Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
43 Q4 2018 / CINEMONTAGE by Michael Goldman portraits by Martin Cohen A lhough they are still in the frenzy of the final mix in early October, co-music editors Paul Rabjohns and J.J. George somehow find time to usher a visitor onto a Warner Bros. mixing stage to discuss their one-year-plus adventure editing the music track for a new superhero epic, James Wan's Aquaman. The film, which opens through Warner Bros. December 21, is based on the long-running DC Comics character and features Jason Momoa in the title role as the grizzled, half-human scion of a legendary undersea kingdom known as Atlantis. Aquaman grew up on land, but is eventually persuaded to reclaim his birthright as king of Atlantis by preventing nefarious forces from taking over the kingdom and launching an attack on the surface. It's a character Momoa first debuted in Warner Bros.' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), launching DC's Justice League series, and is the latest attempt by DC and its owner, Warner Bros., to expand its cinematic superhero universe. Thus, it's a "really big movie," as Rabjohns puts it, and so despite being well into the final mix, he and George are still editing some of the film's music as final visual effects and director's tweaks keep trickling in. It's obvious they have been working extremely diligently at it — Rabjohns for over a year in the film's editorial offices on the Warner lot, and George for 10 months in the Santa Monica office of composer Rupert Gregson- Williams. "To be frank, we are both dog-tired," Rabjohns admits. "Not a lot of sleep last night." George primarily worked alongside Gregson-Williams, while Rabjohns handled input from the director, producers and studio executives. But eventually, they came together, literally and figuratively, to compile all the threads. According to George, "There is so much music in the movie that, when I started, there were three other music editors — Paul, along with Jeanette Surga and Peter Oso Snell — already working on the temp. Meanwhile, the Way Down Below the Ocean… Music Fit for the King of Atlantis Aquaman. Warner Bros. Pictures & DC Comics CONTINUED ON PAGE 45 Opposite: J.J. George, left, and Paul Rabjohns.