Michael Giacchinohad to pull off a pretty impressive feat when he signed on forRogue One: A Star Wars Story– the Oscar-winning composer only hadfour and a half weeksto pen the entire score.Giacchino took over back in SeptemberafterRogue One’s intensive reshoots shifted the production schedule and original composerAlexandre Desplathad to move on to other commitments, leaving Giacchino on a tight turnaround schedule to make the film’s December release.
On top of that,Rogue Oneis a particularly tricky project. Rooted in the Star Wars mythology, the film acts as a prequel to the original trilogy but it’s also Lucasfilm’s first-ever standalone film. Which left Giacchino with a challenge very similar to that which faced directorGareth Edwards–Rogue Oneneeds to feel likeStar Wars,but it also needs to be its own thing. Fortunately, it’s looking (and sounding) like they pulled it off.
EWpremiered a first-listen video, revealing snippets from twoRogue Onetracks: “Her Path Is Clear,” which the outlet notes is most likely aJynErso theme, and “Approach toEadu,” which references a planet the Rebel spies visit in the film.
Check out the first snippets of theRogue Onescore in the video below. The film starsFelicity Jones,Mads Mikkelsen,Ben Mendelsohn,Diego Luna,Donnie Yen,Forest Whitaker,Alan Tudyk,Wen Jiang, andRiz Ahmed.
Speaking with EW, Giacchino talked about the influence ofJohn Williams' iconic score on what he describes as a “95 percent” original score:
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.
We know thatRogue Onewon’t have an opening crawl, and likewise, Giacchino teased a “slightly different” music cue for the film’s opening theme,
It’s done slightly differently here because it’s not one of the saga films, it’s not one of the trilogies. It’s sort of its own thing and the whole idea from the very beginning was these should be standalone movies. So it’s going to be a slightly different way to get things kicked off.
