'Behemoth' Premieres at NYFF With Nine-Composer Score — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Tony Gilroy's "Behemoth!" premiered at the New York Film Festival, his first feature directorial effort since 2012's "The Bourne Legacy" and his first since the Oscar-nominated "Michael Clayton" in 2007.
- Pedro Pascal stars as Alex Serian, a nomadic cellist returning to LA after 20 years who suspects a 15-year-old pop prodigy (Alexa Swinton) may be his biological daughter.
- The film eschews a single composer in favor of "The Behemoth! Collective" — nine writers including Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, and Brandon Roberts.
- 303 AFM musicians in Los Angeles performed the musical sequences; the reviewer calls the resulting score "hands down, the year's best" and singles out original song "Your God Is Sleeping" as a potential hit.
- Searchlight will release "Behemoth!" theatrically on December 4, 2026; running time is 2 hr 7 mins.
- Supporting cast includes Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, JoBeth Williams, Hank Azaria, Will Arnett, Matthew Lillard, Margarita Levieva, Kaya Ralls, and Erik Griffin.
Why it matters: Gilroy returns to features after 14 years following his Oscar-nominated Michael Clayton and his acclaimed Andor run, and the nine-composer collective is a structural experiment with no recent Hollywood precedent. If the 'year's best' score claim holds with other critics, Searchlight's December 4 release slots it into awards-season contention as an explicit tribute to the unsung musicians behind movie music.
Ask SkimNews
