john-ottmanJohn Ottman has officially signed on to score the upcoming superhero film sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past. The film reunites the composer with Bryan Singer who is directing his third entry in the franchise. The movie acts as a sequel to both 2011’s X-Men: First Class (scored by Henry Jackman) and 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand (scored by John Powell) and stars Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore and Daniel Cudmore from the original trilogy, as well as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult from the last part in the series. They are joined by new cast members Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Booboo Stewart and Fan Bingbing, Singer is also writing the story and Simon Kinberg, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman are penning the script. The director is also producing the project with Vaughn, Kinberg  and Richard & Lauren Shuler Donner. Principal photography is set to begin this month in Montreal. Ottman who has previously scored X2, as well as most of Singer’s other features will also serve as the film’s editor. X-Men: Days of Future Past is set to be released on July 18, 2014 by 20th Century Fox.

non-stopOttman has also been hired to score the upcoming action thriller Non-Stop. The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Liam Neeson as a federal air marshal who starts receiving text messages from someone claiming to be on the same flight, and who is threatening to kill its passengers. Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery  and Scoot McNairy are co-starring. John Richardson and Chris Roach have written the screenplay and Joel Silver (Die HardThe Matrix), Andrew Rona (Unknown) and Alex Heineman are producing the Studio Canal and Silver Pictures production. Ottman has previously collaborated with Collet-Serra on his features Unknown, Orphan and House of Wax. Non-Stop is currently in post production. No release date has been announced yet.

  1. Macejko says:

    Yep, as expected. Jackman is out, Master of Boring takes his place. After hearing Jack the Giant Slayer I have no hopes that the score for the new X-Men will be entertaining or interesting on any level. Way to go, Bryan, way to go.

    • Duke says:

      I’m actually quite fond of Ottman’s score for the second X-Men film. So long as he reprises and expands on those themes, I’m ok with him coming back.

    • Yahzee says:

      Actually Ottman’s X2 is the second best score in the whole franchise (after John Powell’s of course), so I’m really looking forward to this one.

    • Matt C says:

      Talk about a killjoy. You were aware that Ottman was definitely coming back once Singer became director of “Days of Future Past”, right?

      You should’ve gotten that whining over and done with long ago. You act like a spoiled teenager. Jackman was not the ‘end all, be all’ X-Men composer… aside from the theme and a few other bits, his “First Class” score was disappointing.

      • Macejko says:

        Of course I was aware that he is coming back. That’s why there is that “as expected” part. But last time I checked, we were living in a free world, so when I feel like expresing my disappointment publicly, I will certainly do it. And as for the Jackman’s score… You think it was dosappointing, I think otherwise. You may like Ottman’s work, I don’t. That’s the way it goes and that’s why this site has a “comments” section.

        • jXe says:

          All the Xmen scores are good in their own way and effective. But Jackmans theme for Magneto is just awesome. I was humming that theme days after the film. Ottman better recognize.

          • BlueMan says:

            Um, hello? Magneto’s “theme” in First Class is simply a regurgitation of the first three notes of Ottman’s Wolverine theme in X2. Obviously the film was temped with the Wolverine’s cue and Jackman did a bombastic version of it for Magneto. Not exacty brilliant. Please do what you think best, Mr. Ottman. The X2 score is deep and brilliant.

  2. Justin Boggan says:

    There was a video up of Jackman talking about, as I recall, his Magneto theme. He was annoyed, expressing how what you hear in the film isn’t the theme, just the bass line. The video’s been removed (I don’t see it right now), but it was something like this:

    The director kept asking him remove this, remove that, I like this. And the end result was removing the theme and leaving the bass line.

    I’m not sure if the theme he did was even used in the film.

  3. jXe says:

    Okay thats fine, Jaws is two notes, doesn’t matter. It is effective in the film.

  4. Justin Boggan says:

    No, “Jaws” has a two-note motif, for the shark. There are themes in the body of the score.

  5. Tiago says:

    Ottman is a good composer. His scores to X2 and Superman Returns are great, and Jack the Giant Slayer was terrific, the best of his career. So, I expect a good job on this upcoming X-Men movie. It will be great if he use the themes of the other composers, like Kamen’s, Powell’s, Jackman’s and, of course, his own X2 theme.