Mark Ronson Working on the Music for Greta Gerwig’s Upcoming Narnia Movie?
Is Mark Ronson headed to Narnia?
According to a new interview with Today, the British-American DJ, songwriter, and music producer is “working on the music” for Greta Gerwig’s new film for Netflix.
Netflix did not respond to a request from Today for comment on whether or not Ronson was referring to Narnia, but the only known collaboration between Greta Gerwig and Netflix is her upcoming adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s beloved fantasy series.
This will be Mark Ronson’s second time working with Greta Gerwig after composing the score of Barbie with co-composer Andrew Wyatt. Ronson had never composed an entire film score prior to Barbie, and he initially joined the project to write a song for the dance party sequence and the character of Ken, which would become “Dance The Night” and “I’m Just Ken” respectively.
Speaking to Variety in 2023, Ronson talked about his collaboration with Gerwig for Barbie:
It started off with me only doing two songs, but they came out well, and I got on really well with Greta. I think she felt like I’d be a good kind of sparring partner to help realize her vision for the music, and working on the soundtrack sort of blossomed into scoring the film as well.
Ronson’s most famous songs include “Uptown Funk” featuring Bruno Mars and “Valerie” featuring Amy Winehouse. He also co-wrote “Shallow” with Andrew Wyatt for A Star Is Born, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Given producer Amy Pascal’s cryptic “It’s all about rock ‘n’ roll” comment last December, the news about Mark Ronson’s involvement may give some Narnia fans pause. However, it’s worth noting that the scale of Ronson’s contributions is not yet known for Gerwig’s Narnia. No composer for the project has been officially announced at this time.
I’m not super familar with his work, but from what I can tell, Ronson is mainly connected with pop, electronic, funk, disco, soul, hip-hop, and rock… and none of those are music genres that I would choose for a film adaptation of Narnia! Maybe he’ll be doing a credits song, or a song for the 1950s-era scenes in London?
His Barbie score was really good, gave me classical Disney Snow White , really beautiful orchestral music from a genius.
Kinda funny he is Meryl Streeps son in law 🙂 . FYI I don’t believe Meryl is Aslan(but you do you)
To be fair Greta has used the term Rock and Roll to describe the work of the Little women cinematographer Yorick Le Saux, he isn’t a musician nor radical and his work on Little Women was quite classical and beautiful without being “stodgy or stayed”.
So I wouldn’t necessarily put much weight on the term.
https://youtu.be/3–_qcpMFUE?si=bC5u8Q7h1gA3JG3h
Not gonna lie, that’s a pretty unexpected direction to take things in, especially given the period setting and tone they seem to be going for..
That said, I guess if you were looking to create a completely unique musical vibe for the Creation of Narnia, then hiring a music producer with such a diverse range of hits, across a wide range of genres as Ronson isn’t totally crazy?
If he was able to do an orchestral score for Barbie in addition to the musical numbers, he may well do so for Narnia. It wouldn’t be the first time a rock/synth composer has turned classical (Hans Zimmer!)
This is thought provoking! I haven’t watched Barbie so I don’t know what his music sounds like, but perhaps I can listen to a few songs on YouTube. I might have listened to Uptown Funk, but I am probably thinking of a different piece.
Unexpected… I liked how Barbie’s songs had themes/cues reoccurring in the films score.
Whether or not he’s composing the score, one thing that I’m taking away from his involvement is that Narnia will definitely have an album comprised of big-time musical artists doing “inspired by the movie” tracks. Might even have a song or two embedded in the film itself.
I’m guessing this is what IMAX boss Rich Gelfond was alluding to in his most recent interview.
Will be interesting to see which direction they take the music. Admittedly, it’s very hard to picture any non-period music being featured prominently anywhere in Narnia.
The casting of Digory and Polly, the awful Jadis costume, the movie being set in the 1950s, Aslan potentially being voiced by a woman, now this. Does Netflix want me to hate this movie? [MODERATOR REMOVED]
@Alex Anaros Kinda funny he is Meryl Streeps son in law? So she’s voicing Aslan? [MODERATOR REMOVED]
I hope there aren’t modern-sounding songs in the film, at least until the credits. They were used in A Wrinkle in Time, which was moved to modern day, and it just didn’t work.
Meryl Streep is Mark Ronan’s Mother-In-Law. Let that sink in. I’m now certain that the rumors are true. This is bad. Very, Very bad. I might throw up.
The soundtrack to “Barbie” sounds like the kind of music you hear when you call the DMV and they put you on hold, so I cannot even fathom what kind of horrors await us if Mark does Narnia. There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this mess. Woof.
I think this is where the Meryl Streep rumors are coming from. He was probably in negotiations months ago!