FriendGuy255

Hey Mr. Giacchino!

I love your work, especially on films like the Incredibles, Star Trek, and Planet of the Apes, but the one score I love most from you is one that I don’t think gets nearly enough appreciation – that being your score for Jupiter Ascending.

I’m curious what the process of writing that was like, since from what I understand you wrote a good chunk of it before shooting had even started at the request of the Wachowskis. Was it more challenging? Less? Just different? What were you given to go on when it came to developing a tone and themes? How much of your original score made it into the film, and is there a chance of the unused stuff getting a release?

Thanks.

Hey Rand. Thank you for doing this AMA.

First off, I just wanted to say that I can’t even begin to tell you what a profound influence Myst and Riven had on me growing up. The idea of exploring, creating, and building worlds is still something that appeals me deeply to this day. It’s definitely had a hand in sparking many of the passions I carry on into adulthood: writing, game design, history, language, and especially exploration. There have been a lot of movies, games, tv shows, and books I’ve been passionate about over the years, but the Myst series was definitely one of the earliest, as well as one of the biggest.

In fact, I still remember the first time I ever saw Myst. I was maybe five or six years old at the time, I noticed my Dad playing something on the computer. Now my Dad usually wasn’t one to play computer games, so naturally I was curious as to what could possibly be grabbing his attention so much. When I asked him, he told me it wasn’t anything I’d be interested in. Not being one to be told whether I would or wouldn’t be interested in something, I just continued to watch him play anyways. I’d played computer games before, but this was something different entirely. There was a certain weight, a kind of heady realism diffused by just how alien everything actually was that sparked something in me. After that day, whenever he’d play I’d join him in the computer room and try to help him out with those super difficult puzzles. Of course, being six or seven I never actually helped him that much, but just going on that journey with him anyways is a memory I’ll always cherish.

After he’d finished the game, he let me play it myself for a while. After practically memorizing the game, I started to grow bored of playing the same thing over and over, and eventually just ran out of things to explore. Then there was the day a few years later where he came home carrying a suspicious looking bag from the computer store. When he called me over and pulled out the box for Riven I jumped for joy at the prospect of yet another adventure. This time, though, he actually let me play the game myself on occasion. I still remember discovering the eye with the number five by the Sunner’s rocks on Jungle Island. I was so proud of myself for finding it I scribbled it down dutifully in that journal that came with the original Myst game (which I still have, by the way, complete with doodles and makeshift linking panels drawn in by yours truly…).

I played the rest of the Myst games on my own (well…with a strategy guide mostly) but nothing could beat the experience of playing the first two with my Dad. There really weren’t a lot of things we particularly “bonded” over when I was growing up, but that was definitely one of them, and for that I’m incredibly grateful.

To shift away from my fanboying for a moment, I guess the question that I wanted to ask is about that ever elusive Myst movie, namely whether that was still a “thing” or not. I know there was a fan effort to put together an adaptation of The Book of Ti’anna that had a lot of fan support, but I read about some pretty major shake-ups in who was in charge and how things were being handled creatively. I’m not sure how much you’re actually involved in the creative process on this (not a lot as I understand it) but I was wondering if maybe you had any info on its status of the project at this particular juncture.

As a side note, a part of me wants it to have fallen through…not just because of what I’ve heard was going on, but because making a movie or TV series set in the Myst universe is one of my dream projects, and I want to get there first. :)

So, yeah, I’m definitely eager to see what you guys cook up with Obduction. Thanks again for all the memories, and I hope things go well for you guys in the coming years.