Michael Giacchino | |
|---|---|
 Giacchino in 2017 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1967-10-10)October 10, 1967 (age 58) |
| Genres | |
| Occupations | |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1994–present |
Michael Giacchino (/dʒəˈkiːnoʊ/jə-KEE-noh;[1]Italian:[dʒakˈkiːno]; born October 10, 1967) is an American film, television, and video game score composer. He has received many accolades for his work, including anAcademy Award forUp (2009), anEmmy forLost (2004), and threeGrammy Awards.
Giacchino is known for his collaborations with directorsJ. J. Abrams,Brad Bird,Matt Reeves,Pete Docter,Colin Trevorrow,Jon Watts,J. A. Bayona,The Wachowskis,Taika Waititi, andThomas Bezucha. His film scores include several films from theMission: Impossible,Jurassic World,Marvel Cinematic Universe,Star Trek, eightPixar Animation Studios films, multipleDisney films,Rogue One,The Batman, and several other films. He also composed the score for the video game seriesMedal of Honor andCall of Duty and the television seriesAlias,Lost, andFringe.
In 2018, he ventured into directing, and in 2022 directed the Marvel StudiosDisney+ specialWerewolf by Night.[2]
Giacchino was born inRiverside Township, New Jersey to anItalian family. His father's ancestors were fromSicily, and his mother's ancestors emigrated fromAbruzzo (in southernItaly as well). Giacchino grew up inEdgewater Park Township, New Jersey,[3] and graduated fromHoly Cross High School inDelran Township, New Jersey in 1986.[4] He holds dual American and Italian citizenship.[5] His brotherAnthony Giacchino is a documentary filmmaker.
Giacchino began combining images and music at age 10, when he began creatingstop-motion animation with homemade soundtracks in his basement. While in high school, an art teacher who mentored Giacchino recommended to his parents that he attend theSchool of Visual Arts inNew York City. Giacchino describes visiting the school with his parents thus:[6]
I thought, wow, this is fantastic. They actually have colleges like this? Where I can do the things that I am really interested in doing? That was amazing to me. I loved SVA. I loved the kind of freedom that it provided. It was kind of like this great experiment—okay, you're here because you like something. So let's see how much you like it. We're not going to regulate you too much. We're going to see how passionate and driven you are, and how much you want this thing.[6]
Giacchino enrolled at SVA, majoring in film production and minoring in history. During his final year at SVA, his instructor in film publicity announced an unpaid internship was available atUniversal Pictures. Giacchino, who was the only one interested, obtained the six-month position, which he filled at night while attending school during the day and working atMacy's to pay his rent. He graduated from SVA in 1990 with aBachelor of Fine Arts, after which he took music classes at theJuilliard School, and then at UCLA.[6][7][8][9]
When Giacchino's internship ended, Universal hired him, giving him a job upon graduation from college. He later moved to Disney, and when Disney relocated to Los Angeles, Giacchino moved with them, working in publicity, while taking night classes in instrumentation and orchestration atUCLA. His work for Disney had him interacting with the various personnel who worked in films, such as the producers who hired composers, so when a job atDisney Interactive opened for a producer, Giacchino obtained the job, thinking he could hire himself to write music for the games he produced.[6][7][8]
Giacchino's composition work for Disney Interactive during the 16-bit era included theSega Genesis gamesGargoyles andMaui Mallard in Cold Shadow and the various console versions ofThe Lion King.[10] However his first major composition was for theDreamWorks video game adaptation of the 1997 movie,The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[11] The video game was one of the firstPlayStation (also onSega Saturn) console titles to be recorded with an original live orchestral score. Giacchino has since continued his relationship with DreamWorks which also included composing the score for theSmall Soldiersvideo game in 1998, providing full orchestral scores for many of their popular videogames. He also worked with Pandemic studios to create the theme forMercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Giacchino's award-winning compositions cover the first four installments of theMedal of Honor series (Medal of Honor,Underground,Allied Assault andFrontline),Heroes: 2, and also the scores for several other World War II-related video games likeSecret Weapons Over Normandy,Call of Duty andCall of Duty: Finest Hour.[12] Additionally, Giacchino composed themes forThe Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, and co-wrote the theme ofBlack with composerChris Tilton.[13] He also composed the score forAlias, which was based on the television series of the same name. In 2008, Giacchino wrote music forTurning Point: Fall of Liberty.[14] In 2007, he returned to theMedal of Honor franchise as he composed the music forMedal of Honor: Airborne.[15]
Giacchino's work on various video games led to his entrance into television.
In 2001,J. J. Abrams, producer of the television seriesAlias, discovered Giacchino through his video game work and asked him to provide the new show's soundtrack. The soundtrack featured a mix of full orchestral pieces frequently intermingled with upbeatelectronic music, a departure from much of his previous work. Giacchino would go on to provide the score for J. J. Abrams's 2004 television seriesLost,[16] creating an acclaimed score which employed a unique process of using spare pieces of aplane fuselage for percussion parts. The score forLost is also notable for a signature thematic motif: a brass fall-off at the end of certain themes.[17] Just like his counterpart,Stu Phillips, he worked with the television show creator Abrams on his shows with his music scores while Abrams supplied the show's main themes on certain series such asAlias.
In 2004, Giacchino received his first big feature film commission.Brad Bird, director ofPixar'sThe Incredibles, asked Giacchino to provide the soundtrack for the film after having heard his work onAlias.[18] The upbeatjazz orchestral sound was a departure in style not only for Giacchino but for Pixar, which had previously relied onRandy andThomas Newman for all of its films. Director Brad Bird had originally sought outJohn Barry – perhaps best known for his work on the earlyJames Bond films—but Barry was disinclined to repeat the styles of his earlier works.[19]
Giacchino was nominated for twoGrammy Awards in 2005 forThe Incredibles:Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media andBest Instrumental Composition.[20]
Like his other counterparts,Joel McNeely,J. A. C. Redford andFrank DeVol, Giacchino mostly associated with Disney from early in his career up to most recently, ranging from video games such asMickey Mania andGargoyles to films such asThe Incredibles and eventually collaborated withWalt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions ofSpace Mountain atDisneyland,Space Mountain: Mission 2 atDisneyland Paris, andSpace Mountain atHong Kong Disneyland.[21]
Giacchino also composed scores for the 2005 filmsSky High andThe Family Stone, and the television movieThe Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Additionally, he wrote the music forJoseph Barbera's final theatricalTom and Jerry cartoonThe Karate Guard, and scored the Abrams-directed 2006 filmMission: Impossible III.[22] Giacchino's next musical achievement was his Paris-inspired score for the Disney-Pixar filmRatatouille, which includes the theme song "Le Festin", performed by French artistCamille. He received his firstAcademy Awardnomination for this score. He also created the score for Abrams' 2009Star Trek film.
Giacchinoscored thePixar filmUp (and its accompanying animated shortPartly Cloudy), for which he collaborated with directorPete Docter. This marked the first time Giacchino worked with a Pixar director other than Brad Bird. This work gained Giacchino his firstAcademy Award forBest Original Score: the first-ever win for Pixar in that category. Giacchino notes that he won on the same night as his SVA classmate Joel Harlow won theBest Makeup Oscar forStar Trek.[6]
Giacchino has continued his collaboration with J. J. Abrams. For the Abrams-produced monster filmCloverfield, Giacchino wrote an homage to Japanese monster scores in an overture titled "ROAR!", which played over the credits, and constituted the only original music for the film. He composed the score for J. J. Abrams' featureSuper 8 in 2011. He also composed for the pilot of the Abrams-produced American television seriesFringe, after which Giacchino gave scoring duties to his assistantChad Seiter, who scored the first half ofseason one. The task was then passed on toChris Tilton, who scored the latter half of season one and all subsequent seasons.
In 2016, Giacchino composed the score for the Marvel filmDoctor Strange, as well as the score for the Disney filmZootopia. Giacchino also composed the fanfare for the newMarvel Studios logo, which debuted withDoctor Strange.[23] In September 2016, it was announced that Giacchino had been chosen to replace composerAlexandre Desplat as the composer for theStar Wars anthology filmRogue One after Desplat was unavailable following reshoots.[24] Giacchino then scored four more Marvel films: 2017'sSpider-Man: Homecoming, 2019'sSpider-Man: Far From Home, 2021'sSpider-Man: No Way Home, and 2022'sThor: Love and Thunder.[25][26]
Giacchino returned to Pixar to scoreCoco (2017) andIncredibles 2 (2018).[27]He also composed the score forTaika Waititi's 2019 filmJojo Rabbit. In 2022, Giacchino composed the score forThe Batman, and the score for the Pixar filmLightyear.[28]
In 2018, Giacchino wrote, directed, and scoredMonster Challenge.[29] The short film is a satirical take on Japanese game shows, starringPatton Oswalt,Ben Schwartz,Dermot Mulroney,Amy Brenneman,Benedict Wong,Tom Everett Scott, Taishi Mizuno, Ann Madox, and Teruko Nakajima.Monster Challenge originally premiered atFantastic Fest in 2018 and premiered onYouTube on March 20, 2020.[30] He continued with his directorial efforts with aStar Trek: Short Treks episode "Ephraim and Dot" in 2019.
On March 7, 2022,Variety reported that Giacchino was directing an upcoming as-of-yet untitledMarvel Studios television project forDisney+.[31] Four days later,The Hollywood Reporter revealed that he would be directingWerewolf by Night, which was released on October 7, 2022.[2]
In addition to his long list of soundtracks, in 2005 Giacchino collaborated withWalt Disney Imagineering in creating two new soundtracks for the updated versions ofSpace Mountain atDisneyland,Space Mountain: Mission 2 atDisneyland Paris, andSpace Mountain atHong Kong Disneyland.[21] Giacchino was also contracted bySarah Vowell, who played characterViolet inThe Incredibles, to compose the score to the audio version of her bookAssassination Vacation. Michael Giacchino's music can also be heard in "Star Tours: The Adventure Continues" during the "travel log videos" shown in the queue for both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the attraction.
In 2009, he was asked to conduct the Academy Awards orchestra for the81st Academy Awards. For this project he rearranged many famous movie themes in different styles, including a 1930s Big Band treatment ofLawrence of Arabia and a bossa nova ofMoon River. Giacchino also composed the fanfare for the 100th Anniversary logo ofParamount Pictures, which debuted withMission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on December 7, 2011, at theDubai International Film Festival, which it carried onto the logos of Paramount's other divisions, as well as the new fanfare forMarvel Studios, which debuted alongside its logo withDoctor Strange on October 13, 2016, in Hong Kong, in which he also composed an arrangement of thetheme song of the 1967Spider-Man cartoon series, inSpider-Man: Homecoming, replacing his work on the fanfare of the Marvel Studios logo for that film, and he rearranged the fanfare inThor: Love and Thunder to make a more rock style, andWerewolf by Night, in which he directed the special. On top of that, he also composed the fanfare for theMarvel Studios Special Presentation andMarvel Spotlight logos, which debuted inWerewolf by Night andEcho, respectively.
In 2015, Giacchino played anIt's a Small World operator in the filmTomorrowland, which he scored.[32] Additionally, the same year, he playedFirst OrderStormtrooper FN-3181 inJ. J. Abrams'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[33] He reprised the role in the 2018 animated filmRalph Breaks the Internet.[34] In 2019, he cameoed as aSith trooper inStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, also directed by Abrams.[35]
Giacchino grew up with an immense love for filmmaking, often spending time making short films in his youth. He made his professional directorial debut in 2019 with an episode ofStar Trek: Short Treks during its second season. In 2020, Giacchino directed in his own short film,Monster Challenge, starringPatton Oswalt. In 2022, Giacchino directed and scored theMarvel Studios Halloween specialWerewolf by Night to critical acclaim. In January 2023, it was announced that Giacchino would make his feature directorial debut with a remake ofThem! forWarner Bros. Pictures. He is expected to score the film as well.[36]
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Giacchino is noted for using humorous titles filled with puns on his soundtrack albums.[37][38]Dawn of the Planet of the Apes andJurassic World in particular had many ape- and dinosaur-related double entendres such as "Gorilla Warfare" and "Raptor Your Heart Out".[39] Many of those have references to previous works of his, both in style and naming. Giacchino used themes from the track "U-Boat" from theMedal of Honor soundtrack in the tracks "Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom" and "Sub-Primed" from the 5th and 6th seasonLost soundtracks as the submarine motif. In terms of naming, the score forThe Incredibles contains a piece named "100 Mile Dash", and subsequentlyRatatouille had "100 Rat Dash",Up had "Three Dog Dash", andCoco had "Shrine and Dash". Another series of examples: "World's Worst Beach Party" from the firstLost album, "World's Worst Last 4 Minutes To Live" from theMission: Impossible III soundtrack, "Galaxy's Worst Sushi Bar" fromStar Trek (2010 deluxe release), "World's Worst Landscaping" from the secondLost album, "World's Worst Car Wash" from the soundtrack albumLost: The Final Season, and "World's Worst Field Trip" from the soundtrack ofSuper 8. The soundtrack forMission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also has a track titled "World's Worst Parking Valet", and the score forZootopia contains a track titled "World's Worst Animal Shelter" as well as the score forIncredibles 2 including a track called "World's Worst Babysitters". Inversely, the score forMercenaries: Playground of Destruction has a track titled "World's Best Carpool Lane"; theSpeed Racer score has tracks titled "World's Best Autopia" and "World's Worst Road Rage"; the soundtrack forJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a track titled "World's Worst Bedtime Storyteller"; the soundtrack forTomorrowland has a track titled "World's Worst Shop Keepers"; theDoctor Strange score has a track titled "Astral World's Worst Killer"; theRogue One: A Star Wars Story score has an alternate title for "Cargo Shuttle SW-0608" which is "World's Worst Vacation Destination"; theSpider-Man: Far From Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Water Feature"; theSpider-Man: No Way Home score has a track titled "World's Worst Friendly Neighbor";The Batman score has a track entitled "World's Worst Translator"; theLightyear score has a track entitled "World's Worst Self-Destruct Sequence".
Notably - this tradition of pun names was omitted from the soundtrack ofSociety of the Snow, likely out of respect for the victims ofthe disaster.
| Title | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monster Challenge | 2018 | Short film |
| Star Trek: Short Treks | 2019 | Episode: "Ephraim and Dot" |
| Werewolf by Night | 2022 | Disney+ television special also composer |
He has a son namedMick Giacchino, who is also a composer.[40]
Giacchino, a graduate of Holy Cross High School (Class of '86), was scoring video games when Abrams gave him his first big break writing the music for TV'sAlias andLost.
