Mark McKenzie

Birth : , Lake City - Minnesota - USA

History

Mark McKenzie is an American film composer and orchestrator. Born in Lake City, Minnesota, composer Mark McKenzie received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He received his Masters and Doctorate in music composition from the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles where he studied with, among others, Pierre Boulez, Morten Lauridsen and Witold Lutoslawski. McKenzie has composed or orchestrated well over 100 movies. He was an orchestrator for the Academy Award Winning music to Dances With Wolves, the Academy nominated movie scores to Good Will Hunting, Men in Black, and other well-known blockbuster films such as Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Sleepless in Seattle, Mission: Impossible, Nightmare Before Christmas, Lilo and Stitch, The Mummy Returns, Ice Age: The Meltdown and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Movies

Prancer: A Christmas Tale
Music
Ten-year-old Gloria and her recently widowed grandfather Bud befriend a mysterious reindeer when the family gather for Christmas. Bud comes to believe that Prancer may actually be magical, but Gloria fears his theory will send him straight to a retirement home.
Dragonheart: Vengeance
Music
Lukas, a young farmer whose family is killed by savage raiders in the countryside, sets out on an epic quest for revenge, forming an unlikely trio with a majestic dragon and a swashbuckling, sword-fighting mercenary, Darius.
Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse
Music
When aspiring knight Gareth goes in search of a fallen comet rumored to contain gold, he is shocked to instead find the dragon Drago. After Drago saves Gareth's life the two become intricately bonded, and must work together to defeat an evil sorcerer and stop his reign of terror. Along the way, Gareth learns the true meaning of being a knight in this fantasy action-adventure for the ages.
The Greatest Miracle
Music
The story is focused on three characters who are in crisis: Monica, Mr Chema and Ms Cata. When they feel the necessity of going to church they meet wach other and their lifes change. Under the tutelage of guardian angels, they will understand the true meaning of the Mass, the constant struggle between good and evil and the triumph of faith and hope.
The Ultimate Gift
Original Music Composer
When his wealthy grandfather finally dies, Jason Stevens fully expects to benefit when it comes to the reading of the will. But instead of a sizable inheritance, Jason receives a test, a series of tasks he must complete before he can get any money.
The Last Sin Eater
Original Music Composer
In seeking her own redemption from the one man of whom she is most afraid, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in 1850s Appalachia.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Orchestrator
Diego, Manny and Sid return in this sequel to the hit animated movie Ice Age. This time around, the deep freeze is over, and the ice-covered earth is starting to melt, which will destroy the trio's cherished valley. The impending disaster prompts them to reunite and warn all the other beasts about the desperate situation.
Van Helsing
Orchestrator
Famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing is dispatched to Transylvania to assist the last of the Valerious bloodline in defeating Count Dracula. Anna Valerious reveals that Dracula has formed an unholy alliance with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and is hell-bent on exacting a centuries-old curse on her family.
Blizzard
Music
A young girl's aunt tells her the tale of a young ice skater and an enchanted reindeer.
Star Trek: Nemesis
Orchestrator
En route to the honeymoon of William Riker to Deanna Troi on her home planet of Betazed, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise receives word from Starfleet that a coup has resulted in the installation of a new Romulan political leader, Shinzon, who claims to seek peace with the human-backed United Federation of Planets. Once in enemy territory, the captain and his crew make a startling discovery: Shinzon is human, a slave from the Romulan sister planet of Remus, and has a secret, shocking relationship to Picard himself.
Maid in Manhattan
Orchestrator
Marisa Ventura is a struggling single mom who works at a posh Manhattan hotel and dreams of a better life for her and her young son. One fateful day, hotel guest and senatorial candidate Christopher Marshall meets Marisa and mistakes her for a wealthy socialite. After an enchanting evening together, the two fall madly in love. But when Marisa's true identity is revealed, issues of class and social status threaten to separate them. Can two people from very different worlds overcome their differences and live happily ever after?
Showtime
Orchestrator
A spoof of buddy cop movies where two very different cops are forced to team up on a new reality based T.V. cop show.
The Mummy Returns
Orchestrator
Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.
The Lost Child
Original Music Composer
Knowing the past changes the future. Seeking a connection to her heritage, Rebecca Hoffman sets out on a journey of discovery following the deaths of her adoptive parents. She finds that connection with her birth family in the Navajo community. But cultures clash when her husband is rejected as an outsider. Rebecca and her family experience rebirth in a rich culture and renewal as a family in this dramatic film based on the autobiography Looking for Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson (with Claire Safran).
DragonHeart: A New Beginning
Original Music Composer
When Geoff, an orphaned stable boy (Chris Masterson), discovers Drake (voice of Robby Benson), the world's last living dragon, he realizes that his dream of becoming a knight in shining armor can now come true. Together, they soon face challenges that turn them into heroes. But caught up in the excitement of their new lives, Geoff and Drake fail to see the hidden dangers that surround them.
Durango
Music
In 1939 Ireland, a young man decides to lead a forty mile cattle drive rather than selling his cattle to an unscrupulous local buyer.
Men in Black
Orchestrator
After a police chase with an otherworldly being, a New York City cop is recruited as an agent in a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth: the Men in Black. Agent Kay and new recruit Agent Jay find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist who has arrived on Earth to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies.
Death in Granada
Original Music Composer
A journalist starts an investigation into the disappearance of famed poet and political agitator, Garcia Lorca, who disappeared in the early days of the Spanish Civil War in the the 1930's.
Eraser
Orchestrator
U.S. Marshall John Kruger erases the identities of people enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. His current assignment is to protect Lee Cullen, who's uncovered evidence that the weapons manufacturer she works for has been selling to terrorist groups. When Kruger discovers that there's a corrupt agent within the program, he must guard his own life while trying to protect Lee's.
Down Periscope
Additional Music
Maverick Navy lieutenant Tom Dodge will never be a textbook officer, but he's a brilliant seaman who's always wanted to command a nuclear submarine — he's been given one last chance to clean up his record. Unfortunately, Admiral Graham, his nemesis, would rather sink the fleet than give Dodge his own boat. So, Graham stacks the deck against him and assigns Dodge to the Stingray, a diesel-powered WW2 submarine that can barely keep afloat. To make matters worse, Dodge's crew is a collection of maladjusted, mistake-prone misfits. Then, he's tagged the "enemy" in a crucial war game, and ordered to take on the U.S. Navy's best.
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde
Original Music Composer
In New York in 1995 Dr. Richard Jacks is a creator of perfumes. Thus he spends his days inventing new colorful and well smelling potions and certainly caring for his girlfriend Sarah Carver. But when he discovers that his greatgrandfather, called Dr. Jekyll, was a scientist with revoluntionary discoveries, he tries to follow the footsteps of his ancestor and creates more and more delicate potions until one of them converts him into a spectacular superwoman: Helen Hyde. Knowing that Richard has no clue of her existence Helen enforces a professional career at the back of her "creator".
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Orchestrator
Tired of scaring humans every October 31 with the same old bag of tricks, Jack Skellington, the spindly king of Halloween Town, kidnaps Santa Claus and plans to deliver shrunken heads and other ghoulish gifts to children on Christmas morning. But as Christmas approaches, Jack's rag-doll girlfriend, Sally, tries to foil his misguided plans.
Warlock: The Armageddon
Original Music Composer
Every six hundred years, a great evil has the opportunity to escape and unleash Armageddon. A group of five stones has the power to either free the evil, or banish it for another six hundred years. An order of Druids battles with a Warlock determined to unleash his father upon the world.
Mr. Saturday Night
Orchestrator
Buddy Young was the comic's comic, beloved by everyone. Now, playing to miniscule crowds in nursing homes, it seems like everybody but Buddy realizes that he should retire. As Buddy looks for work in show business, he realizes that the rest of the world has forgotten the golden days of Buddy Young, and that there just may not be room in the business for an old comic like himself.
City Slickers
Orchestrator
Three New York businessmen decide to take a "Wild West" vacation that turns out not to be the relaxing vacation they had envisioned.
City Slickers
Conductor
Three New York businessmen decide to take a "Wild West" vacation that turns out not to be the relaxing vacation they had envisioned.
Narrow Margin
Orchestrator
An L.A. District Attorney attempts to take an unwilling murder witness back to the United States to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to escape two deadly hitmen sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to discover that the killers are onboard with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter of life and death.
The Presidio
Orchestrator
Jay Austin is now a civilian police detective. Colonel Caldwell was his commanding officer years before when he left the military police over a disagreement over the handling of a drunk driver. Now a series of murders that cross jurisdictions force them to work together again. That Austin is now dating Caldwell's daughter is not helping their relationship.
Max & Me
Music
The story unfolds through a present-day encounter of an older man, Gunther, and a rebellious teenager, DJ, as the story of Father Max teaches the young boy about love and sacrifice.