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Another new 'Rogue One' poster, this time courtesy of IMAX

Michael Giacchino Only Had Four and Half Weeks to Score 'Rogue One'

ZachPerilstein ZachPerilstein Disney Reporter Rogue One has the chance to be the blockbuster of the winter. Yet leading up to the December 16 release of Rogue One there has been plenty of rumors. Fans were worried about the extensive reshoots of Rogue One. Even though all blockbuster movies these days do reshoots.

During the fuss about the reshoots, quietly Composer Alexander Desplat left the project in September, three months before the release. Disney and Lucasfilm quickly hired Oscar winning composer Michael Giacchino. This led to Giacchino having some nightmare deadlines.

Entertainment Weekly recently sat down with Giacchino. He revealed he opted not to learn why Desplat previously left the project. So he could focus on his own work.

"“I’ll tell you, I actually don’t know an awful lot about that. [The filmmakers] were like, ‘Do you want to know what happened?’ And my response was, ‘You know what, when this is all over we can sit and talk and have a drink and you can tell me whatever you want. I’d love to hear the story. But for right now I feel like I’d rather just pretend nothing happened and everything is good and I’m just going to come onto this.’ And they were like, ‘Fair enough, fair enough.’ So honestly, I don’t know anything about it other than what was purportedly, you know, ‘schedule issues.’… With that amount of time left, I was like, ‘I don’t want to get wrapped up in any sort of gossip or figuring out what was wrong when all we really need to do right now is figure out how do we just get accomplished what we have to get accomplished?’"

Giacchino continued about the amount of time he had to do the score.

“It’s not really. But you work with the time you have. And I’m not a person that has a bunch of other composers working for me, so it’s just me sitting up here in this room doing it. But I’m pretty good at focusing and getting down to business. I saw the film and I really, really, really enjoyed it, so there was no lack of ideas or inspiration, that’s for sure. The only worry the whole time for me was just the schedule. But I mapped it out and I thought, okay, if I do this much a day and I get this done that will leave me time to go back and improve if I need to before having to orchestrate.”

The composer also revealed that 95% of the score is original. Some of the music is a nod to Star Wars composer John Williams. Giacchino further elaborated on this matter.

“I think absolutely there are a couple of times when you want to hit upon something that was from the past. For me, even as a fan, it was about going, “Oh, this particular idea would be great if we did it here. I would want to see that if I were watching a Star Wars movie.” As a kid who grew up with John’s music and who was catapulted in this direction because of what he did, I had a very specific idea of what I wanted to use and how I wanted to use it. That being said, I’d say the score is 95 percent original but with little moments [of Williams’ classic score] here or there to accent. If I were sitting in that seat and I heard that, it would totally raise the hairs on my neck.”

Despite the rampant rumors of the production of Rogue One, it looks like Lucasfilm has it totally under control. Michael Giacchino has always delivered in the past. Some of his works include; The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Star Trek, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, Inside Out, and Doctor Strange.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters December 16, 2016.

Posted in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,

ZachPerilstein ZachPerilstein Disney Reporter

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