Entertainment

Michael Giacchino, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Composer, Wrote ‘Rogue One’ Score In Nearly Four Weeks

Published on: June 4, 2017 at 11:54 PM
By Glenn Hadley

Composer Michael Giacchino has made waves with his music for years — building a resume filled with memorable TV shows and blockbuster movies.

Even if you do not recognize his name right away, your ears would more likely recognize his work almost immediately. For instance, Giacchino was responsible for the dramatic and captivating musical scores featured throughout each season of the J.J. Abrams hit TV series Alias and Lost .

On the big screen, he has also scored quite a few hit movies — including Pixar classics ( The Incredibles , Up , Ratatouille , Inside Out ) and popular franchise installments ( Jurassic World , Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes .)

In recent years, Michael Giacchino has continued to add hit movie after hit movie to his growing resume of cinematic scores. For instance, he delivered the emotional roller coaster of melodies that moved audiences while watching the Disney hit movie Zootopia and has frequently collaborated with J.J. Abrams on big-screen projects including Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness.

However, perhaps one of the most impressive scores that he has written recently was for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . The visual effects of Star Wars films have always been complemented well by solid performances and mesmerizing musical scores. However, when Giacchino came on board with Rogue One , he reportedly did not have very much time available to finish the project.

According to a November 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly , Giacchino claims he essentially had a little more than a month to get it done.

“I mean we were literally planning a vacation when I got the call asking if I could come and talk to them about it. At the time, it left me with literally four and a half weeks to write. So it was one of those decisions where you’re like, okay, well… And I was talking to my brother about it. He goes, ‘Oh, come on. You’ve been writing this score since you were 10! You can do this.’”

Giacchino admitted that a four-week timeline was definitely not the ideal timeline to write and compose a cinematic music score, especially for a film catering to a fan base of epic proportions. To further complicate things, Michael Giacchino also made it known that he did not have a “team” to rely on with his compositions because he is usually Solo like Han (pun intended) when it comes to his work. Michael claimed that the actual schedule itself was still a major obstacle.

“I’m pretty good at focusing and getting down to business. I saw the film and I really, really, really enjoyed it, so there was no lack of ideas or inspiration, that’s for sure. The only worry the whole time for me was just the schedule. But I mapped it out and I thought, okay, if I do this much a day and I get this done that will leave me time to go back and improve if I need to before having to orchestrate.”

For the Star Wars fans who saw and praised Rogue One , it was clear that Michael Giacchino was the man for the job. He was skillfully able to honor the past foundation created by John Williams with yet a modernized touch that would cater to a new and growing generation of Star Wars fans and critics.

With his next project Spider-Man: Homecoming quickly approaching its highly anticipated theatrical debut, fans of the friendly neighborhood web-crawler should expect Giacchino to pay the same homage to the past while embracing the future.

Fans and critics will be able to experience Michael Giacchino’s score when Spider-Man: Homecoming swings into theaters in July.

[Featured Image by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Disney]

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