Mad Max: Fury Road brought the work of electronic music veteran Junkie XL, AKA Tom Holkenborg, to the attention of a lot of people, and Holkenborg has since booked a variety of gigs scoring high-profile movies. The musician, who has made plenty of records under his moniker over the years, didn't start as a film composer until 2014, but he has a bit of a history adding additional music to films and scoring video games like Need for Speed; his original tracks have been used in movies like Blade and Ginger Snaps, as well. But now he's in the big leagues, and his first big post-Mad Max gig, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, has seemingly secured him an equally massive project: Justice League.
During our recent set visit, we found out that Junkie XL will indeed be providing the score to Zack Snyder's next grim-as-fuck epic, which is kind of a big deal. Though I can't say I remember much about what anyone talks about in Batman v Superman, I most certainly remember the noise that accompanied and occasionally overwhelmed the dialogue. That film, for me, is all about noise: metal breaking and bending, machines powering up and malfunctioning, walls demolished and hammered against, buildings being incinerated and collapsing, and so on and so forth. In a way, Junkie XL was, for me, the most memorable element of the entire Batman v Superman production.
That's similarly the case with Junkie XL's other recent work, from 300: Rise of an Empire and the Point Break remake to Black Mass and Divergent, though he wasn't even half the reason that Deadpool worked so shockingly well. Besides Justice League, he's currently tapped to compose the score for The Dark Tower and Martin Koolhoven's Brimstone, starring Jon Snow himself Kit Harrington. Though I'm attempting to keep an open mind and be optimistic about Justice League, especially considering Jeremy Irons' comments about the upcoming film, there's a chance Holkenborg's work will be a standout in Justice League as well.
