Michael Giacchino on feeling total freedom in creating The Batman score

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Michael Giacchino has worked with Matt Reeves on a handful of films over the past decade, including CLOVERFIELD, LET ME IN, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, so it was no surprise when it was announced that Giacchino would be composing the score for THE BATMAN.

Throughout his cinematic history, Batman has received some very memorable themes courtesy of Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, and others, and it looks like Michael Giacchino will be charting his own course with the latest Batman theme. While chatting with Collider, Giacchino stated that he's felt total freedom to do whatever he wants on the new production.

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. I love it when I see a graphic novel of Batman in the 1800s. To me that is cool. I love that. I’m not the kind of person that says Batman must always be this. It’s like no, why? It can be whatever the artist wants to be and it has over the years done that, many times over. I love the idea of taking something and just kind of doing our version of it.

Fan got a small taste of Michael Giacchino's score in the teaser which revealed Robert Pattinson's Batman suit last month, and Giacchino revealed that they've got more pre-recorded music ready to roll out once production on THE BATMAN resumes. "We recorded a bunch of other music as well for it," Giacchino said. "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." The composer also had plenty of praise for Robert Pattinson's take on the Dark Knight. "Robert Pattinson is just a fantastic actor and I’m thrilled to see him in it," Giacchino said. "I feel like that is such a crazy great choice for Batman and people will realize that once they see it."

THE BATMAN stars Robert Pattinson (THE LIGHTHOUSE) as the Dark Knight, Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies) as Catwoman, Paul Dano (SWISS ARMY MAN) as The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright (NO TIME TO DIE) as Commissioner Gordon, Andy Serkis (STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI) as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell (DUMBO) as Penguin, John Turturro (The Night Of) as Carmine Falcone, and Peter Sarsgaard (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) as DA Gil Colson. We still don't know all that much about THE BATMAN at this stage, but Matt Reeves has teased that it will finally do justice to Batman's reputation of the World's Greatest Detective.

It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.

THE BATMAN is already slated for a June 25, 2021 release.