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How do televisions composers find inspiration in each project? Which past scores do they really love with a passion? And how do they feel about the rise of AI music?

For our Meet the Experts: TV Composers roundtable, Gold Derby gathered six Emmy-nominated artists to discuss highlights of their work both this season and throughout their careers. Joining us were The Americas composers Anže Rozman and Kara Talve, Chef's Table composers Duncan Thum and David Bertok, The Penguin composer Mick Giacchino, and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story composer Ilan Eshkeri.

Watch the full group panel above. Click each person's name to watch their individual interview.

Gold Derby: Great composers know how to balance where music should lead and when it should step back, like highlighting only the key lines in a book. What strategies do you use to find that balance perfectly?

Duncan Thum: That's a great question. I...

When the composers of the nature documentary series The Americas first took on the project, they first had to determine the style and scope of the journey. Most importantly, would their music score have specific motifs for each region and animal, or would it be simply an overall theme for everything.

And now Anže Rozman and Kara Talve are Emmy-nominated this year for their evocative score for NBC's acclaimed nature documentary series The Americas. The duo (who also happen to be a married couple) are nominated alongside acclaimed composer Hans Zimmer, recently joined Gold Derby's Meet the Experts: TV Composers panel to discuss their work on the show. (Watch our full interview above.)

See ‘The Americas’ producers on NBC’s ambitious docuseries

The Americas is a sweeping exploration of the natural wonders and diverse wildlife of North and South America, showcasing the unique landscapes, ecosystems, and species that define the Western Hemisphere.

Apple TV+ is set to return with its answer to Planet Earth, season 3 of Prehistoric Planet. As it evolves into a new chapter, it promises a richer scope and ambition than ever before because it will offer expert insight into the Pleistocene epoch of the Ice Age.

It is set to cover everything from dinosaurs to saber-toothed cats, mammoths, to dwarf elephants, and everything in between. The show is produced by BBC Studios and will feature narration by Tom Hiddleston. The previous seasons were narrated by Sir David Attenborough. The show will air globally on November 26, 2025, following the franchise’s rich scientific grounding and acclaimed visual realism.

Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet Season 3 Will Break New Ground

Season 3 of Prehistoric Planet will mark a major temporal and thematic leap for the show. While the first two seasons showed us the Cretaceous life phase, from the coastal ecosystems to the ice worlds,...

Check out first-look images from Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, which picks up where the Apple TV+ docuseries Prehistoric Planet season 2 left off, give or take a few million years and the planetwide extinction of the dinosaurs. The first season of Prehistoric Planet was released in 2022, with its followup hitting screens the following year.

Executive produced by Jon Favreau (The Mandalorian) and Mike Gunton (Planet Earth III), the series pairs cutting-edge visual technology with the latest scientific research to present plausible life stories of long-extinct animals.

ScreenRant is able to offer an exclusive look at five images from Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age which highlight a number of species that will be seen in the series. Rendered in 4K, the images show a woolly rhino, a glyptotherium, an African scimitar toothed cat, a rock-climbing sloth, and an American scimitar toothed cat. For information about how the looks and behaviors of the creatures in Prehistoric Planet are decided,...

Apple TV+ has announced Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, a sweeping new installment of the award-winning natural history series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton.

The series is produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit (Planet Earth) and narrated by Golden Globe Award and Olivier Award winner Tom Hiddleston (Earthsounds).

The five-part docuseries, set to premiere globally on November 26, 2025, invites viewers into a dramatic new era of prehistoric life, millions of years after the extinction of the dinosaurs — an era shaped by ice, the intense fight to survive and the rise of a new cast of giants: the iconic megafauna.

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age uses the latest scientific research and cutting-edge visual effects to bring this frozen world to life like never before, unveiling the spectacular habitats and inhabitants of ancient Earth for a one-of-a-kind experience.

From towering woolly mammoths to elusive snow sloths, terrifying saber-toothed tigers to resilient...

Beyoncé is facing some particularly familiar competition for an Emmy this year: her own husband.

As the 2025 Emmy nominations were announced on Tuesday, both Queen Bey and Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) were listed as nominees in the outstanding variety special (live) category; Beyoncé for her Beyoncé Bowl halftime show for the NFL’s Christmas Day game on Netflix, and Jay as one of the executive producers for Kendrick Lamar’s Apple Music Super Bowl Lix Halftime Show.

It’s hard to track how many times a husband and wife have ever competed against one another in the same Emmy category in the past, though it’s certainly not a common occurrence.

Both Beyoncé and Lamar’s halftime shows were critically lauded and groundbreaking. Beyoncé performed the first-ever Christmas Day NFL halftime show, while Lamar broke records for the most-viewed Super Bowl halftime show of all time with over 133 million viewers.

A father-daughter composing team was nominated, Hans Zimmer could win his first Emmy, and a music supervisor was nominated for three different shows — just some of the surprises among nominations for the 2024-2025 Emmys unveiled Tuesday morning by the Television Academy.

Thomas Newman and his daughter Julia Newman were nominated for their music for Netflix’s miniseries “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” a first in Emmy history for a two-generation, same-family collaboration on a single television score. And in another musical-family story, Oscar and Emmy winner Michael Giacchino’s son Mick Giacchino was nominated for his original music for HBO’s “The Penguin.”

Zimmer, who has two Oscars and four Grammys, has never won an Emmy but could this year with his nomination in the documentary music category for NBC’s “The Americas” (shared with fellow composers Anze Rozman and Kara Talve).

Music supervisor Gabe Hilfer dominated the...

There are nature documentaries that show you things you’ve never seen before. Then there’s “The Americas,” which shows its viewers something literally no human had ever seen before.

Marine scientists had long speculated that sperm whales dive all the way to the ocean floor to hunt for food. But they had never actually observed the whales doing so. How could anyone? As the executive producer of “The Americas” and creative director of the BBC Studios Natural History Unit Mike Gunton said to IndieWire as part of our Usg University virtual panel series, “Sperm whales kind of break all the rules of biology because it’s so challenging for any living creature to go from the surface of the sea all the way down there — the pressure change is huge. And then the camera had to do the same thing.”

The distance from the surface to the seafloor off...

Gold Derby's top news stories for April 2, 2025.

Watch the Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld trailer

Disney+ has released the trailer (watch below) and key art for Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, Lucasfilm Animation's new anthology series of animated shorts. Created by Dave Filoni, chief creative officer of Lucasfilm, the show premieres May 4, aka the unofficial Star Wars holiday that sounds just like "may the force be with you." Tales of the Underworld is the next incarnation of 2022's Tales of the Jedi and 2024's Tales of the Empire, and this time focuses on the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars galaxy through the eyes of former assassin Asajj Ventress and outlaw Cad Bane.

Hans Zimmer to receive lifetime achievement honor

Two-time Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer is this year's career achievement honoree at the Banff World Media Festival. The trophy will be bestowed at the Rockie Awards in...

Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer is heading this June to the Banff World Media Festival, where he will be recognized with a career achievement award. Zimmer will receive the honor during the Rockie Awards on June 9 — repping the first time Banff’s Gala Honours will be combined with the Rockie Awards International Program Competition.

Besides the award, Zimmer will also take part in an “In Conversation” panel, along with composers from the Emmy winning Bleeding Fingers Music collective that he co-founded in 2013. That will include a discussion with Anže Rozman, Ho-Ling Tang, Jacob Shea, Kara Talve and Sami Goldberg on the role of Bleeding Fingers in film and television scoring.

“Hans Zimmer has not only redefined cinematic music with his groundbreaking scores but has also revolutionized the industry through Bleeding Fingers, fostering a new generation of composers and crafting immersive soundscapes for film, television, and beyond. His influence extends far beyond the screen,...

Despite all the musical superstars who entered this year’s Emmy competition, only one – Ed Sheeran – managed to score when the 75th annual Emmy Award nominations were announced Wednesday.

Sheeran was nominated (along with co-writers Max Martin and Foy Vance) for the song “A Beautiful Game” for the season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso,” one of two songs from the popular Apple TV+ series that made it into the music-and-lyrics category.

Emmy’s 550-member music peer group ignored the original songs entered by Dolly Parton, David Byrne, Steve Martin, Kid Cudi, Donald Glover and Lainey Wilson, as well as those from such Oscar-winning tunesmiths as Alan Menken, Steven Schwartz, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

Among the seven music categories, a surprising number of first-time nominees was recognized, and more than one-fourth of all the nominees in the five composition and songwriting categories are women, another positive sign of change in the Hollywood musical landscape.

As the second season of Prehistoric Planet concluded earlier last week, fans have been raving. Since its grand debut last year, the documentary series has been heavily praised on all levels. From its groundbreaking visuals, to its unique take on popular dinosaur species, and even its sweeping musical score. But what if I told you that the dinosaurs depicted in the series had a more hands-on involvement than you’d imagine? Check out the video below.

The Hadro Cello. A custom instrument made for #AppleTVPlus #PrehistoricPlanet -----------@karatalve @BFCustomMusic @Impact24PR pic.twitter.com/eGNGvpCkgO — Anže Rozman (@ARozmanComposer) May 9, 2023

Your eyes and ears are not fooling you, that is what is called a Hadro Cello. It is what happens when you take a ¼ cello and a moose femur bone. The Hadro Cello is one of many custom instruments made with real bones, fossils, or pieces of 200-million-year-old petrified wood! Another...

Prehistoric Planet season 2 will be released next week on Apple TV+ with new prehistoric creatures, new fascinating behaviors, and more. The dinosaurs in Prehistoric Planet feel more real than ever before, and even more care has gone into filling out the prehistoric world in the show’s second season. The five-night event series premieres May 22nd on Apple TV+, and a new episode will be released each following evening.

The visual world of Prehistoric Planet is immersive and captivating, but it is made even more impactful by the show’s musical score. Prolific film composer Hans Zimmer contributed music to both seasons of the show, as did Andrew James Christie, Kara Talve, and Anže Rozman. Screen Rant is excited to premiere a piece from the Prehistoric Planet season 2 soundtrack in advance of its release.

Related: Prehistoric Planet Season 2 Producers On Accurately Portraying Dinosaurs

Check out “Prehistoric Planet Suite” by Anže Rozman,...

"Explore five new worlds filled with danger and adventure." How many of you watched the first season of this dinosaur series? It's educational and entertaining! Apple has revealed a new official trailer for Season 2 of the Prehistoric Planet series, made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit examining the life of dinos. We featured many trailers for this last year when it was first premiering, releasing in May for streaming on Apple TV+. This series brings Earth's history to life like never before. And in Season 2 - new dinosaurs, new habitats. It's narrated by Sir David Attenborough with an original score by multiple Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer, who is back again working with Anže Rozman and Kara Talve for Bleeding Fingers Music. Season 2 continues to bring Earth's history to life like never before, presenting new dinosaurs, new habitats and new scientific discoveries while taking viewers around the world in an epic five-night adventure.

Take a trip 66 million years into the past with season two of Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet. The second season’s official trailer for the groundbreaking natural history event series introduces new dinosaurs and five new habitats, with Sir David Attenborough guiding the journey as narrator.

Apple TV+’s Prehistoric Planet 2 will air over five nights, beginning on May 22, 2023.

Jon Favreau, Mike Gunton, and BBC Studios Natural History Unit (Planet Earth) serve as executive producers. Bleeding Fingers Music’s Hans Zimmer and Andrew Christie wrote the theme, and Zimmer, Anže Rozman, and Kara Talve composed the score.

The new season will be accompanied by the companion podcast “Prehistoric Planet: The Official Podcast.” Debuting May 8th, the podcast will feature executive producers Gunton and Favreau, along with expert paleontologists and animators, discussing the technology involved in bringing the dinosaurs to life.

Prehistoric Planet 2 Details, Courtesy of Apple TV+:

Exploring five new habitats,...

Apple TV+ debuted the first official trailer for “Prehistoric Planet 2” on Tuesday, the five-part event sequel series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton and BBC Studios Natural History Unit (“Planet Earth”). Emmy Award winner Sir David Attenborough returns again as the narrator, while Hans Zimmer is back to compose the score with Anže Rozman and Kara Talve.

Said Apple in a statement, “Exploring five new habitats, audiences can expect to be transported to the active volcanoes of India, the marshlands of Madagascar, the deep oceans near North America, and so much more. Throughout this season, the series and its creators take you up close into dinosaurs’ habitats to experience the dangers, the adventures, and even the camaraderie between species unlike we’ve seen before.”

Watch the full trailer below.

“Prehistoric Planet 2” will debut on May 22 and its five episodes will roll out across consecutive days on Apple TV...

Apple TV+’s groundbreaking Prehistoric Planet will return for season two on May 22, 2023. Ahead of its premiere, the streaming service released the first teaser trailer for the award-winning natural history event series.

Season two will feature dinosaurs that have never been seen on the screen, including:

Isisaurus – An Indian sauropod that made its home in an extreme volcanic region known as the Deccan Traps, laying eggs in volcanic heated terrain. Pectinodon – a fierce hunter and fond parent, this bird-like North American feathered dinosaur was part of the troodontid family. A sharp-clawed, long-legged predator, it was an adaptable hunter, its teeth and jaws suggesting that many sorts of small animals would have been on the menu. Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx – The biggest creatures ever to soar the skies, these gargantuan pterosaurs (prehistoric flying reptiles) were the size of a giraffe or small aircraft and are some of “Prehistoric Planet’s” most charismatic characters.

Apple TV+ has shared the teaser for the second season of the award-winning natural history series ‘Prehistoric Planet.’

Set to debut globally in a five-day, week-long event on Apple TV+ starting on May 22, 2023, the new episodes transport viewers millions of years in the past to discover our world — and the dinosaurs that roamed it — all in extraordinary detail. This teaser traverses the globe to a land before our time, using the latest scientific research and stunning visual effects to bring audiences never-before-seen species on-screen, including notable dinosaurs new this season:

Isisaurus – An Indian sauropod that made its home in an extreme volcanic region known as the Deccan Traps, laying eggs in volcanic heated terrain. Pectinodon – a fierce hunter and fond parent, this bird-like North American feathered dinosaur was part of the troodontid family. A sharp-clawed, long-legged predator, it was an adaptable hunter, its teeth and jaws suggesting that many sorts...

"Prehistoric Planet", the nature documentary TV series about dinosaurs, narrated by David Attenborough, with a soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve and Anže Rozman, streams Season Two May 23, 2023 on AppleTV+:

"... using CG-animation, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals are featured living around the globe in the 'Late Cretaceous' period, 66 million years ago ('Maastrichtian'), just before the dinosaurs’ extinction, depicting prehistoric life using current palaeontological research by including accurately feathered dinosaurs, and probable speculative animal behavior..."

Click the images to enlarge...

“Prehistoric Planet” – exec produced by Jon Favreau and narrated by naturalist David Attenborough – has been given a second season order from Apple TV+.

The five-episode season promises new dinosaurs, habitats and scientific discoveries when it returns for a week-long event on May 22 as well as glimpses of fan favorites such as Tyrannosaurus rex.

Favreau returns to exec produce alongside Mike Gunton and BBC Studios Natural History Unit while Hans Zimmer, Anže Rozman and Kara Talve for Bleeding Fingers Music provide a soaring prehistoric score.

The show combines high tech wildlife filmmaking alongside state-of-the-art technology and insight from dinosaur and natural history experts with support from the photorealistic visual effects of Mpc (“The Lion King”) applied to concept art created by Jellyfish Pictures (“The Book of Boba Fett”). The result is an immersive experience that transports the viewer back to the prehistoric age.

“The award-winning first season of ‘Prehistoric Planet’ brought...

Prehistoric Planet will be back for a second season. Apple TV+ has renewed the award-winning natural history series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton and BBC Studios Natural History Unit (Planet Earth). Narrated by David Attenborough, the five-episode second season will premiere globally in a five-day week-long event beginning May 22 on Apple TV+.

“The award-winning first season of Prehistoric Planet brought dinosaurs back to life in a way global audiences had never seen before,” said Jay Hunt, Creative Director, Europe, Apple TV+. “Collaborating with the brilliant Jon Favreau and our fantastic partners at the BBC, we are thrilled that viewers will once again have the opportunity to be immersed in our world as it was 66 million years ago and to experience even more weird and wonderful creatures.”

Prehistoric Planet combines award-winning wildlife filmmaking, the latest paleontology learnings and state-of-the-art technology to unveil the spectacular habitats and inhabitants of...

Camila Cabello and Hans Zimmer are joining forces to create a new tune for “Frozen Planet II”.

Variety reports that the duo are collaborating on a song titled “Take Me Back Home” for the six-episode documentary about the Earth’s iciest regions, including the North and South poles.

“Frozen Planet II” is a sequel to the 2011 series which followed life in the Arctic and Antarctic, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Read More: Camila Cabello Roasts Blake Shelton For Mispronouncing Her Name In New ‘The Voice’ Promo

“Take Me Back Home” will debut on the “Greg James Show” on BBC Radio 1 on Aug. 26, with an introduction to the track by Cabello and Zimmer. The first trailer for the show, featuring the song, will also be released across social media.

“To be able to combine my passion for the planet we live on and my music is a dream come true...

‘Havana’ hitmaker Camila Cabello and legendary composer Hans Zimmer have joined forces to write and record the new song ‘Take Me Back Home’ for the six-episode docuseries, ‘Frozen Planet II’, reports Billboard.

The track will first premiere on BBC Radio 1 on Friday, August 26 ahead of a first-look trailer for the Sir David Attenborough-narrated series. According to Billboard, BBC announced the collaboration recently noting that ‘Take Me Back Home’ features Cabello’s vocals with the orchestration of Zimmer.

Billboard further states that Cabello and Zimmer worked with arranger Anze Rozman and producer Russell Emanuel for Bleeding Fingers Music. “My life is a dream,” Cabello wrote on Twitter, where she shared the news with fans.

In a statement to the BBC, quoted by Billboard, she added: “To be able to combine my passion for the planet we live on and my music is a dream come true – never mind also...

Singer-songwriter Camila Cabello and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer have joined forces to write a new song for “Frozen Planet II.” The new track will be featured in the debut extended trailer for the highly-anticipated David Attenborough-narrated series.

A sequel to the 2011 series, “Frozen Planet II” is a six-episode journey through Earth’s icy regions including the North and South poles, produced by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. The collaboration on “Take Me Back Home” marks the first time a new song has been written to support a BBC One natural history show.

BBC Radio 1 will globally debut “Take Me Back Home” on the Greg James Show on Aug. 26 with a little help from Cabello and Zimmer themselves ahead of the “Frozen Planet II” first-look trailer’s debut at 12:00 p.m. UK BST that same day on BBC Earth and BBC Studios Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts.

Click here to read the full article.

A decade ago, while on location in Africa with natural history documentary icon David Attenborough, Michael Gunton, who serves as creative director of factual at BBC Studios, had the idea to do another series that goes back in time — effectively BBC’s Planet Earth but with dinosaurs. What then seemed impossible proved to be a real option in more recent years with the evolution of technology and by teaming with innovative filmmaker Jon Favreau.

The result is Prehistoric Planet, an ambitious five-part Apple TV+ docuseries produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit and narrated by Attenborough that takes viewers back 66 million years to the late Cretaceous period and features nearly 100 CG dinosaurs and other animals.

Series producer/showrunner Tim Walker credits Favreau (who executive produced the series with Gunton) as the one who handed the team the “keys to the time machine.

Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer admits he’s been up and working since 3 a.m. when he calls Variety from London. With his work ethic, it’s no surprise — he’s currently in the middle of his European tour, and still found time this past year to pen scores for “Dune,” HBO’s “The Survivor,” “No Time to Die,” “Army of Thieves,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and Apple TV+’s “Prehistoric Planet.”

For the natural history series “Prehistoric Planet,” Zimmer collaborated with collective Bleeding Fingers Music and co-composers Anže Rozman and Kara Talve says the key was finding music that resonated today.

Rozman of Bleeding Fingers Music says, “We decided to try to make instruments out of bones, dinosaur bone replicas, fossils, and rocks. We bought a bunch of these at the shop in Sedona and started pondering what kind of creation we could make. We enlisted the help of Chaz (Charles...