Superman has proven to be a strong start for James Gunn’s burgeoning DC Universe. Despite dropping audiences right into the middle of a brand new and fully-established world, the movie also honors the character’s legacy overall, especially with the use and interpolation of John Williams’ theme from the 1978 Superman.
But Williams’ music wasn’t a perfect match for Gunn’s new, more vulnerable vision of Superman. The director ended up employing two composers to adapt Williams’ theme into new compositions and flesh out the musical world of the DCU. One was Gunn’s frequent collaborator John Murphy, who scored 28 Days Later, and the other was Mr. & Mrs. Smith composer David Fleming.
ScreenRant interviewed composers John Murphy and David Fleming about their work on James Gunn’s Superman. They discussed how the work of scoring the film was divided up and what it was like to work with the music of legendary composer John Williams. Plus, Fleming teased what to expect from the upcoming A24 film Eternity.
How John Williams Became Superman’s Third Composer
Williams’ Theme Was Instrumental In Defining The Score
John Murphy was the first composer hired for James Gunn’s Superman and, thanks to Gunn’s process, began writing music from the script stage. “He likes to shoot the movie with certain scenes playing [the music, either] on set to the actors or in his earpiece,” Murphy shared.
“He’s a very unique director,” the composer said. “To him, the music is a part of the story.” Murphy’s early compositions included initial drafts of the Lois and Clark love motifs and, as audiences would find out in the movie’s first trailer, variations on one of film’s most iconic musical themes.
“It was very early in the conversations,” that Murphy was asked to interpolate John Williams’ Superman theme, but he shared that “James was actually quite tentative to bring it up.” “We all have egos, and no composer wants to work with another composer’s theme,” Murphy said, “but come on; it’s John Williams, and it’s the Superman theme.”
“It’s like working with the Holy Grail.”
But adapting Williams’ theme wasn’t as simple as parroting the world’s most beloved film composer’s work (As David Fleming said, “[James] wanted to have the elements of a loving, respectful cover version, not a tribute band version.”) So, Murphy started exploring: “I did loads of demos, and tried different ideas out.”
“There was a big gothic version of the John Williams theme,” Murphy said, “there was a doom version, there was a punk version at one point, there was a love version, [and] there was an ethereal version with Anna Schubert, the opera singer … [James] sifted through everything and loved some stuff, [and] wanted to explore some stuff.”
Even as Murphy tried different verisons of Williams’ theme, he wrestled with fears of tarnishing an opus. “Everybody says [they want to hear the punk version],” Murphy said, adding, “But I remember doing it thinking, ‘You know what? I’m going to go to Composer Hell for this if it ever gets out.”
“The punk version was out of its mind. It was f**king outrageous.”
After writing the guitar-driven take on Williams’ theme that featured in the movie’s trailer– “I sometimes wonder if [Williams] has heard it, late at night,” Murphy said, “It’s like writing a script and sending it to Shakespeare.”–the composer took a break from Superman as production commenced.
Enter David Fleming.
The Last of Us composer was tasked (among other things) with crafting variations of Williams’ theme tailored to actual cuts of the movie: “What [James and I] talked about a lot,” he said, “was, ‘How do we use the DNA of the theme … break this down into its individual pieces, and hopefully use those pieces to say something new?’”
“John Wililams’ theme is as much a part of [Superman’s] iconography as the suit and the colors,” Fleming reflected, “but, also, it’s a James Gunn film, so it has his voice, and he wants to say something specfic and new about the character.”
“This Superman is specific. It’s a little more vulnerable. It’s a little more focused on the ‘man’ than the ‘super’.”
To do that, Fleming deconstructed the original piece because “it didn’t fit James’ movie as a whole … We needed to score action beats. We also needed to tell a more emotional story about Superman.” The composer would go on to use “the opening bars of the theme … in action beats, as well as, crucially, over the opening logo.”
But the back section of Williams’ piece “to me, was the most emotional,” Fleming shared. “It has this really gorgeous chord in it. I started playing around with the notes of the back bit, making them slower, and putting them over these different rising chords. And I could see James getting kind of emotional in the meeting.”
“It ended up being kind of the last piece of DNA to use, but [it was] crucial through the score.”
Why John Murphy Was “So Disappointed” In Lois & Clark’s Love Theme
“I’m Not Really Known For My Love Themes”
What does falling in love in Metropolis sound like? Not what John Murphy thought it might, the composer revealed.
“[The love theme] was one of the very first things I wrote for the film,” Murphy shared, “I wrote a huge, big, Max Steiner-ish, Korngold, Golden Era of Hollywood[-esque] theme, and I was so proud of it.”
“I’m not really known for my love themes, let’s be honest,” the composer continued. “If someone was going, ‘We need a great love theme,’ they don’t go, ‘I know. Let’s ask John Murphy.’ I’m not really famous for that, so I was quite proud of this beautiful, big, epic theme.”
But, as a frequent collaborator of Gunn’s, Murphy thought to himself, “‘Well, it’s James, so I need to do something a bit more modern, too.’” “I knocked out the other theme,” he said, “which was just kind of filtered guitar. I thought it might be cool to do [a] Sigur Rós-type thing for this.”
“I think I was at the airport when he rang,” Murphy said. “He was raving about it, and he said, “‘This is amazing. This is great. This has nailed it. I love it,’ and it wasn’t until the end [that] I realized he was talking about the little guitar verison.”
“I was so disappointed. I thought it was going to be this lovely, big, epic one, [like,] ‘I’m going to show the world that the guy who did 28 Days [Later] can actually write a big love theme.’”
“But,” the composer added, “when I got the footage and I saw the picture, it actually made sense … it felt more modern, and it didn’t have the grandness of the big love theme, because it shouldn’t have the grandness yet. They were still kind of awkward with each other. It’s the beginnings of a relationship.”
“You can’t have this big, grand [theme]; that would’ve been preposterous.”
“The main thing of a love theme is not to show how well you can write a love theme,” the composer added, saying, “It’s to convey the sort of tone and the essence of that particular relationship. And I think, although I was disappointed at the time, he chose the right one.”
How David Fleming Found The Perfect Concept For The Justice Gang’s Music
“They’re Kind Of Like The Spice Girls Of Superheroes”
Although Superman himself is front and center in the movie bearing his name, members of the Justice Gang–comprised of Mr. Terriffic, Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl–steal every scene in which they appear. At least, they do in their own minds. “The Justice Gang are a really cynical foil,” Fleming said.
“They’re kind of like the Spice Girls of superheroes; they’ve been put together by Max Lord,” the composer said, adding that “Superman has a very well-defined moreal center, and they are totally lacking in that.” The movie makes it clear that, unlike Superman, the Justice Gang are very concerned with their own status in Metropolis.
“Their theme, I think of as their idea of a superhero theme–like, ‘Hey, we should have a superhero theme’ … I picture Guy Gardner humming it in his head.”
To accomplish that, Fleming leaned into “scoring tropes that I typically don’t embrace … [like] big rock drums and things like that.” “It was fun,” he said, “to make a self-aware superhero motif for the Justice Gang, because they are such an excellent, very James Gunn element to the story that makes Superman all the more sincere by their presence.”
After Superman Comes Eternity
The Trailer For David Fleming’s Upcoming A24 Project Recently Dropped
Post-Superman, there will be plenty of opportunities to hear more from both Murphy and Fleming. In Fleming’s case, one such opportunity is in Eternity, an upcoming A24 film starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen in what appears to be a winningly high-concept take on the afterlife. Fleming previewed the tone, if not the twists and turns, of the film.
“I think the movie is great,” he shared, adding, “I’m so excited about this director, David Freyne. Irish director–unbelievable … It’s one of the most fun [times] I’ve ever had writing a score for a film. In some ways it’s like Superman in that it feels classic, but new at the same time.”
“It’s so refreshing when you see it because you’re like, ‘I feel like I haven’t seen a movie like this in such a long time,’ but it doesn’t feel retro or pastiche at all.”
Fleming offered a bit more about what to expect: “I think people are really going to feel moved by it, and it’s very funny. I’m so excited about the score and the film. I think it’s really, really special.”
Superman is in theaters now.
