“Thirteen Lives” composer Benjamin Wallfisch says the soundtrack is “challenging in the best sense of the word” – Sound & Screen

To compose the music for Ron Howards Thirteen lives – the true story of the global effort to save a Thai soccer team – composer Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049the It films) hoped to traverse all of Northern Thailand, taking in the culture, knocking on doors and asking people to play something for him.

But the pandemic made his grassroots efforts impossible, so he turned to a music expert in Bangkok for much-needed help connecting with “tons of musicians in northern Thailand” for traditional songs from the region.

This was only the first step; The next thing to decide was how much drama to inject into the exciting score.

“This is one of those movies where everybody knows what’s going on,” Wallfisch said during an appearance at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Awards Season Event. “These are real people. It’s a film, we didn’t want to make it too melodramatic. I wasn’t able to push through many issues… it was challenging in the best sense of the word. There were no rules for this film.”

Having an amazing staff helped, Wallfisch added. “Ron has been a hero of mine since childhood. I brought the whole family to London and worked with Ron almost every day for 3 1/2 months. Everything revolved around experiments.”

The film, from MGM, Bron Creative, Imagine Entertainment, Storyteller and Magnolia Mae, tells the true story of the global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team trapped in the Tham Luang cave network during an unexpected rainstorm in 2018. most skilled and experienced divers work together with Thai forces and more than 10,000 volunteers to gruesomely rescue the 12 boys and their coach.

Check back Monday for the Sound and Screen Panel video.