‘Interstellar,’ ‘Dark Knight’ composer Hans Zimmer brings soundtracks to life at new Park Theater

Anyone trying to guess star names for the new Park Theater wouldn’t come close to this one. Hans Zimmer, the film composer for movie blockbusters including “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” series, will bring his music to life in a concert on April 21.

There were clues, perhaps. One of Zimmer’s earliest films, “Rain Man,” filmed on the Strip, and the soundtrack even had a track called “Las Vegas,” he noted with a laugh by telephone.

Still, the German composer agreed it’s unusual to have Las Vegas be one of three West Coast dates for the concerts, which go on sale Dec. 2 at Ticketmaster and hanszimmerlive.com.

“This started a couple of years ago when a couple of my rock ‘n roll friends were basically trying to get me out of my dark room. I’m going, ‘But I’ve got stage fright, I can’t do this,’ ” he recalled. They told him it was no excuse, and “basically put me on a bus and sent me on the road in Europe.”

Zimmer won an Academy Award for his score to the movie “The Lion King,” which was adapted for Broadway and then played at Mandalay Bay. But this is the first time to hear the full range of his film scores, which include “Gladiator,” most of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and even some lighter fare like “As Good as It Gets.”

“I just warn you, we’re not as quiet as the ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Lord of the Rings’ things,” Zimmer says with a laugh of concerts which offer music from those films. “We are rock and roll. We are a little louder.”

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