news ‘The Batman’ Composer Shares Directorial Debut, a Meta Comedy With Patton Oswalt in a Godzilla Costume

Michael Giacchino is probably best known for his movie scores, winning an Oscar in 2010 for Pixar’s “Up,” and penning the soundtracks for films from “Jojo Rabbit” to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home.” Most recently, he’s on deck to write the score for “The Batman,” director Matt Reeves’ latest take on the Dark Knight universe starring Robert Pattinson. Sadly, production on that film was halted last week as the current pandemic took hold of the entire industry, but Giacchino has brought us a silver lining amid all the chaos — a free stream of his debut as a director, the short film “Monster Challenge.”

In the 13-minute film, a hapless, fictionalized version of comic actor Patton Oswalt finds himself thrust into a bizarre serious of game show challenges in what becomes a bite-sized ode to classic Japanese variety shows and monster movies — especially with Oswalt forced to compete on an outrageous show dressed in an unwieldy Godzilla costume. You’ll recognize a few more faces in the 2018 short, which also includes Ben Schwartz of “Parks and Recreation,” Amy Brenneman, Tom Everett Scott, Benedict Wong, and Dermot Mulroney.

Giacchino recently talked with Collider about the goings-on behind the scenes of writing “The Batman” score. “I felt total freedom to do whatever I want. Matt always agreed, this is our Batman, this is our vision. In the same way that I always loved, what I still do about Batman comics and graphic novels is that each of these artist, each of these authors they take their own crack at what they want this to be. It’s their version of Batman,” he said.

Giacchino also revealed they have plenty of prerecorded music on deck and are eager to roll it out as life gets back to normal. Production on “The Batman” was halted for at least two weeks in the United Kingdom as of March 14, but the hiatus is expected to go longer. “We recorded a bunch of other music as well for it, a bunch of themes and things that nobody has heard yet. But they’ll all be popping up as the film gets underway again and starts getting back to production, and life gets back to normal, hopefully soon,” Giacchino said.

Watch “Monster Challenge” below.
 
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