Film Music Reporter

NBC announced today that Matthew Sklar and Christopher Guardino are composing the score for the upcoming NBC holiday event Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas. The stop-motion animated special is directed by Mark Caballero & Seamus Walsh and features the voice talent of Jim Parsons, Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Fred Armisen, Jay Leno, Matt Lauer, Rachael MacFarlane, Max Charles, Gilbert Gottfried, Kate Micucci and Steve Higgins. The hour-long special is based on Jon Favreau’s hit 2003 hit film starring Will Ferrell and the Broadway show Elf: The Musical and tells the story of Buddy’s travels to New York City to meet the father he never knew he had. Thomas Meehan & Bob Martin and Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic have written the script for the Warner Bros. Animation production, which also features a number of songs from the Broadway musical written by Sklar and featuring lyrics by Chad Beguelin. Sklar is also known as the composer of the stage musical version of The Wedding Singer. Guardino has previously collaborated with such composers as Mark Mothersbaugh and Marco Beltrami as an orchestrator and arranger. Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas is set to premiere on December 16, 2014 on NBC.