‘Jupiter Ascending’ is Being Made Backwards

In an interview with SFX magazine Michael Giacchino, the composer for “Jupiter Ascending” commented on the very non-traditional way the music is being handled for the Wachowski’s latest film. The Emmy Grammy and Academy Award winning composer, who has worked on both recent Star Trek movies as well as many other high profile films and TV shows, mentioned that he was already working on the score for “Jupiter Ascending”. If you’ve been following this site though you will know that filming is just now reaching it’s busiest point for the film.

Usually the composing for a film would be done after filming had been completed so that the composer could view the portions of the film that he was supposed to compose for and make the music fit the scene. However, it seems the Wachowski’s have something else in mind for “Jupiter Ascending”. Giacchino says that “[w]e’re actually recording all the music first, before they’re even done shooting. It’s been done sort of backwards, and it’s much more freeing doing [it] that way. I’m not locked down to any specific timings and what the film is doing. I can do whatever I want. It opens up a lot more possibilities.”

This seems to imply that a great amount of emphasis is being placed on the music for the film. Normally the music would be altered by the composer to fit the film, but with this method the opposite would end up being true and Giacchino’s work will shape the film more than usual. In the hands of any other composer this might be worrying but Giacchino is astoundingly talented and getting to see his work being given such importance is very intriguing and should be a big talking point in the post-film analysis for “Jupiter Ascending”.