The line-up for several film music-related panels at Comic-Con 2019 has been announced. On Thursday, July 18, a number of film/TV composers will participate in the 11th annual Behind the Music panel. Jeff Russo (Star Trek: Discovery, The Umbrella Academy), Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, The Prince of Egypt), Wendy Carlos (Tron, The Shining), Sean Callery (Homeland, Jessica Jones), Kurt Farquhar (Black Lightning, Black Soul) and Jim Dooley (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Pushing Daisies) will be participating in a discussion moderated by a to-be-announced celebrity moderator. Behind the Music: Celebrating Fan-Favorite Sounds and Scores of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Television will take place at 10:00am in Room 25ABC.
On the same day, Michael Giacchino (Spider-Man: Far from Home, Doctor Strange) will moderate the 7th Annual Musical Anatomy of a Superhero panel. The event will feature a group Hollywood composers who will explain the process and challenges of creating music behind the superhero genre, along with collaborating with the director, producers, and the franchise. Panelists include Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel, Krypton), Benjamin Wallfisch (Shazam!, Hellboy), Sherri Chung (Batwoman, Supergirl), Blake Neely (Arrow, The Flash) and Christopher Lennertz (The Boys, Agent Carter). The panel will take place at 11:30am in Ballroom 20.
On Friday, July 19, The Character of Music panel will feature composer Tyler Bates and director Chad Stahelski (John Wick franchise), composer Frederik Wiedmann and showrunner Aaron Ehasz (Netflix’s The Dragon Prince), and composer Austin Wintory and director Matt Nava (Journey, Abzu video games) discuss what creative thinking and conversations happen behind the scenes to develop music for fan favorite projects in film, television. and video games. The event will take place at 1:00pm in Room 32AB.
Also on Friday, composers Christopher Young (Hellraiser, Pet Sematary), Michael Abels (Get Out, Us), Gregory Tripi (Ma, Manhunt: Unabomber), Russ Howard (Critters Attack!, Tragedy Girls) and Nick Soole (The Head Hunter) will appear for the panel Sounds of Horror: Inside Hollywood’s Most Terrifying Film Scores, which will pull back the curtain to reveal how they created some of the world’s most frightening film music. The panel will take place at 8:00pm in Room 9.
On Saturday, July 20, Bear McCreary (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Child’s Play, The Walking Dead, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Colossal, God of War) will present The Music of Monsters: Kaiju Concerto, a unique scene study as he breaks apart the elements that make an effective monster score. The composer will discuss the importance of themes and how he chooses unusual instrumentation, from Buddhist monk choirs to children’s toys, in creating a monster’s musical voice. The event is scheduled for 5:00pm in Room 25ABC.
In addition, composer Anna Drubich who recently co-scored the upcoming Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (with Marco Beltrami) will appear on the panel Hollywood Game Changers: A Conversation with the Creative Women Behind Popular Films and TV Projects on July 18 at 11:00am in Room 25ABC and composer Patric Caird (The Order) will participate in the panel Secrets from the Beyond: Behind the Camera with Film and TV’s Top Creatives on the same day at 12:00pm in Room 25ABC. The following day, July 19, Tyler Bates (Guardians of the Galaxy, Samurai Jack) will be participating in a panel for Genndy Tartakovsky’s Adult Swim series Primal at 2:00pm in the Indigo Ballroom at Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
