Composer Mick Giacchino became the bridge between Matt Reeves’ The Batman and the HBO | Max series The Penguin.
Giacchino scored the Batmobile chase from the film, and at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Television event he performed a medley of four themes used in the series.
“Scherzo for a Flightless Bird (The Penguin Theme)” was the first theme Giacchino wrote for the series after a solo violin request from the showrunner.
Related Stories
“I wrote this violin solo that ended up becoming the ‘Scherzo’,” Giacchino said about creating the theme for Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb. “I started adding more. It brought out the quartet and, I created a trash percussion drum kit that we actually have on the stage, over in the corner, but just made out of metal trash cans and buckets, to try to get a little bit of the city trash sound and bring it to Oz.”
Giacchino noted that Psycho “was a big inspiration” in creating “Scherzo,” which inspired the theme for Oz.
“For Sofia, she’s such this great character in the first scene where she walks in through the door at the Falcon residence — she appears almost like an apparition,” he said. “So I instantly knew that I wanted to do something, evocative of glass.”
He continued, “I found some synths that I liked and put some tremolo on them. It was fun to play with her because as you go throughout the series and learn more about her, you get to get weirder with it and get a little creepier. But then also by the end, and more, touching and heartbreaking with it, because she’s this really heartbreaking character.”
As for the piano theme for Vic (Rhenzy Feliz), Giacchino wanted to bring some “tenderness” as he’s a “kid who gets wrapped up in this psycho’s world for better or for worse — but pretty much for worse.”
For “March of Penguin,” Giacchino says it is “a darker version of ‘Scherzo’, more monstrous that plays during the end credits.” He adds, “It feels like Oz’s fully formed villain. It’s kind of like he achieves his full evilness.”
Check out the panel video above.