In the world of film scores, there are many composer/director relationships that get a lot of notoriety. But in the last twenty years, co-composing has become more accepted and just as celebrated. Many times – due to the nature of the business and the timelines on certain projects – it is simply a necessity. Whether it’s temporary help, or invaluable creative input throughout the assignment depends on the project, but having that extra bit of assistance can bring a new voice, err sounds and ideas to the palette.
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard on the first two Nolan Batman films, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on The Social Network, and other duos have really raised the bar in the business. But sometimes co-composing highlights the working relationship between a seasoned composer and one of their talented consultants or proteges. For this post, we’re looking at Marco Beltrami and Miles Hankins who began working together in 2015. In the entertainment business, six years is a mini-lifetime, and you can make some good friends in the trenches of the composing battleground.
Beltrami is a two-time Oscar nominated composer. He has collaborated with many iconic film directors including Kathryn Bigelow, James Mangold, Bong Joon-ho, Angelina Jolie, Robert Rodriguez, Luc Besson, Guillermo Del Toro, Wes Craven, Jodie Foster and Tommy Lee Jones. The composer established an early reputation as a genre innovator with his non-traditional horror scores for the Scream franchise. Beltrami’s musical palette has since expanded to virtually all film genres. He received accolades for his music including two Academy Award nominations for Best Score: 3:10 to Yuma and for Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, co-scored with frequent collaborator Buck Sanders. Beltrami scored the Marvel film Logan, directed by James Mangold, and also wrote the theme for the hit video game Fortnite.
Another co-scoring opportunity presented itself for James Mangold’s Ford v. Ferrari with Sanders. Other recent projects include Guillermo Del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone. Most recently, Beltrami scored Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II, the Hulu Original series Nine Perfect Strangers, directed by Jonathan Levine, marking his fourth collaboration with the director (co-scored with Miles Hankins), and the upcoming Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Of all the composer interviews we’ve conducted, I have to say that Beltrami put it brilliantly when talking about the process. “What we do is a collaborative business – it’s music for a medium, it’s not just pure music.” When composing for various media, there are so many people involved. It goes without saying that the finished product has multiple hands helping craft it and, most of the time, each bit of input is a benefit to the process.
Hankins, who has worked with and for Beltrami since their time on Fantastic Four, has composed music for some of Hollywood’s most notable films and television series, lending a distinctive and versatile voice to the cinematic musical landscape. He recently completed co-scoring the highly anticipated Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers, starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy. Miles’s score for the critically acclaimed HBO series Being Serena received a Sports Emmy nomination for best composition and musical direction in 2019. Other scores include the Lionsgate feature Long Shot starring Charlize Theron, the Netflix animated series LEGO Elves, and the Columbia Pictures holiday comedy The Night Before, starring Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie. He has also contributed music to many blockbuster film scores including the upcoming Columbia/Marvel release Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the hit Paramount horror franchise A Quiet Place Part 1and 2.
We spent a good chunk of time talking about how these musicians work with their trusted support staff of copyists and orchestrators to deliver expert work under a time crunch. Timelines are varied on projects in the entertainment world, but having all hands on deck for any deadline is the only way music makes across the finish line, and there’s a reason that certain professionals stick together project after project. The trust and competency factor is high, and in the case of Marco and Miles, it’s clear they just have fun together.
So please enjoy our time with Beltrami and Hankins as we talk about horror movies, jazz scores, blurring the lines between sound and music, The Hurt Locker, A Quiet Place, Nine Perfect Strangers and plenty more!
Nine Perfect Strangers is streaming exclusively on Hulu now.
