Although it has been expected, long time JJ Abrams collaborator Michael Giacchino has confirmed he will score Star Trek XI. He tells IGN Filmforce that work is a long time off and that he hasn’t even talked to Abrams about it yet. Giacchino does say he may be picking up on some classic Trek cues, but then going his own way
I think that ultimately you might pick the theme that you think is the important one and utilize that in a certain way and then go completely somewhere else with it…That would be I guess in the same way as Mission: Impossible was fun like that to take that and go somewhere wholly different with the score that the other two dudes didn’t do. Not that it’s better or worse but just different.
In addition to Mission Impossible 3, Giacchino has worked with Abrams on both Lost and Alias. In less than a decade Giacchino has racked up dozens of composer credits on various TV shows, games, and films, including Disney’s recent hit The Incredibles.
Trek music guru expects original work from Giacchino
The Trek Movie Report recently asked StarTrekSoundtracks.com webmaster Robert Oliver his thoughts on Giacchino. Oliver is optimistic and thinks that Giacchino is quite capable of taking on the job. He is also in agreement with Giacchino on doing his own thing “the nature of creativity is to create, and not reproduce and copy,” says Oliver. If the film is indeed based in the TOS era, then Oliver thinks utilizing TOS cues (like Alexander Courage’s classic theme) could work, but should be done sparingly and only if it works with the plot. He also felt that Giacchino should limit himself to the era he is working in (so not Voyager or Nemesis cues showing up in the TOS film I guess). But overall, Oliver says he doesn’t believe Giacchino will be relying heavily on past Trek music.
[The Trek Movie Report agrees. After seeing this Summer’s Superman film which took the homage-factor too far with it’s score, we welcome a new creative approach and wish Giacchino good luck.]
Giacchino is going to have to find a new home to score
Yet another link to the past at Trek and Paramount wont be there for Star Trek XI. The Defamer reported last month that Paramount closed the doors on their soundstages where many scores have gone before. It seems that Para didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade so all work will now be outsourced. That means even the last remaining contract musicians who may have worked on Star Trek in the past (even Enterprise had a full orchestral score for most of it’s run) are likely to not be involved. This is just more evidence that from top to bottom Star Trek XI is all new.
More info:
Hello Tony,
Thank you for the news about the Star Trek music. We have a few comments. First, we respectfully disagree regarding the Superman soundtrack. It is a beautiful soundtrack with mostly new music. The use of the 1970s theme was appropriate for the film.
Second, the comments from Michael Giacchinore are nothing new for Star Trek films are they? The Star Trek I, II, IV, and VI music
were almost entirely new for Star Trek.
We are looking forward to the new music. Thank you for reading
I really want THIS particular score to be fantastic.
While the late, great, Jerry Goldsmith produced an exceptional soundtrack for Star Trek:TMP, I was sorely disappointed not to hear some of the notable, ominous, CLASSIC cues from the likes of Fred Steiner, that made the Original Series so memorable to me in my youth…
Unlike the latest Superman score, which perhaps replicated TOO much of John William’s marvellous music, because it reminded us too much of an already much-loved Superman film, the general public have NOT YET seen a Star Trek movie that properly homages the classic series music-wise. This reboot would be a perfect opportunity to include some of this unmatched, in terms of mood, mystery and excitement, music from the wonderful original. Hey, a few short bursts here and there is all it will take, Michael will still have a lot of movie run-time to make the score his own!