‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ Composer Tom Holkenborg on Starting Score From Scratch for Re-edit

When Warner Bros. greenlit Zack Snyder’s return to the troubled “Justice League,” vastly expanding and reediting the film into a new edition that debuts March 18 on HBO Max, one of Snyder’s first calls was to composer Tom Holkenborg.

The Dutch-born, L.A.-based composer (known in the pop world as Junkie XL) had written some 40 minutes of music for the original “Justice League” back in 2016, before Snyder departed the project and was replaced by Joss Whedon (who in turn brought in Danny Elfman as composer).

Holkenborg — who had collaborated with Hans Zimmer on Snyder’s two previous DC Universe movies, “Man of Steel” and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” — looked at the earlier music and asked Snyder: “Would you mind if I start over?” The director’s response, per the composer: “‘The shackles are off. Go for it. Do whatever you feel is right.’”

The result is nearly four hours of music for the long-anticipated, now critically praised, “Snyder cut”: what Holkenborg calls “my Mount Everest in film scoring” — his longest-ever score and one that calls upon all his skills from his years as an electronic-music producer, his 1980s and ’90s work with world music, and his love of classical orchestration.

“This score is extra-personal and extra-intense for me,” says Holkenborg. “The fans made this happen,” he adds, referring to internet demand for Snyder’s original after the much-maligned box office disappointment of Whedon’s 2017 “Justice League.” Holkenborg never saw that one, out of loyalty to Snyder, with whom he has now done six projects including “300: Rise of an Empire” and the forthcoming “Army of the Dead.”