FilmMusicSite.com: Composer Talk

Two-time Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy-winning composer Alexandre Desplat is one of the most respected film composers in the world today. Desplat first captivated American audiences with his score for The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Birth. He has since scored a range of acclaimed films, twelve of which have been Oscar-nominated: The Queen, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The Imitation Game, The King’s Speech, Argo, Philomena, The Painted Veil for which he received a Golden Globe, and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs, and The Grand Budapest Hotel which won the 2015 Oscar for Best Original Score. Desplat’s thematic score to Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Original Score. Alexandre joined forces again with director Guillermo del Toro for the film Frankenstein. Next to that he wrote recently the music for Jurassic World: Rebirth, The Phoenician Scheme and many more.

In this episode of Composer Talk Alexandre Desplat talks about working with Guillermo del Toro on the film Frankstein. How it is to be nominated again for an Oscar. We zoom in on his score for Jurassic World: Rebirth and The Phoenician Scheme.

Enjoy listening to this new Composer Talk!

Danny Elfman is an Oscar nominated composer who has written more than 100 film scores and is widely celebrated for his four-decade collaboration with director Tim Burton on films including Batman, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland. Next to that he also wrote music for films such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Good Will Hunting, Milk, and the Men in Black franchise, along with iconic television themes for The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, and Wednesday. Recently he has worked on Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, Sam Raimi’s Send Help, and Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale.

In this episode of Composer Talk composer Danny Elfman talks about his latest films Dracula: A Love Tale, Send Help and Dead Man’s Wire. We take a look back at the beginning of his career as a composer and he shares some details about a project he’s working on with John Powell and Marco Beltrami.

Enjoy listening to this great new episode of Composer Talk! 

Photo Credit: Ethan Benavidez

Nicholas Pike is an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood composer who has scored films ranging from the family-oriented Captain Ron, Return to Me and Virginia’s Run to darker films like Fear Dot Com, The Shining mini-series and The I Inside. He has scored large scale music videos like Michael Jackson’s Ghost, Rock My World and Will Smith’s Wild, Wild West. He won in 2013 the  Outstanding Music and Sound Emmy for the HBO documentary In Tahrir Square. He wrote music for the Apple TV+ reboot of Amazing Stories for Steven Spielberg and Bonnie Hunt’s Amber Brown for the Apple streaming service, as well as the documentaries 100 Years about Native American activist Elouise Cobell and Fiddlin’ about the roots of Bluegrass music. His current releases include Viva Verdi!, which features his composition, the OSCAR® Nominated Best Song Sweet Dreams of Joy, performed by Grammy-winning soprano Ana Maria Martinez and the romantic comedy Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off, written and directed by Liz Guest.

In this new episode of Composer Talk composer Nicholas Pike talks about how he got into film scoring and we focus on his song Sweet Dreams of Joy for which he is nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Song. He wrote this and the score for the documentary Viva Verdi!

Check out this great conversation with Nicholas Pike in this new episode of Composer Talk!

Blair Mowat is a composer from Scotland, Edinburgh who writes music for television and film. He studied at Durham university and Bristol University. He is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning composer with over 17-years’ experience. His work includes Class, an acclaimed 8-part Doctor Who spin-off series on BBC One, ITV’s international hit show McDonald & Dodds and SKY’s The Amazing Mr. Blunden. He composed the score to Russell T Davies’s drama Nolly, starring Helena Bonham Carter earning him a TV BAFTA nomination for the score in 2024 and winning the prestigious Camille Award for ‘Best TV Score’ across Europe. Recent projects include the revelatory documentary The Age of Disclosure, the gripping drama series The Guest,

and After the Flood, for which the second season 2 is about to air.

In this new episode of Composer Talk Blair Mowat talks about his music for the documentary The Age of Disclosure which is a hit in rental on Amazon. Next to that we deep dive into his music for the tv series The Guest.

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Maurizio Malagnini is an in Italia born composer. He developed a deep passion for music through opera particularly the lyrical traditions of Rossini and Puccini and the work of legendary film composers Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota. After a decade of study at the Italian conservatoire, he moved to the UK in 2006 to attend the Royal College of Music, graduating with a Master’s Distinction in Composition for Screen. He first gained widespread acclaim with his score for

The Paradise, earning an EMMY® Award nomination. His recent projects also include Coppelia, an ambitious animation and live-action ballet adaptation that received two IFMCA Awards, including the prestigious Film Score of the Year. Malagnini is the composer of Call the Midwife

A long running series which can be seen on BBC and PBS. On Christmas Day BBC and PBS aired a Christmas Special of Call the Midwife.

In this first edition of Composer Talk for 2026 Maurizio Malagnini talks about his passion for music. We talk in-depth about his score for Coppelia and how it is to score the BBC hitseries Call the Midwife.

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Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch is a London-based, Ivor Novello and BIFA nominated French composer, pianist and recording artist.  In addition to scoring Prano Bailey-Bond’s debut feature "Censor", Emilie has created the original scores for Harry Wootliff’s 2018 BAFTA-nominated debut feature "Only You", WWII feature "The Forgotten Battle" (Slag om de Schelde) (dir.Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.) which has been released on Netflix, and the critically acclaimed "Rocks" directed by Sarah Gavron. This year some of her music was performed live in Ghent during the Minimalism in Motion concert. She has written music for films and series such as The Assessment, All of Us Strangers, The Agency, The Strays, Heldin and many more. Recently she has worked with director Philippa Lowthorpe on the film H is for Hawk.

In this new episode of Composer Talk Emilie talks about her passion for writing music. We zoom in on her scores for H is for Hawk and on the Assessment. 

Enjoy listening to this new episode of Composer Talk.

Laurent Bouzereau is an award-winning filmmaker and best-selling author. Laurent Bouzereau and his producing partner/husband, Markus Keith, run Nedland Media, a production company based in Los Angeles. He is the author of several books on cinema, including Steven Spielberg: The First Ten Years (2023), De Palma Decade (2024), Hitchcock: Piece by Piece, The Art of Bond, and others. As a filmmaker he made the documentaries such as “Faye,” a feature documentary on legendary actor Faye Dunaway for HBO/Amblin which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. This year he made “Jaws @ 50,” a feature documentary for NatGeo/Amblin. Last year Disney+ released the documentary Music by John Williams where Laurent Bouzereau gave us the story of a lifetime, that of legendary composer John Williams. John’s music is known all around the world.

In this episode of Composer Talk director Laurent Bouzereau gives more insights on the creation of his feature documentary Music by John Williams. We talk about John Williams and his music. He’s also the director of Jaws @ 50 on which we also zoom in.

Enjoy listening this new episode of Composer Talk! 

Simon Franglen is a multi-award-winning composer and record producer whose work spans some of the most acclaimed films of the recent decades. Franglen composed the celebrated score for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, for which he received a 2023 World Soundtrack Award. His score was praised for expanding the sonic world of Pandora with both epic scale and profound intimacy, and was a global hit with the soundtrack album surpassing 750 million global streams.  Over the past two years, he has continued his collaboration with Cameron on the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, composing over three hours of music that introduces major new themes, textures, new instruments and groundbreaking electronica to the Avatar musical universe. Previous scores include multiple projects with directors such as Terrence Malick, Antoine Fuqua, and Jean-Jacques Annaud. 

In this new episode of Composer Talk Simon Franglen gives us an in-depth look at his composing process for the third Avatar movie Fire and Ash. How he succeeded in writing 1900 pages of music for this film. He gives us some insights on the soundtrack releases.

Dave Porter is a Los Angeles based composer for film and television. He began his classical musical training at the piano at age five, but it was his interest in electronic music as a teen that led him to start composing his own music. He studied both classical and electronic music composition at Sarah Lawrence College under John Yannelli and started his professional career as an assistant in Philip Glass’ recording studio in New York City. Dave is perhaps best known for his enduring creative relationship with Vince Gilligan. They’ve worked together on Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Dave Porter also wrote music for Murf the Surf, The Blacklist, Marvel’s Echo and many more. 

In this new edition of Composer Talk composer Dave Porter talks about his music for the new Apple TV+ show Pluribus. How it was to work again with Vince Gilligan and how his music came to live. Next to that we also focus on his music for the Marvel mini series Echo. 

Enjoy listening to this episode of Composer Talk!

Oli Julian is a UK based composer who is an RTS award-winning and Ivor nominated composer, producer and arranger of music for TV and film. He has written scores for a wide range of drama and comedy projects, as well as collaborating with other composers and songwriters such as David Byrne, Nick Cave and Ezra Furman. He has written music for films and series such as Sex Education, Renegade Nell, The Full Monty, Alma’s not Normal, Plebs and many more. Recently he wrote the music for the animation film The Twits, a story based on the Roald Dahl classic.

In this new episode of Composer Talk Old Julian talks in-depth about his music for the Netflix animation film The Twits. We also zoom in on his music for the Disney+ series Renegade Nell. 

Enjoy listening!