Queen legend Brian May and award-wining English composer Daniel Pemberton have shared their happy memories of working together on the soundtrack for this year’s Masters Of The Universe movie.
Released in June, the film had been a long, long time coming. It was first announced in 2009 by Sony Pictures International, and since then, the script has had a number of re-writes, various directors have come and gone, and a series of actors have been linked with the role of the comic book icon. It starred Nicholas Galitzine as Adam Glenn/He-Man, 30 Seconds To Mars frontman Jared Leto as the skull-faced, blue-skinned evil sorcerer Skeletor, and Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms.
Brian May announced his involvement in the project back in March, and in a new interview with Rolling Stone, composer Pemberton says that working with Queen’s guitarist on the soundtrack was something of a dream come true.
The English composer, whose credits include TV shows Slow Horses and Black Mirror, along with films such as Molly’s Game and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, says that he is a long-time fan of Queen’s score for
1980 sci-fi movie Flash Gordon, and their work on 1986’s Highlander, and says that, from day one, he envisaged the Masters Of The Universe “as if it was written by a rock band like Queen.” He recalls a conversation with director Travis Knight which centred around the idea ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to get Brian May to play on this?’” When Pemberton realised that he and May would be at London’s Abbey Road Studios at the same time, he successfully pitched the proposal to the Queen legend.
“He-Man was a big thing with my son,” May tells Rolling Stone, “and everything that my son got into, I got into, obviously. It’s all, for me, great memories, great nostalgia… It’s like we didn’t even need to explain to each other. It just all happened very easily and with great joy.”
“During this process, I sort of realized Brian’s guitar, the Red Special, is the equivalent of the Sword of Power in He-Man,”Pemberton adds.Which sounds ridiculous, but it’s really genuine. Only one person can wield this power, which is Brian.”
“This movie will make a lot of people smile a lot,” May predicted back in March. “”I have the POWER!!!!”
(LouderSound)
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