Christopher Rhoten
Rebooting something as beloved as Man on Fire takes a certain degree of confidence. While the Tony Scott film received lukewarm reception from critics way back in 2004, time has turned it into an unambiguous action classic. The film has influenced everything from Taken to Max Payne 3 to Denzel Washington’s own Equalizer franchise, and that legacy is due in part to Harry Gregson-Williams’s memorable score—a rhythmic mix of Santana, pulsing electronic, and sweeping strings.
Enter Max Aruj, the man tasked with finding a new voice to accompany showrunner Kyle Killen’s reimagining of the novel, which inspired both the Scott film and the 1987 adaptation of the same name. The composer approaches Netflix’s reboot with a kind of confidence that feels earned. Describing Aruj as a man aflame would be groan-worthy, but the moniker wouldn’t be totally inappropriate. Having dipped his toes in not only film but also video games and, of course, television, Aruj’s variety and volume have quickly propelled him to the top ranks and made him a household name in Hollywood. Coming off the heels of the massive blockbuster The Final Reckoning last summer, his latest project is a return to the action genre, but the exotic locations and complex characters offer a fresh puzzle for the LA native to solve.
Ahead of the release of Netflix’s Man on Fire, TV Obsessive’s Christopher Rhoten sat down with Max to discuss the pressures of a reboot, working with collaborators, concealing character motivations, and moving on from Mission: Impossible. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
TV Obsessive: How did you get involved with the project, and what made it something that you wanted to take on?
Well, I heard about it through my agent and a music supervisor buddy named Trygge Toven. He had kind of let me know that they were looking for someone. I got introduced on a call and met a bunch of the Netflix team. And then the production team. And we just got along well.
The original film is a classic, and as soon as I heard that [the reboot] was even a possibility, I was thrilled. I thought it would be a fantastic series because the film is so iconic. So I was on board from the get-go.
Before writing any music at all, what were your ideas? By the end, how did they evolve?
When I first got signed on, I asked some questions: “Are you looking for this? Are you looking for that?” And then they sort of said, “We want you to come in with a vision—we want you to come in with an idea.” I watched the first episode, then started writing some suites. I had an initial instinct from the get-go that we needed to feel the intimacy between Poe and Creasy. So that has to play in; their relationship needs to be the foundation of the show. And then seeing him unfold into this action hero, we need to sense that transformation.
So I wrote kind of his hero theme, which is track 23 in the album, “Man on Fire.” And then I wrote Poe’s theme. I pitched those and wrote some action tracks for some of the hand-to-hand combat, and they were well received by the group. Then they said, “Okay, please go ahead and score the first episode.” And I said, “Great,” and then I went for it. Most of the concepts that I wanted to test out worked well. I had to do some fixes and some rewrites as usual, but in general, my interpretation of [this] great story worked, so I knew it was gonna be a good process.
With a reboot, specifically, do you feel any pressure to live up to the original? Do you have to deal with that at all?
No, we were doing our own thing. Of course, the original film and all the component parts, including the score, are so great. All I knew was that it had to be good. I didn’t have to worry about taking parts from the last film and then redoing them. It was more carte blanche, but [the goal was] just to make a great series. So I was up for that.
Even the original was based on the novel, which some people might not know.
That’s right!
There are collaborations with Brazilian vocalist Maroka Paris and Portuguese percussionist Ayuri Olivera. I’m curious: How did those come about, and how did they shape the score?
The team at Netflix, Sam and Ashley, introduced me to them. We talked about what we were looking for, we talked about the location, and we talked about the story. And we were looking for performers who would help tell the story. After I wrote the initial suites, I was thinking, “Okay, what’s going to make this unique?” Then I heard about Maroka on one of our calls, and I thought, “I would love to meet that guy.” We recorded him, and it worked so great. He did this incredible vocal percussion and these other legato vocalizations that were so beautiful, and we knew they would work.
And then, from the perspective of action, motion, and propulsion, Yuri is someone we were also introduced to. And he just hit it out of the park—he was such a joy to talk with. We worked it in a few times throughout the show. He was always game and went above and beyond just playing all these different layers. We were spoiled for choice [when making] some of these cues.
Beyond those, were there any specific instruments that you leaned on? Anything unusual?
Well, one of the things that we did was record an amazing guitarist named Adam Tressler. So he did the cavaquinho, he did the bandolim, the tiple, and then we also had baritone guitar, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar. And that helped bring this flavor that made it clear we were in a foreign place. And just to give it a special tone that would set us apart from kind of a regular action score.
I watched an interview for a film you did called The Ice Road, and in that interview, you said that for a film like that, the themes of the villains and the heroes need to be very distinct. For a story like this, and a character like Creasy, who’s usually portrayed as more complex than a lot of action characters, did you feel a sense of freedom to blur the line? Or make the tone of his theme a little different?
Absolutely. That’s a great question. Creasy, he’s always struggling. He has this darker side to him that tells us he needs healing, and what’s so beautiful about the story and what Kyle Killen, the showrunner, did is that he delves deeper into how Poe and Creasy work together. They need each other. And Creasy has this kind of darker past, and the music can really lean into that and be very internal when he’s suffering. And then on the flip side of that, when he’s making headway and really giving it to the villains, it can explode and get exciting and beautiful and melodic.
So what’s great about this whole series is that it allows for both of those things. And to contrast it with someone like Liam Neeson: He’s more bold with everything he does, and he’s thoughtful, but Creasy is far more introverted, really. So the range was bigger with him.
Speaking of range, you’re an artist. Is there a particular piece from the music that you’re proud of or you’d like to just, you know, maybe brag about a little bit?
I would have to say the second-to-last track on the album, “Man on Fire,” which is really what we’re talking about, where it starts very slow and intimate. It features Maroka, the amazing vocalist. And then it [transitions] into a more melodic theme, which we recorded with the full orchestra. Well, with half an orchestra, I’ll say. And we did that in Budapest, and they did such an amazing job. There’s big, beautiful percussion in there. So it’s kind of the combination of all of my favorite elements of writing music in that it’s got unique sounds, it’s got a theme, it’s got a live orchestra. Hopefully, the audience hears it and really enjoys that track.
As a contrast, was there any character, theme, or motif that you found maybe a little difficult to develop, or something that kind of kept you up at night?
Max: Yeah, I won’t say who it is, but there was a character that unfolded over the whole course of the season. So the first time you see him is not the same as the last. So the question was always, when do you state his theme in its full form? Because you don’t want to give anything away too soon, and you don’t want to lead the audience. So you have this challenge of watching as the viewer, staying neutral. You need to let the acting, the character, and the story tell you when to shift, when to change, and when to evolve.
So the question is, when do we do that? And it was much later than I thought, actually. That was a great challenge.
That’s really cool. It seems obvious, but I never even thought of how the score would try to hide a twist as well, not just the story.
Totally. If you were to play one ominous tone or one dark theme over a character too soon, people would know. They’d be like, “Why did I just hear that?” The audience can really sense things. They might not be able to articulate exactly what it is about a brass tone or about an unusual leap that makes them feel off, but they know.
You’ve worked across film, television, and video games as well. What would you say is different or most unique about scoring a show in particular?
Well, the beauty of a show is that you can have an idea and you get so much runway with it. With all these variations, you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m gonna try that,” and there’s real estate for it. So, as a composer, writing the melodies is one thing, but the real joy of being a composer is theme and variations and writing all these new versions that are a different angle of the same melody. So having a great show like this is the best situation, one where you just get to try all this different stuff and see what sticks.
To wrap up, you wrote music for the last three Mission: Impossible films, which I’m a massive fan of, by the way. Now that it’s been a year since those movies ended (or so they say), have you had a chance to look back and reflect on being a part of that franchise? What are some lessons that you learned or things that you’ll never forget?
So many lessons and so many things I’ll never forget. I moved to London for a year to do that project. So it was, I would say without a doubt, the most momentous year of my life, I think. And when it first came out, through various screenings and premieres, I watched it seven times. [And that’s just] in its completed form, after I’d been watching it constantly for a year. After that, I think I watched it maybe once or twice more with a particular friend or a group of friends who hadn’t caught it.
Time is so fascinating because you look at a scene and you think, “Oh my God, I remember how hard I worked on that.” Honestly, I’m sure every time I see it, I’ll think a variation of, “Oh my God, that one scene, how did I come up with that?” or, “Didn’t we have like seven other versions of that?” But I look back on the time so fondly—even though it was enormously difficult, the people that I met there and worked with were so, so unforgettable.
Man on Fire is streaming now on Netflix.
