First we had the Nine Inch Nails guys scoring a Pixar film, and now we have Metallica music in a Disney movie.
Drummer Lars Ulrich tells Collider that the metal legends are contributing an orchestral version of their song “Nothing Else Matters” to Jungle Cruise, an upcoming film based on the Disney World ride of the same name.
As Ulrich explains, the updated recording was created in collaboration with Oscar-nominated composer James Newton Howard, who’s scoring Jungle Cruise.
“It’s kind of an interesting morph,” Ulrich says of the new version. “It’s kind of [Howard’s] arrangement of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ that we’re playing.”
“We wrote the song, but he took the song and rearranged it to fit something specific in the film — and obviously, I’m not going to give any of that away — but we then kind of took on his version of it,” he adds. “I think that’s all that should be said.”
As for how Metallica got involved, Ulrich credits Disney president of production Sean Baily, whom the drummer says is a “lifelong rock fan.”
“I think he’s always been a Metallica fan, and we’ve gotten to know each other well,” Ulrich says. “My wife and I are big Disney fans, so there’s a great friendship there, and he’s always looked for the right match where there was a way that Metallica could contribute to some project of theirs.”
Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, is set to hit theaters in July 2021.
As for that Nine Inch Nails/Pixar movie, that would be Soul, which features original music from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It’s scheduled to premiere this November.
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By Josh Johnson
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