“Project Hail Mary” Composer Daniel Pemberton’s Mad Scientist Approach to the Ryan Gosling Hit

For "Project Hail Mary," composer Daniel Pemberton treated the score like an experiment—building tension from tapped wood, distorted voices, and human touch to make space feel both strange and intimate.

Inside Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Bone‑Crushing Score for “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”

For "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," Hildur Guðnadóttir pushed her craft into raw, elemental territory—scoring the film with bone instruments, doom‑metal textures, and massive horns that turn horror into something brutally intimate.

How Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Brought Tension, Electricity, and Love to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!”

Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir discusses blending punk energy and romantic orchestration to create the electric, tension-filled score for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s "The Bride!"

“The Testament of Ann Lee” Composer Daniel Blumberg on Collaborating with Amanda Seyfried for a Transcendent Score

Composer Daniel Blumberg recorded live with Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee, adapting Shaker hymns and collaborating with choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall to define moments of worship. "We really wanted it to be in the room, like raw, so you could hear the live quality of the voice."

How Simon Franglen Brought Punk Energy and Mongolian Instruments to “Avatar: Fire and Ash”

The audible experience of an Avatar film is as ambitious as the groundbreaking visuals. With both familiar and otherworldly cues, composer Simon Franglen develops textured cues and themes that draw audiences into the story. Together with the sound effects, Franglen, his orchestra, and collaborators deliver another transportive score in James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash.

As vast as the world of Pandora is, the experience for Franglen scoring these mammoth spectacles is counterintuitively intimate.

“Marty Supreme” Composer Daniel Lopatin on Blending Synths & Orchestra for Timothée Chalamet’s Ultra Ambitious Striver

Oscar-shortlisted composer Daniel Lopatin earned a reputation amongst electronic music fans for his steady stream of experimental solo albums recorded under the name OneOhTrix Point Never. But it’s Lopatin’s pulsating score for Marty Supreme that will surely expose his synth-driven compositions to a broader audience.

Filmed in New York City and set in 1952, writer-director Josh Safdie’s fact-based movie stars Timothée Chalamet as ping-pong hustler Marty Mauser,

“Wake Up Dead Man” Composer Nathan Johnson: From Beauty to Darkness in Benoit Blanc’s Latest Mystery

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery composer Nathan Johnson has scored all three of Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out films. Working alongside Johnson (his cousin), Nathan has created a unique sound for each film, culminating in a fantastical, orchestral finale for Benoit Blanc’s closing monologue. So how’d Johnson do? His work on Wake Up Dead Man has recently been shortlisted for an Oscar.

No Good Deed Goes Unscored: The Musical Masterminds Behind “Wicked: For Good”

"Getting to do big, exhilarating songs like "No Good Deed" was one of the greatest joys of my life," says "Wicked: For Good" executive music producer Stephen Oremus.

“Hamnet” Composer Max Richter on the Song That Gave Director Chloé Zhao an Epiphany to Rewrite the Film’s Ending

The bard and his muses live again. Director Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, the film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning 2020 historical novel, is enrapturing audiences in theaters now. Zhao both co-wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell and co-edited the film, which follows the passionate but complicated relationship between a young scribe named William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his incandescent wife, Agnes (a phenomenal Jessie Buckley). It is a story loosely based on what is known of Shakespeare’s life.

From Abbey Road to “Alien: Earth”: Composer Jeff Russo on Bringing Xenomorphs Home Through Music

Alien: Earth doesn’t rehash the familiar, even if it beats with the acid-pumping heart of Ridley Scott’s original Alien. The series expands on the terrifying world Scott first unleashed on audiences on May 25, 1979 by focusing not only on the iconic Xenomorph, one of the most legendary movie monsters of all time, but by imagining what the world might look like decades later when the Xenomorph, and a slew of other captive galactic creatures,

Composing Chaos: How Amie Doherty Scored Disney’s Four-Way Body Swap in “Freakier Friday”

There are already two generations of hardcore fans who love Freaky Friday. Gen-Xers and their parents flocked to see Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster for the 1976 release, and in 2003, Disney struck gold again with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan playing the body-switching mother/daughter duo, bringing millennials into the fandom fold. More than 30 years later, those Gen-X grandparents and Millennial moms and dads are poised to make fans of the youngest among us with a long-awaited sequel to the 2003 film,

“Superman” Composer John Murphy on Electrifying John Williams’ Iconic Score

John Murphy is a composer known for scoring films with dark undertones, whether they’re kinetic and terrifying or haunting and ethereal. To this day, his theme for Danny Boyle’s electric 2002 gamechanger, 28 Days Later, remains a deservedly beloved earworm, while his music for Boyle’s bittersweet 2007 sci-fi stunner, Sunshine, is at turns heartbreaking and inspiring. Now, he’s scored one of pop culture’s sunniest, noblest characters (Zack Snyder’s darker take notwithstanding),

“Captain America: Brave New World” Composer Laura Karpman Crews a New Beat for a New Cap

The Academy Award-nominated composer Laura Karpman is now a consistent voice in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She scored Ms. Marvel, The Marvels, and What If? Now she adds Captain America: Brave New World to her impressive resume, which also includes American Fiction and Lovecraft Country.

In the tradition of Captain America movies, a conspiracy is afoot.

“The Brutalist” Composer Daniel Blumberg on Blending Genres in Brady Corbet’s American Epic

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist has found its way into all the awards conversation, with everything from Corbert’s masterful direction to the performances by Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, Dávid Jancsó’s editing, Lol Crawley’s cinematography, Judy Becker’s production design, and Daniel Blumberg’s score getting notice. The film is centered on visionary architect László Toth (Brody), who flees post-war Europe after experiencing the ravages and suffering of the Holocaust. He finds his way to the US,

“The Wild Robot” Composer Kris Bowers on Accessing a Robot’s Humanity Through Music

Emmy and Oscar-winning composer Kris Bowers has become one of the go-to composers in Hollywood. Known for his work on films and TV shows like King Richard, The Color Purple, The Last Repair Shop, and Bridgerton, he has created well-known scores for a wide diversity of genres. For writer/director Chris Sanders‘ The Wild Robot, Bowers has added feature animation to his list of credits.

A Symphony of Success: Emmy Nominees Talk VFX, Composing, and Editing

We had the pleasure of hosting two panels this year—check out our first panel here— ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards, which will be held live on ABC on Sunday, September 15, from 8-11 ET. For our second panel, our Emmy nominees came from a wide-ranging group of shows—Lessons in Chemistry‘s ace director Millicent Shelton, nominated for directing episode 6, “Poirot,” Shōgun‘

“Ahsoka” Composer Kevin Kiner on Scoring Jedis, Sith Lords, and Space Whales

There are few people alive with more Star Wars experience than composer Kevin Kiner. While Kiner would be the first to point out that the legendary John Williams has him beat, when it comes to the number of minutes—and hours—of music composed for a galaxy far, far away, Kiner is a proper Jedi. For more than a decade, Kiner has been working with George Lucas and Dave Filoni to score every season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and has added to his endless Star Wars credits scroll Star Wars: Rebels,

“Knuckles” Composer Tom Howe on Scoring the Speedy Warrior’s Paramount+ Debut

Composer Tom Howe constructed the score for Paramount+’s superpowered new series Knuckles, putting the warrior Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe at the center of the action.

“He’s like Sonic, but more fun, more attitude, and probably more fun to have a beer with or go out for dinner with,” Howe says of the titular character. Howe also benefited from an added element that made the sound of Knuckles so appealing—the voice of Knuckles himself,

“The Acolyte” Composer Michael Abels on Scoring a “Star Wars” Story Unlike Any Before It

Fans of Star Wars have been eagerly anticipating their newest live-action series, The Acolyte, which features all-new characters in a tense and action-filled story that explores the light and dark sides of the force, as well as many grey areas in between. Set in the High Republic era that leads into Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte is the creation of Russian Doll writer/producer/director and lifelong Star Wars fan Leslye Headland.

“Furiosa” Composer Tom Holkenborg Takes us on a Wild Musical Ride

George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Story has given us the best action sequence of the year, a relentless, 15-minute literal thrill ride that pits a young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), her War Rig mentor Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), and some assorted War Boys against the onslaught of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and his Biker Horde. This includes the Mortiflyers, a team of motorcyclists who get airborne using a number of inventive techniques,