instead of talking about music scores. Not much is revealed in this discussion. Zimmer and Williams both agree that listening is just as important and playing music.
“Dune” movie franchise director/co-writer/producer Villeneuve and his producer wife Tanya Lapointe discuss Zimmer’s score for 2021’s “Dune,” which garnered Zimmer his second Oscar. Villeneuve admits that he was a director who was “against music for a long time,” but Zimmer helped make him appreciate what music can do for a movie. Zimmer says during this conversation: “Failure is my biggest teacher.”
“Failure” is not the word to describe “Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert.” It’s a triumph of a concert film that will win over even the most casual listeners of Zimmer’s music or people who don’t know his music at all. The movie is not the same as being at an actual concert. But if it’s seen on the biggest screen possible with the best possible sound system, it’s the closest thing to experiencing a real Zimmer concert, which is a memorable and uplifting experience.
Here is the complete setlist from “Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert”:
- “True Romance” (from “True Romance”)
- “House Artreides” (from “Dune”)
- “Mombasa” (from “Inception”)
- “Is She With You?” (from “Batman v. Superman”)
- “Man of Steel” (from “Man of Steel”)
- “Now We Are Free” (from “Gladiator”)
- “Pirates of the Caribbean” Suite
- “Why So Serious?” (from “The Dark Knight”)
- “X-MDP” (from “Dark Phoenix”
- “Supermarine” (from “Dunkirk”)
- “Paul’s Dream” (from “Dune”)
- “Interstellar” (from “Interstellar”)
- “The Lion King” Suite
- “Time” (from “Inception”)
- “Diamond in the Desert” (a tribute to Dubai)
- “A Time of Quiet Between the Storms” (from “Dune: Part Two”)
Trafalgar Releasing released “Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert” for a limited engagement in select U.S. cinemas on March 19 and March 23, 2025. Greenwich Entertainment will release the movie on digital and VOD on September 19, 2025.
