Composer Joseph Trapanese (The Witcher, Oblivion, The Greatest Showman, Shadow and Bone, David, Straight Outta Compton, The Raid: Redemption, Arctic) is reteaming with writer/director Brian Duffield (The Babysitter, Jane Got a Gun) on the upcoming survival thriller Whalefall. The film is based on the 2023 novel by Daniel Kraus and stars Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin. The movie follows a young man who – following the death of his father – goes diving off the central Coast of California in search of his remains, but is swallowed by a massive sperm whale and gets trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left. Duffield also co-wrote the screenplay with Kraus. He is also producing the project with Ron Howard & Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13), Jeb Brody (Sunshine Cleaning, How to Rob a Bank) and Allan Mandelbaum (Fair Play, After the Hunt). Trapanese has previously scored Duffield’s first two directorial efforts, Spontaneous & No One Will Save You and also collaborated with the filmmaker on the Netflix animated series Skull Island. Whalefall will be released in theaters nationwide on October 16, 2026 by 20th Century Studios.
Trapanese’s other upcoming feature projects include Peter Atencio’s Animal Friends, which will be released in theaters on January 22, 2027. He has also co-scorewd include Drew Kirsch’s He Bled Neon (with Zhu), which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and is currently awaiting a release date. He also continues to score Netflix’s The Witcher, which will return for a fifth and final season and has recently scored the final episodes NBC’s Brilliant Minds, which currently air every Wednesday night.
