The role of music in a movie is rarely discussed, but you feel the lack of composer, or an untalented composer, in any movie. It’s a crucial role for setting the tone of a scene and emphasizing the emotional moments, and a good film score can take months to compose. So Michael Giacchino had better hurry, because he just took the job on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Giacchino, best known for his work on The Incredibles and Star Trek, but with a long list of scores to his name, takes over from Alexandre Desplat, who usually doesn’t go into blockbuster territory, but composed the score for 2014’s Godzilla, which was Gareth Edwards’ last movie before he took the director’s chair for Rogue One. The problem appears to be the movie’s reshoots, which took two weeks longer than planned and basically left Desplat unavailable, according to the Hollywood Reporter when it broke the story.
Giacchino is probably a composer Lucasfilm is more comfortable with anyway. Giacchino, a talented musician in his own right, is also notable for a deep knowledge of film scores and his ability to pay tribute to and riff on the work of other composers, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be the first Star Wars movie not scored by John Williams. So you probably want a guy who can sound a bit like John Williams while also going his own way. We’ll hear what Giacchino has composed December 16.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)