Ad Astra (Max Richter & Lorne Balfe)

[HunterTech 994]

Here's new info about the production of the score that I've gathered from talking to someone who knows about the original cut of Ad Astra:

• Chris Spelman (Gray's regular composer) was originally attached to film as late as 2017 before disappearing for unknown reasons. (I mentioned the rumor of Thomas Newman being considered, but there's nothing to really support it currently.)
• Nils Frahm entered the picture after Brad Pitt introduced him or his work to James Gray (though there's no knowing if this was planned to go any further than simply using Says).
• A lot of Max Richter's work went unused after the producers likely disliked the very experimental nature of it.
• Pieces of Wagner's Parsifal were planned to be used before being removed.
• Gray ended up being dissatisfied with the amount of music that the final film contains (uncertain if he's also just not happy with any of it in general based on the previous info).
• One of the pieces that were suspected to be by Nils Frahm finally got released this year in presumably its unaltered/finished form:

 

Given all this, I now have a general idea for what possibly could've happened during production (though still very much a lot of guessing involved). Basically, Max Richter gets hired for being a rising talent within the film score world. However, the studio got cold feet over the more experimental parts of it, and decided to hire Balfe and his crew as a safety net. And yet, this must've not sat well with Brad Pitt, who now wants Nils Frahm to have a more active presence outside of Says. Nils then gives them a few unreleased pieces to work with. This makes the score in-film very disjointed, so perhaps as a suggestion from someone on the team, Robert Charles Mann gets hired to bridge the gaps (while also being given an opportunity to have his own takes on several scenes that go unused). This leads to the actual finalized movie score edit, which is this hodge podge of different visions from not only the composers, but the filmmakers as well.

 

As you can tell, it's still an absolute nightmare. Can you maybe begin to understand why film scores today might struggle to stand out in this climate compared to the past?

[thestat 348]

Very interesting information - this is one of those very few instances where Balfe's music almost works in that opening with those weird brass clusters (obviously a bit Kubrick, but at least 'interesting').