Key Highlights
- Hiring a 90-piece orchestra to perform music for a film the composer knows nothing about.
- Publicly unveiling a superhero theme long before shooting had begun.
- These are just a few of the offbeat techniques and concepts employed by the composers of “Hedda,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Hamnet,” “Bugonia” and “Fantastic Four” over the past year and a half—scores that are currently being scrutinized for possible inclusion on Oscar’s original-music shortlist.
- Related Stories Time-Travel Drama 'To My Dearest, My Dear' From 'The Most Handsome Fish on Earth' Director Lands at JAFF Future Project Luhki Herwanayogi's 'Our Son' Explores Unconventional Family at JAFF Future Project Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”) was reminded of her youth when starting on “Hedda”: “I was in my teens when I starting writing music for theater productions,” she explains, “and that really colors my approach to the way I score films.” Popular on Variety Director Nia Da Costa wanted the music for her adaptation of Ibsen’s classic play “to be engaging and exciting,” she adds.
- Guðnadóttir took inspiration from experimental English composer Cornelius Cardew, who was active during the era (1950s England) in which this version of “Hedda” is set.
