Sundance 2021 Composer Spotlight: Joseph Trapanese
Film: Prisoners of the Ghostland
Joseph Trapanese is best known for his sleek score work for blockbuster films like Tron: Legacy, Straight Outta Compton, The Greatest Showman, Oblivion and the Raid series. His first major break came in 2010 when he worked with Daft Punk on the sweeping digital soundtrack to Disney's Tron reboot/sequel. Trapanese followed that success by creating a score with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park for the American release of the 2011 Indonesian martial arts film The Raid: Redemption. That same year, he helped with arrangements on a handful of tracks for M83's breakthrough hit Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, which led to the pair's collaboration on the 2013 Tom Cruise sci-fi epic Oblivion. For 2017's The Greatest Showman, Trapanese worked alongside Pasek & Paul and John Debney, producing songs and co-composing the score.
Solo scores include Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021), Project Power (2020), Lady and the Tramp (2019), Arctic (2019), the landmark rap biopic Straight Outta Compton (2015), Earth to Echo (2014), and the second and third installments of the Divergent series, Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016). Recently announced, Trapanese will score the anticipated fantasy series for Netflix, Shadow and Bone.