The Batman helmer Matt Reeves has enlisted his frequent collaborator, Michael Giacchino to compose the musical score for his film. As reported by Empire journalist, Chris Hewitt on Twitter, the story broke at an event at the London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday, which saw Giacchino and fellow composer David Arnold engage in some friendly back and forth by comparing their past works. Matt Reeves then surprised the crowd by suddenly taking centre stage, getting down on one knee ALA a proposal and asking Giacchino if he’d like to work with him on The Batman. The composer agreed.
My mind is split. One the one hand, Giacchino is one of the most consistent and hardworking composers working in Hollywood today. When Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was left without a composer after production troubles, Michael Giacchino was brought in to save the day. The man was tasked to score the entire film in four weeks, which he delivered. The Oscar-winner (Up) is also no stranger to the comic book/superhero universe having composed the score for both of Tom Holland’s solo Spider-Man outings, Doctor Strange and also both The Incredibles films. Not to mention, he has worked on all of Matt Reeves’ projects since 2008 — Cloverfield, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War For the Planet of the Apes. Clearly they have a great working relationship.
The problem is, while he consistently produces good work, almost none of it is particularly unforgettable, outside of his superb The Incredibles theme of course. His music rarely pierces my body and cling on to my soul the same way the works of Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Ramin Djawadi, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross do, just to name a few.
Batman films have always had highly memorable scores. Danny Elfman scored Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and 1992 Batman Returns, Hans Zimmer (with some input from James Newton Howard) gave us the brilliant music of The Dark Knight Trilogy and also composed the score for Batman V Superman (alongside Junkie XL). Let’s hope Michael Giacchino continues the track record.
The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as The Dark Knight, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Paul Dano as The Riddler. The Matt Reeves film is expected to go on floors at the end of the year and is pencilled in for a summer 2021 release.
