"Brian understood totally. I had shown him the film first. He told me about his feelings for the film, what he thought he'd like to do, and it sounded perfect. I was totally impressed by Brian Tyler. He's young. I'd heard everything he'd done. I loved what he did in The Hunted, I thought the music was just wonderful. I understood his approach and we hit it off right away. I was amazed when I went to his studio and he synthesized some music. He started to talk through each piece as we had our discussions, he nailed it, totally, totally nailed it."

- Richard Donner, director 'Timeline'

"As a long time fan of both Michael Crichton and Richard Donner, this was a movie that I was very honored to score. The team was amazing with Richard Donner, Lauren Shuler Donner, Jim Van Wyck, and editor Richard Marks. This movie had an amazing canvas for music! Time travel, history, war, love story. What else could a composer ask for? The plan was to write a thematic and driving score that would be the (time) traveling companion for the story as it whisked back and forth from our time to 1357. The music needed to be at times muscular and threatening, at times melancholy and romantic, and at times modern and questioning. The orchestra was the main tool to be sure. I of course did not want the score to fall into the narrow category of medieval period music so the elements from that era that remained in the music were mostly percussive with some Greek stringed instruments which echoed the discovery of "Greek Fire" by the English army.

A designation needed to be quickly made regarding the English and French armies that battle throughout the film. In that sense, the score needed to provide structural clarity as well as the emotional intensity associated with battle. And those battles – whew! With a scoring schedule short on time (excuse the coincidence) it was a tall order to compose intense cue after intense cue (some action sequences would last for 15 straight minutes). I had a terrific orchestra and a crackerjack team including music editors Zig Gron and Gary L. Krause, orchestrators Bob Elhai and Dana Niu, and engineer Jeff Vaughn."

Thematically, the two different eras of the film (2003 and 1357) were indeed reflected in the music. On the surface, I only loosely associated modern music with our modern characters (the team that travels back to fetch Professor Johnston). Their music certainly has a contemporary sheen to it at the start of the film. Conversely, the characters of 1357 have a more vigorous orchestral sound. But as the modern characters begin to influence the past, the music in the 14th century starts to acquire various modern elements in rhythm and sound. But the opposite is also true. For instance, the character of Marek (Gerard Butler) starts to take on the characteristics of the 14th century music as he becomes more convinced he really belongs in that era. The music of Dekere works conversely to Marek's. He is a man out of time and his music reflects this but in the reverse way of Marek. Dekere is more or less trapped in 1357 where as Marek actually belongs there.

All in all, it was an outstanding experience. One that I especially enjoyed conducting (always my favorite part). I hope that listeners of the score enjoy the music as much as I enjoyed composing it."

- Brian Tyler