James Newton Howard has confirmed in a recent interview with Filmmusicsite.com, Underscores.fr and BSO Spirit (available to listen here) at last weekend’s Ghent Film Festival that he is attached to score the upcoming The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. The composer has scored this year’s first part in the series and has also written the music for the sequel’s director Francis Lawrence’s previous two features I Am Legend and Water for Elephants. Catching Fire based on the novel by Suzanne Collins stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland. Academy Award-winning screenwriters Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) have penned the script. Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik are returning as the producers. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set for a release on November 23, 2013 by Lionsgate.

As previously reported, James Newton Howard is also scoring M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth starring Will and Jaden Smith. Listen to the full interview for a few comments from the composer about his work on the film and his collaboration with the director, as well as some of his other past projects.

  1. sean says:

    thought he was, great news

  2. David says:

    Great news. It will be great to see how he’ll expand the sounds and themes from the first movie. And it’s the first time that JNH will do a sequel.

  3. Macejko says:

    Now, when he has enough time, I hope every track will be great as “Horn of plenty” from the first movie.

  4. Darren says:

    Goshers, hey, do you have a Facebook page or somethin, because I need to be gettin more updates please.. thanks 🙂

  5. Bernhard says:

    I loved ‘Healing Katniss’—let’s hope we’re getting more like that 😉

  6. Melody says:

    What a great news!! I love JNH’s work in the first album so much.

  7. Anonymous Freshman says:

    November 23, 2012??? Please fix this, it’s in 2013, not 2012. Other than that, great, I’m glad he’s returning! Since he has a lot of time, maybe we will have less moments with no music like we did with “Hunger Games.”

    • Macejko says:

      I think “moments with no music” was exactly what the director wanted. But I agree with you.

  8. Lucia Lennis says:

    I JUST LOVE JAMES NEWTON HOWARD’S MUSIC, AND I THINK HE IS ONE OF THE BEST COMPOSERS EVER (TALKING ABOUT FILMS) AND I JUST LOVED THE HUNGER GAMES SCORE