1. Michael Giacchino
Why Him? There are numerous reasons the job is his to lose: He's risen to the A-list of composers ridiculously quickly. After starting in TV (Alias, Felicity) and doing video game work (Medal of Honor), Giacchino made the jump to feature film with his terrific score for The Incredibles, which was widely hailed as the biggest breakthrough moment by any composer since David Arnold's ID4 score. It's fun, playful, action oriented and just all around great. He's JJ Abrams go-to guy, scoring all of his movies (they were childhood friends), and basically Pixar's resident composer, having done Ratatouille, Up (which he won an Oscar for), Cars 2 and numerous shorts since The Incredibles. He was the composer for LOST during all 6 seasons, and is currently composing Fringe, which makes all his film work done at the same time, even more impressive. He's the type of composer that believes in the old school melodies and themes for different characters that all work together to create a broad canvas of a score. This is primarily because he's the only composer who's outwardly admitted to having been directly influenced by John Williams and his style. (He's also the youngest person on this list.) And, oh yeah - Steven Spielberg has all but officially anointed him the spiritual successor to John Williams' crown. Watch the Super 8 special featurette on the music to see Spiels gush over Giacchino like a fanboy gushes over Spielberg. The main reason he says all this is because Giacchino writes/records his music for/by a live orchestra - an increasingly diminishing practice. Lastly, the biggest reason for Giacchino to get the job is because, if
my prediction holds true, Brad Bird will get the directing job for Episode VII. And with the exception of The Iron Giant, Giacchino has scored every Bird movie, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol being the most recent - and the final example of a composer jumping into an existing franchise. (He actually jumped in with JJ and MI:3, but still.) So there you have it. Any of these men could do a terrific job at composing Episode VII's score, if John Williams doesn't, but Michael Giacchino is the number one choice. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, I'm Savage Ron, reminding you to stay savage!