Arrival's music score by Johann Johannsson

[Xyloglotte]

Shame, he was a great score composer. RIP

[manmower]

 

I wondered if it was tied in with the Bladerunner 2049 score. There was never any official explanation as to why he was taken off the project. Maybe it was actually due to health concerns.

Oddly enough the same thought crossed my mind too, the whole dropping of this work definitely seemed ominous.

 

 

I remember an interview with Mackenzie Davis where she recounted how Villeneuve and herself were enthusiastic about the work in progress Jóhannsson had been playing them. Not sure if the interview was before or after he was "removed" from the soundtrack, but for Villeneuve to change his mind from that all the way to "what this film really needs is some Vangelis sound-alikes" was always a little strange.

 

But he could just as well have keeled over out of the blue, it happens.

[Enthusiast]

There is a great episode of the Soundtracking podcast with Denis Villeneuve from last year. Doesn't seem like there was any issues with Johannsson. He more or less says that he (Villeneuve) just couldn't get away from Vangelis's score but probably didn't realise this until late on during the edit, that the film wasn't Bladerunner without it. So they went to Zimmer at short notice to do something similar. He raves about Johannsson and hoped to work with him again.

 

Apparently Johannsson urged Darren Aronofsky to drop his music from Mother entirely after he had already composed the score as he felt the film worked better without any music.

 

 

I would really love to hear Johannsson's Bladerunner score. I was very disappointed that it wasn't used.

 

RIP

[Xyloglotte]

I would really love to hear Johannsson's Bladerunner score. I was very disappointed that it wasn't used.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was released as part of a retrospective. I can't imagine Villeneuve would object.