‘Ant-Man’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ Land New Composers

When you look at Marvel Studios’ ‘Ant-Man’ and Fox’s ‘Fantastic Four,’ you are looking at two superhero movies that couldn’t be more different in how they’re being shared and marketed. The former is an obscure, B-list superhero with a seemingly unmarketable name and yet we’ve already seen a trailer and have seen images from the set for the past six months. The latter is the latest take on one of the most important and famous superhero teams of all time and we haven’t heard one official peep or even seen a still. That’s why the reveal of the composer for ‘Ant-Man’ feels like just another piece of news in the Disney marketing machine while the composer announcement for ‘Fantastic Four’ is like a drop of water to a man dying of thirst in the desert.

According to Film Music Reporter, ‘Ant-Man’ will be scored by Cristophe Beck, who previously worked with director Peyton Reed on 2000’s ‘Bring It On.’ However, Beck has done a lot since that silly (and kinda’ great) cheerleading comedy. In the past few years, he’s provided scores for ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and ‘Frozen’ (alongside a whole bunch of other movies), so his genre credentials are solid. Plus, now you can win that round of bar trivia about directors who re-team with the composers of their directorial debuts on risky superhero projects 15 years later.

As for ‘Fantastic Four,’ Marco Beltrami has been hired (also via Film Music Reporter) to create music for director Josh Trank’s mysterious film and he brings a long list of credentials with him. He’s no stranger to comic book movies, having provided music for ‘Hellboy,’ ‘Jonah Hex’ and ‘The Wolverine,’ but he’s something of a genre specialist. His filmography is littered with action, horror and science fiction films of all stripes. In short, we have no idea what ‘Fantastic Four’ will feel like based on his hiring.

Of course, Beck being announced is just a blip on the Marvel marketing freight train. Does the Beltrami reveal signal that we may start hearing more about ‘Fantastic Four’ soon? Hopefully. Maybe. After all, it’s set to open on August 7, 2015 and no one knows anything. ‘Ant-Man’ is set to open on July 17, 2015 and we’re already knee-deep in the advertising blitz.