Michael Giacchino debuts The Batman score in camera test video

By now, you've no doubt seen director Matt Reeves' video test for The Batman, offering our first look at Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader. And now composer Michael Giacchino has got in on the act.

Usually, a composer starts writing music for a film during what's defined as the post-production period – in other words, the stage after principal photography is finished. Oscar-winner Giacchino, however, has bucked the trend by debuting a track from his score for The Batman – more than a year in advance of the film's release date.

The brooding piece has premiered as a part of a camera test video – little more than a steady push in towards a breastplate bearing the Batman logo. This is what's going to be sported by Pattinson's Dark Knight, who will be brought to the big screen courtesy of director Reeves.

Giacchino has worked with Reeves before on the likes of the Planet of the Apes movies, Cloverfield and Let Me In. The Batman score carries brooding overtones of those works, with its rumbling, propulsive piano undercurrent building a menacing sense of force before the video ends. (Film score fans will no doubt recognise stylish nods to the trendsetting likes of John Barry and Jerry Goldsmith.) Giacchino follows in the footsteps of Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and others, all of whom have established various musical iterations of Batman over the years. No doubt the gritty tone of Giacchino's music informs the approach taken by Pattinson in the lead role.

The composer has been hailed as this decade's heir apparent to John Williams, having scored the likes of Rogue One, Doctor Strange and the Star Trek reboots. He's won an Oscar for Disney-Pixar's Up and is one of the key players in the new Batman movie, whose impressive cast includes Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Alfred and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone.

The Batman is currently shooting and is scheduled for release on the 25th of June 2021. Will Giacchino's theme become another Batman classic? Let us know @Cineworld.