Junkie XL Announces Return for Furiosa, Plus Justice League

Composer Tom Holkenborg Talks Justice League, Announces Return for Fury Road Sequel

During a recent interview with the Film Junkee Vodka Stream, composer Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL, dropped some great details about his score for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, notably that it will run 4 hours and 20 minutes (including a 10 minute intermission and 10 minute end credit suite) making it the longest music composition for a full feature film; and also revealed that he will return to score the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa.

Junkie XL said the runtime for #SnyderCut is about 4hrs and 20 min (including 10 min intermission and 10 min credit)

The entire 4hr score will be released and it’ll be the longest music composition for a full feature film made yet pic.twitter.com/pyscdvkxAU

— MΩNKE (19 days) #AOTDHype (@THEMONKETHEORY) February 27, 2021

Here’s a rundown of Holkenborg’s comments about Justice League:

Holkenborg left the 2017 theatrical cut of Justice League out of respect for Zack Snyder
He described the movie as his “Mount Everest” because it was the biggest project he ever worked on resulting in over four hours worth of music
Wonder Woman’s theme was redone in order to focus more on her Amazonia roots
Cyborg’s theme is described as the most emotional bit of the score; and the character gets a 15 minute origin story with lots of music and very little dialogue
Aquaman has a badass new theme
Flash has two big solo moments that get their own needle-drops
Batman theme has been rewritten to focus on his attempts to bring the League together; and features a new guitar riff that plays during his badass moments
Steppenwolf, Darkseid and The Motherboxes all have the same them, dubbed “a choir from Hell” by the composer
Superman’s theme is mostly the same albeit executed with electronic guitars that give it a rock song feel
Junkie XL refused to reveal if he wrote a theme for Jared Leto’s Joker

A thread of JunkieXL’s quotes on Justice League score. He described the movie as his “Mount Everest” because he completely threw out all the 2016/17 themes he did to create the longest score for a movie in history. Which is almost 4hrs worth of music to be released pic.twitter.com/xgBCdhzgur

— Best of Zack Snyder (@bestofsnyder) February 27, 2021

During the podcast, Holkenborg also let slip that he will return to score George Miller’s upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. This is exciting news as his score for Fury Road remains perhaps the best action score released over the last decade. Furiosa is set to hit theaters on June 23, 2023.

Also on the horizon for the composer is the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, The 355, Turning Red and Three Thousand Years of Longing.

Justice League will be hitting HBO Max solely as a four-hour movie on March 18. It was originally revealed at DC FanDome that the movie will release on HBO Max in 2021 by being broken up into four one-hour parts that will also be released as one four-hour film, but Snyder’s new comments seem to indicate it will solely be released as the one-off film instead of the four-part series. In an informal Q&A with the director via the comments, Snyder also revealed that there will be no after-credits scenes, the release date is still set for March even as potential competition Godzilla vs. Kong just moved to the same month and its runtime is four hours prior to the credits.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League has reportedly cost around $70 million in order to properly finish the editing and visual effects of the director’s original vision, as well as the additional photography. The original post-production crew is also expected to return along with the cast members to record additional dialogue for the cut.

Fueled by the hero’s restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Justice League sees Bruce Wayne enlist the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Justice League, which features a screenplay from Chris Terrio from a story by Snyder and Terrio, stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, with J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane.

Released in November 2017, the film earned mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, praising the action and performances from Gadot and Miller while criticizing every other aspect of the film, namely the inconsistent tone that many fault Joss Whedon (The Avengers) for after taking over directorial duties from Snyder. With a large budget of $300 million and a break-even point of $750 million, the film is considered a box office bomb having grossed only $658 million.