'The Batman' Composer Makes Leap To Directors Chair For Marvel's 'Werewolf By Night' Special
Hot off the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, renowned composer Michael Giacchino has been tapped by Marvel Studios to direct their upcoming Halloween special, reportedly based on the character Werewolf by Night. Rumors had been floating around for a few weeks from various sources but The Wrap came out with news last week and THR confirmed shortly thereafter.
This is not Michael Giacchino’s first time making the move from behind the keyboard to behind the camera. Giacchino made his directorial debut with a comedic short film, Monster Challenge (2018), starring Patton Oswalt and Ben Schwartz, which he also wrote. He then followed up on his debut with a foray into established IP directing with an animated episode of Season 2 of Star Trek: Short Treks entitled Ephraim and Dot in 2019. While these two shorts are less than a combined 20 minutes of screen time, both are very effective in their own ways. Monster Challenge shows off Giacchino’s prowess at handling a live-action set piece, while Ephraim and Dot fully leverages its animated nature to create a very cinematic experience.
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Even if you exclude his experience directing those two shorts, Giacchino jumping from music composition to directing might be much closer to a hop than a leap because of what is required in the film composition process. Giacchino has composed some of the best film scores in the last two decades including: The Incredibles (2004), Star Trek (2009), Up (2009), Doctor Strange (2016) and all three of the MCU Spider-Man films.
One of the aspects of composing that really translates well to directing is a composer’s ability to evoke certain emotions out of the audience and understanding the specific tone a film is going for. Giacchino certainly has that skill nailed down to a T in his composition work, maybe most notably in 2015’s Inside Out. His decades of work in the composition world give him a great leg up on being able to communicate with his performers when directing and similarly evoke certain emotions out of the audience.
To date, little is known about the Halloween special outside of the casting of Gael García Bernal and that the special is rumored to be based on the Marvel comics character Werewolf by Night. Gael García Bernal is most recently known for being a lead on Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle streaming series, as well as voicing Héctor in Pixar’s Coco (2017). García Bernal came to rise in film in the early 2000 's starring in Mexican breakout films Amores perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001) for directors Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón respectively.
Werewolf by Night is a comic character that originally was published under Atlas Comics in the mid 1950’s, but wasn’t brought under the Marvel Comics umbrella until 1972 after the Comics Code Authority allowed werewolves to be in comics. The first iteration of Werewolf by Night, Jack Russell was release by Marvel Comics in February of 1972. There is also a recent second iteration of Werewolf by Night in 2020 with the introduction of Jake Gomez, a thirteen year old boy, so it is unlikely that Gael García Bernal would be playing this iteration of the character.
Jack Russell’s origins have ties back to the Darkhold and Wundagore Mountain, both of which are going to be in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness strengthening the likelihood the special will center around that iteration of the Werewolf by Night. The Werewolf by Night series also saw the introduction of Marc Spector and Moon Knight in 1975. Between those two character's connections and the upcoming release of Marvel’s Moon Knight streaming series at the end of March and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releasing on May 6th, we may see a soft introduction of Gael García Berna into the Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead of the Halloween special, similar to Black Panther’s early introduction in Captain America: Civil War back in 2016. Back in January, Deadline reported that Laura Donnelly (The Nevers and Beuwolf) had also been cast in the upcoming special in an undisclosed role.
We are excited to see how Michael Giacchino and Gael García Bernal bring to life Werewolf by Night in Marvel’s Halloween special. The special is expected to go into production later this month.
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Source(s): The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter