New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Walt Disney Records releases the soundtrack from Disney's original live-action film "Haunted Mansion" today. The score is brilliantly "executed" by Oscar® and Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers, plus a "lively" track from the "spirit-rousing" New Orleans octet, The Soul Rebels. Listen on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music.
"Haunted Mansion" is inspired by the eponymous classic theme park attraction, and tells the tale of a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.
Directed by Justin Simien, the film features an all-star cast ensemble including Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson,
Danny DeVito,
Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon and
Daniel Levy, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto as The Hatbox Ghost.
The film's producers are Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, with Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman serving as executive producers. The film opens in theaters this Friday, July 28. Tickets can be purchased on Fandango, the nation's leading online movie ticketing service, or wherever tickets are sold.
The soundtrack transplants listeners directly into the beloved Disney theme park attraction, with suspenseful and buoyant dynamics which evoke all the thrills of the ride. Said Kris Bowers, "I've always wanted to have the opportunity to write a score like this, and growing up in LA, I've been a fan of the Haunted Mansion ride and the music from the ride since I was a kid. I had an incredible time writing music for all of the thrills, scares and exciting moments in this film, and Justin and I worked hard to get as much of the iconic sounds of the ride and the original Grim Grinning
Ghosts theme as possible."
Kris Bowers is an award-winning pianist, filmmaker and composer known for his thought-provoking playing style, creating genre-defying film compositions that pay homage to his classical and jazz roots. Bowers has composed music for film, television, documentary, and video games. He has collaborated with musicians and artists across genres, including Kobe Bryant, Mahershala Ali, Justin Simien, Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes.
Bowers' work will be heard in Disney's "Haunted Mansion" starring Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish and Lakeith Stanfield, to be released July 28, and later this year in the highly anticipated "The
Color Purple," to be released December 20 and the 2024 biopic for Paramount, Bob Marley: One Love.
Most recently, Bowers stars in, produced, and scored the documentary "
Anthem" with director Pete Nicks, which follows Bowers and Grammy winning music producer DJ Dahi as they take a musical journey traveling across
America in a bold experiment to reimagine America's
National Anthem. The documentary premiered in June at Tribeca Film Festival and debuted on Hulu on June 28.
His ability to work in any genre and medium is evident in his past works, which include Marvel's "Secret Invasion," Searchlight's "Chevalier," Netflix's "Bridgerton" spinoff, "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story," "The Snowy Day" (for which he won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding
Music Direction and Composition in 2017), "Dear White People," "Green Book," "Black Monday," "Bad Hair," "The United States vs. Billie Holiday," "Space Jam: A New Legacy," "Respect," and "King Richard."
Bowers received four consecutive Emmy nominations for his work on Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries, "When They See Us" (2019), "Mrs. America" (2020) and a double nomination for his work on "Bridgerton" (2021).
Bowers has also received two Grammy nominations, one for "Best Score
Soundtrack For Visual Media" for his work on "Bridgerton" (2022) and "Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella" for "
Blue Skies" (2020). In addition to his many musical ventures in the works, Bowers is also an accomplished filmmaker, with multiple projects in development through Et Al Studios Productions, a production company himself and his wife Briana Henry founded.
In 2020, Bowers also co-directed the documentary short film, "A Concerto is A Conversation," with documentary filmmaker Ben Proudfoot. The film, a New York Times Op-Doc - executive produced by Ava DuVernay, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Further to this, he has created original music for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater (alongside choreographer Kyle Abraham), has worked with the American Youth Symphony to create a Violin Concerto premiered at LA's Disney Hall (2020), Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned Bowers to create a new horn concerto (2021) and he has collaborated with brands like Bang & Olufsen, Chevy and Krug Champagne.
