Why ‘The Gilded Age’ Decided 2 Composers Were Better Than 1
14.06.2022 - 00:31
/ thewrap.com
Between them, you’ve definitely heard the work of composers (and brothers) Harry and Rupert Gregson-Williams in film and TV projects such as “Wonder Woman,” “The Crown,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “House of Gucci,” “The Alienist,” “Catherine the Great” and a large swath of the Adam Sandler oeuvre. But only recently have they decided to join forces to become a double-threat, on HBO’s recently renewed, turn-of-the-century hit “The Gilded Age.”However, this series is not their first duo effort.
“Our first experience was with George Clooney; I’m not sure how the opportunity came about,” Harry said. “But ‘Catch-22’ [for Hulu] was our first foray into co-composing with each other.
And, you know, it takes a while to feel out each other and how we how we would deal with the various obstacles and how we would get the most creative juices out of each other. But we actually had some fun on that.
And we didn’t kill each other,” he adds with a laugh.“When we came on, we were probably five months from broadcast,” Rupert said, referring to HBO’s talked-about drama series. “And so, they had almost pretty much edited each episode by the time we came on.” That proved to be a relief to the Gregson-Williams brothers, as this was a massive project with no end to the number of sets built and costumes flow in to recreate 1880s, with moneyed families (among them, actors Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector) jockeying for status in the ever-changing physical landscape of New York City.“We’re an integral part of the storytelling,” Harry said.
“We had to find the right thematic material before actually trying to score individual moments in the series. We talked with the filmmakers
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