Composers at Comic-Con: On “Black Panther,” “Evil Dead” and “Scooby-Doo”

Posted on July 26, 2017 at 2:20 am

For Where to Watch, I wrote about some of the composers for movies and television I saw at Comic-Con.

The crowd was especially excited to hear from Ludwig Göransson, who is scoring Black Panther. He met director Ryan Coogler at USC and worked on his student film, and then again on “Creed.” For “Black Panther” he spent a month in Senegal and South Africa, recording rhythms and instruments, and played some of what he recorded for the film score.

A highlight of the panel was the discussion of rejection. Tyler said it was an chance to hold onto a rejected idea and use it again later, and Isham quoted director Robert Altman: “Any time someone rejects something, its an opportunity to make it better.”

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Composers

Danger & Eggs, Niko and the Sword of Light, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (Again!): Amazon Prime at Comic-Con

Posted on July 26, 2017 at 2:11 am

David Arquette, Nell Minow, and Marty Krofft, copyright 2017 Nell Minow

Amazon Prime’s three new series for children and their families include a courageous girl whose best friend is an anxious egg, a boy who has to save the world, and a reboot of a beloved Saturday morning television show from the 1970’s. For RogerEbert.com, I spoke to the people behind all three shows at San Diego Comic-Con.

Tom Kenny and Nell Minow copyright 2017 Nell Minow

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Television

Comic-Con: Days 3 and 4

Posted on July 25, 2017 at 2:21 pm

I attended the designer/illustrator panels: storyboard and pre-viz artists, costume designers, and production designers and interviewed the composer for the “Evil Dead” series, “Riverdale,” and “Dear White People.” I wandered into a room at random and it turned out to have Vincent D’Onofrio and Meat Loaf talking about their new SyFy series, “Ghost Wars,” followed by a panel with David Duchovny on his new Audible release, X-Files: Cold Cases. I attended Leslie Combemale‘s sensational “Women Rocking Hollywood” panel of women directors, including Angela Robinson (“Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Cloak and Dagger,” “Beyond the Lights”). I’m not saying it was the only panel where the participants thanked the organizer and each other, or that only women do that, but it was the only one I attended where that happened. Saturday night, of course, is the annual costume competition, the SDCC Masquerade, this year featuring the Game of Thrones characters singing their version of “Hamilton.”

I talked to Seth Rogen, Eliza Coupe, and Josh Hutcherson about their new series, “Future Man,” coming to Hulu November 14. And I attended one of the most popular panels at SDCC, the legendary “Starship Smackdown.” Good to see the bullet rocket get so much love. Thanks to all and can’t wait for next year!

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Festivals

Comic-Con 2017: Day Two

Posted on July 22, 2017 at 1:56 pm

My second day at San Diego Comic-Con 2017: I saw the actors from the new Amazon Prime series “The Tick” in a press room, and then interviewed Joseph LoDuca, composer for all of the “Evil Dead” movies about how to create scary sounds, Kris Bowers about composing for the “Dear White People” series, Rachel Keller about acting on “Legion,” and Blake Neely about writing music for “The Flash,” “Arrow,” “Supergirl,” “Riverdale,” (including the musical episode of “Flash”). I saw Donald Faison moderate a panel about “Buddy Thunderstruck,” the stop-motion animation series about the adventures of a dog driver and his ferret mechanic, a panel of storyboard and pre-viz artists from movies like “The Matrix,” “Game of Thrones,” the Marvel movies, and the Jackie Robinson movie, “42.” The topics ranges from the most practical (“Can he raise his arms in that uniform?”) to the most conceptual (the reality levels for fantasy vs. the real world).

Of course I also so some great costumes, and I will be posting photos later. To the guy I thought at first was a cop, until I saw the smushed silver disks on your chest and realized you were Terminator 2: well played, sir. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to take your picture.

Comic-Con 2017: Day One

Posted on July 21, 2017 at 3:26 pm

Yesterday’s first panel was one that has become an annual highlight: the composers of scores for movie superheroes. Ray Costa moderated a conversation with Mark Isham (the upcoming “Cloak & Dagger”), Brian Tyler (“The Mummy,” “Power Rangers”), David Russo (“Gotham”), and Ludwig Göransson (the eagerly anticipated “Black Panther”). I interviewed Stephen Lane from The Prop Store about his upcoming auction of movie treasures including Jack Nicholson’s purple Joker suit from “Batman” (did you know he picked that color because he loves the Lakers?) I also interviewed Jake Monaco, composer for the Scooby-Doo reboot and “Dinotrux,” and social media star Splack (more on them coming soon). I went to a panel on storytelling with Disney artists and another of my annual favorites, the MAD Magazine panel with the usual gang of idiots and the fans who love them. And I got to talk to Caldecott award-winning writer/illustrator Brian Selznick about his upcoming film, “Wonderstruck,” starring Julianne Moore and directed by Todd Haynes. More coming soon!

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