James Newton Howard
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a 2023 American dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. It is based on the 2020 novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games (2012), and is the fifth installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Viola Davis. Set 64 years before the events of the first film, its plot follows the events that eventually lead a young Coriolanus Snow on the path to becoming the tyrannical leader of Panem, including his relationship with the Hunger Games tribute Lucy Gray Baird during the year of the 10th Hunger Games.
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The album features selections of the original music from the first three episodes composed by Academy Award nominee James Newton Howard. Howard has previously worked on The Hunger Games, King Kong, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Maleficent, The Sixth Sense, The Fugitive, and Signs.
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The producers were wise in their choosing of James Newton Howard to compose the score for P.J. Hogan's big screen rendering of J.M. Barrie's famous children's book Peter Pan. The former Elton John keyboardist's work on M. Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense and Signs showcased his ability to blend suspense and whimsy, and skillfully paint a scene from a child actor's point of view. For Peter Pan, Howard builds the dreamy world of "Neverland" with harps, choirs, and the occasional keyboard flourish, fleshing out the characters with fairy tale precision, and creating a believable realm in the same fashion that John Williams handled the magical world of Harry Potter. The string motifs he chooses for Wendy and Peter are steeped in the bittersweet confusion of sexual awakening, and the eternally youthful Lost Boys are treated with a light hand, hinting at their enviable immortality. "Howard" goes to great lengths to capture the myth of Peter Pan, never dumbing it down. His is a darker take on a story that has spent years in the hands of cartoonists, and it delivers the tale a much-needed edge.
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Light & Magic is a 2022 documentary TV series directed by Lawrence Kasdan, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Imagine Documentaries. The series debuted as a Disney+ Original on July 27, 2022, with all six episodes airing at once.
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James Newton Howard was well-established as a keyboardist, songwriter, producer, and arranger in the realm of soft rock before he cemented his legacy as an A-list film and television composer during the '90s. Highlights of his rock resumé in the '70s and '80s had included touring and recording with Elton John and working on albums with the likes of Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, and Toto. After earning his first composing credit on the 1985 comedy Head Office, his first Academy Award nomination came with the 1991 drama The Prince of Tides. Known for delivering wistful chamber music, playful comedic fare, or alternatively ominous or high-octane orchestral music as called for, Howard became more and more in demand for the latter during the 2000s, due in part to his frequent collaborations with director M. Night Shyamalan.
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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a 2022 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves. It is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), the third instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the eleventh overall in the Wizarding World franchise.
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