[Idea] TROY (2004) - Replace Score in Director's Cut

[submachina]

if it's something you would like to put into your copy of the film

How to put your file into my digital copy of the film?

[NL197]

I would suggest using MKVToolnix.

[M.A.J]

With the 4K Arrow release, I decided to completely rework my score restoration and made some significant changes. 

It's finally as ready as I can make it, finishing it just days ago (August 10th)


TROY (Director’s Cut) Score Restoration
DTS-HD 5.1 audio details (Spoiler-tagged due to length)

Obviously the director’s cut cannot fit the score as written, therefore I had to do a LOT of editorial changes to make the music work (looping certain areas, overlapping others) and the end result is that while it’s still heavily edited, the music is back where it was generally meant to be originally.

There are moments where the audio is very quiet, but the director's cut was like that in places compared to the theatrical. Also because the director’s cut did not use the beefed-up theatrical ADR for its dialogue, some of it was hard to hear and I did what I could to make it easier against the replaced music.


The list of cues I put back are the following: (Intrada 2-disc album cue titles)

1M2 Call for Achilles
theatrical had more presence than director's, but I also left the film's opening alone because I found it worked better than the wailing vocals that open the theatrical cut.

2M2 Never Hesitate
replaced the 'Count of Monte Cristo' music. Had to loop this in places to make it work, and added some 'Call for Achilles' as an open.

2M3 A Dark Past, A Glorious Future **
weaved some of this in and out of the intended scene, where Achilles and his mother speak of his destiny.

**'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future' is the second of two tracks Intrada deleted from their 2017 album due to licensing issues. The director’s cut used the cue in its entirety as its end credit music. An edited version of this cue (mixed with the other deleted track, titled 'Stealing Helen') was on the OST, titled simply 'Troy'. 

2M4 The Myrmidons, part 1
just the opening horn call.

3M1 The Myrmidons, part 2
restored as much of this cue to the scene as possible, because most of it was replaced in the director's cut with 'A Trojan Victory, part 2'.

Additional detail:
The moment where Achilles races up the temple steps slaughtering Trojans was my favorite moment of the entire score, and that was completely replaced in the director's cut so I had to put it back in.

3M2A The Temple Fight
replaced tracked music from 'The Myrmidons, part 2'.

3M4 Briseis Taken
restored this to the scene, replacing what was tracked in from The Temple Fight.

5M3 Achilles Saves Briseis
restored the first half of this cue, but could not restore the big climax because this sex scene went on longer than in the theatrical cut, so it would not work. The consequence of this is the music is repeated, but not really a problem.

6M2 Mistaken Identity
much of this was chopped up and also replaced in the director's cut, so I put as much of it back as I could.

7M1 Hector's Farewells
replaced the tracked-in piece from 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future’.

7M2 Single Combat
replaced the Planet of the Apes music for the duel. The duel itself is the same in both cuts.

8M1 Priam Takes Briseis
replaced the oft-used 'Achilles Saves Briseis' which was used repeatedly in the director's cut...and then I used it earlier!

8M4 The Wooden Horse / 9M1-9M2 The Sacking of Troy
much of this was replaced with tracked material from 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future', 'A Trojan Victory parts 1 and 2', 'The Myrmidons' part 2' and others so I put as much of the theatrical music back in where I could to those corresponding scenes in the director's cut.

The only Gabriel Yared cues that were utilized in the Director’s Cut were wailing, screaming voices for the funeral pyre scenes. I replaced those voices with some tracked vocals from the Horner Troy score since they were less harsh / abrasive. The ‘Mourning Women’ cues were honestly a bit silly (and obnoxious) to my ears. I don’t like the vocals in Horner’s score either, by Tanja Tsarovska but I did put her voice into those two funeral scenes. Ironically while Tsarovska appears on screen, the voice you hear is not hers but the other woman on screen instead.

I’ve removed nearly all of the music in the director’s cut-specific scenes during the Sacking of Troy sequence. All of it was tracked in and I felt none of it fit well at all aside from retaining the choir sustains in those cues, since those added a layer of unease among the screaming and savagery. I find the lack of orchestral music now makes the sequence even more brutal.


The ending of the film did not fit the music as I needed it to, but I attempted to use what was intended for the sequence of Achilles falling, the surviving Trojans moving on from their lost city, and Odysseus lighting the funeral pyre.

Of course that music has now replaced the annoyingly reused  'Achilles Saves Briseis' tracked into the ending.

I'm not completely satisfied with it but I did do what I could to make the credits synchronize with the score.

The song "Remember Me" wasn't going to be in there but I decided to use my custom remix of it. It is now a Josh Groban solo song, with the Tsarovska vocals removed and the pop drum elements are gone in favor of a softer more orchestral approach.

The remaining material was added to fill the gap of time in the credits with something similar and appropriate musically.


All of that replaced the use of 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future' for the credits themselves along with an edited piece of 'The Sacking of Troy'.


Is it perfect? Hardly. It’s still full of cuts and removing the tracked in score for some of these director’s cut-specific scenes meant they did not seem to use as many sound effects in some of the larger battles.

I hope you enjoy it. It’s the number one thing I’ve ever been asked to share.

NL197 / JHFan
August 2026

So have a read, and if it's something you would like to put into your copy of the film (obviously it would have to be a digital version) then I can FINALLY oblige.

At the moment I can't upload it to the Internet Archive, because the Archive isn't working. When it does, I'll do that so it can be easily accessed without any issues / DMs.

IF you want to keep these details I've saved them as a PDF document in my signature.

Thank you a lot for this, can you DM or share the link?
Would love to check out your version

[TemperTamp]

With the 4K Arrow release, I decided to completely rework my score restoration and made some significant changes. 

It's finally as ready as I can make it, finishing it just days ago (August 10th)


TROY (Director’s Cut) Score Restoration
DTS-HD 5.1 audio details (Spoiler-tagged due to length)

Obviously the director’s cut cannot fit the score as written, therefore I had to do a LOT of editorial changes to make the music work (looping certain areas, overlapping others) and the end result is that while it’s still heavily edited, the music is back where it was generally meant to be originally.

There are moments where the audio is very quiet, but the director's cut was like that in places compared to the theatrical. Also because the director’s cut did not use the beefed-up theatrical ADR for its dialogue, some of it was hard to hear and I did what I could to make it easier against the replaced music.


The list of cues I put back are the following: (Intrada 2-disc album cue titles)

1M2 Call for Achilles
theatrical had more presence than director's, but I also left the film's opening alone because I found it worked better than the wailing vocals that open the theatrical cut.

2M2 Never Hesitate
replaced the 'Count of Monte Cristo' music. Had to loop this in places to make it work, and added some 'Call for Achilles' as an open.

2M3 A Dark Past, A Glorious Future **
weaved some of this in and out of the intended scene, where Achilles and his mother speak of his destiny.

**'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future' is the second of two tracks Intrada deleted from their 2017 album due to licensing issues. The director’s cut used the cue in its entirety as its end credit music. An edited version of this cue (mixed with the other deleted track, titled 'Stealing Helen') was on the OST, titled simply 'Troy'. 

2M4 The Myrmidons, part 1
just the opening horn call.

3M1 The Myrmidons, part 2
restored as much of this cue to the scene as possible, because most of it was replaced in the director's cut with 'A Trojan Victory, part 2'.

Additional detail:
The moment where Achilles races up the temple steps slaughtering Trojans was my favorite moment of the entire score, and that was completely replaced in the director's cut so I had to put it back in.

3M2A The Temple Fight
replaced tracked music from 'The Myrmidons, part 2'.

3M4 Briseis Taken
restored this to the scene, replacing what was tracked in from The Temple Fight.

5M3 Achilles Saves Briseis
restored the first half of this cue, but could not restore the big climax because this sex scene went on longer than in the theatrical cut, so it would not work. The consequence of this is the music is repeated, but not really a problem.

6M2 Mistaken Identity
much of this was chopped up and also replaced in the director's cut, so I put as much of it back as I could.

7M1 Hector's Farewells
replaced the tracked-in piece from 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future’.

7M2 Single Combat
replaced the Planet of the Apes music for the duel. The duel itself is the same in both cuts.

8M1 Priam Takes Briseis
replaced the oft-used 'Achilles Saves Briseis' which was used repeatedly in the director's cut...and then I used it earlier!

8M4 The Wooden Horse / 9M1-9M2 The Sacking of Troy
much of this was replaced with tracked material from 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future', 'A Trojan Victory parts 1 and 2', 'The Myrmidons' part 2' and others so I put as much of the theatrical music back in where I could to those corresponding scenes in the director's cut.

The only Gabriel Yared cues that were utilized in the Director’s Cut were wailing, screaming voices for the funeral pyre scenes. I replaced those voices with some tracked vocals from the Horner Troy score since they were less harsh / abrasive. The ‘Mourning Women’ cues were honestly a bit silly (and obnoxious) to my ears. I don’t like the vocals in Horner’s score either, by Tanja Tsarovska but I did put her voice into those two funeral scenes. Ironically while Tsarovska appears on screen, the voice you hear is not hers but the other woman on screen instead.

I’ve removed nearly all of the music in the director’s cut-specific scenes during the Sacking of Troy sequence. All of it was tracked in and I felt none of it fit well at all aside from retaining the choir sustains in those cues, since those added a layer of unease among the screaming and savagery. I find the lack of orchestral music now makes the sequence even more brutal.


The ending of the film did not fit the music as I needed it to, but I attempted to use what was intended for the sequence of Achilles falling, the surviving Trojans moving on from their lost city, and Odysseus lighting the funeral pyre.

Of course that music has now replaced the annoyingly reused  'Achilles Saves Briseis' tracked into the ending.

I'm not completely satisfied with it but I did do what I could to make the credits synchronize with the score.

The song "Remember Me" wasn't going to be in there but I decided to use my custom remix of it. It is now a Josh Groban solo song, with the Tsarovska vocals removed and the pop drum elements are gone in favor of a softer more orchestral approach.

The remaining material was added to fill the gap of time in the credits with something similar and appropriate musically.


All of that replaced the use of 'A Dark Past, A Glorious Future' for the credits themselves along with an edited piece of 'The Sacking of Troy'.


Is it perfect? Hardly. It’s still full of cuts and removing the tracked in score for some of these director’s cut-specific scenes meant they did not seem to use as many sound effects in some of the larger battles.

I hope you enjoy it. It’s the number one thing I’ve ever been asked to share.

NL197 / JHFan
August 2026

So have a read, and if it's something you would like to put into your copy of the film (obviously it would have to be a digital version) then I can FINALLY oblige.

At the moment I can't upload it to the Internet Archive, because the Archive isn't working. When it does, I'll do that so it can be easily accessed without any issues / DMs.

IF you want to keep these details I've saved them as a PDF document in my signature.

I'd also like a DM, please. And I also created an account to ask for the link.

[ellfy]

@NL197 This is awesome. Could you please send me the link?

[alphareg]

@NL197 Another big fan here, would absolutely love if you could send me a link! You cannot be thanked enough for the tremendous service you're doing to this community.

[NL197]

If anyone actually paid attention to what I said, you would just do as I suggested.

Look.

At.

My.

Signature.

[TR95]

@NL197 thanks man your work is very much appreciated! For the rest of you, if you don’t have much experience (or in my case, zero experience) with this kind of thing just copy @NL197’s .txt and .pdf document into ChatGPT or similar and it’ll let you know what to do. Was honestly super easy, he’s done all the hard work for us already!