The first trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune blew us away. Not only were the visuals striking and impressive, the cast magnificent, and the nods to Frank Herbert’s novel completely apparent, but it also featured a fun Easter egg for film fans.
Did you recognize the music in the trailer? It’s “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd. Or rather, a cover of the outro to Dark Side of the Moon arranged by the new film’s composer, Hans Zimmer. Pink Floyd was set to provide music for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune back in the ’70s before the project fell through. So Zimmer’s choice to use the music here is a fitting tribute to that famously never made movie, and the subject of the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune. And now, you can listen to a clear version of the trailer music below thanks to YouTube channel Versus Music Official.
A report from Variety confirmed Zimmer’s work on the cover.
A 32-voice Los Angeles ensemble gathered, four at a time over eight sessions earlier this summer, at Zimmer’s Remote Control studio in Santa Monica, under the direction of the composer’s Lion King choral contractor Edie Lehmann Boddicker. Twelve performed the lyric lines from “Eclipse,” as well as the choral parts with the remaining 20.
The reported noted that Zimmer watched over FaceTime as the session took place. “He wanted to pay homage to the original, very back-phrased sound, a little spaced-out, so the vocals would not sound urgent,” Boddicker told Variety. “There’s a kind of joy happening in the track, a lot of hopefulness. It’s not despondent, just very peaceful and sounding not of this planet.”
Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures
It all sounds appropriately Dune-ish to us! The music really recalls the magnificent danger of the desert planet Arrakis, where Paul Atreides and his family move to early on in the story to oversee the mining of spice melange. Their fates are intertwined with the planet in a profound, almost cosmic way—and this profound, almost cosmic sound really matches that energy.
Featured Image: Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures
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