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Tony Gilroy Returns With Behemoth! Starring Pedro Pascal

A nine-composer score with Pascal’s intensive cello training highlights the film’s experimental, music-first focus, signaling a festival-oriented release plan.

Overview

  • Mid-July first-look coverage in Vanity Fair and subsequent reports confirmed Tony Gilroy’s return to feature directing with Behemoth!, a Searchlight Pictures drama led by Pedro Pascal.
  • Pascal plays Alex, a prodigal cellist who returns to Hollywood film scoring, and he appears in nearly every scene while portraying about 25 years of the character’s life.
  • Pascal told reporters that learning to play the cello convincingly was extraordinarily difficult and required sustained, intensive training that he described as far tougher than his stunt work.
  • Gilroy assembled a Behemoth! Collective of nine composers — including Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts, and Lukas Frank — so each fictional film cue in the story has a distinct musical voice.
  • The production weathered casting changes — Oscar Isaac left early and Will Arnett replaced David Harbour — and Searchlight has not set a release date while a trailer is reported as forthcoming, leaving the film positioned for a fall festival rollout that could affect awards and single-composer eligibility.