BBC Studios Announces Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music to Collaborate on One Planet: Seven Worlds
New York, NY – Academy award-winner Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music will compose the theme and score respectively for BBC Planet’s latest landmark title, One Planet: Seven Worlds it was announced today at BBC Studios’ industry-leading Showcase event in Liverpool. This is the team’s third outing into the world of natural history, following their BAFTA-nominated score to Planet Earth II, and critically-acclaimed music for Blue Planet II.
Part of the new BBC Planet strand and set to air this autumn on BBC One in the UK, One Planet: Seven Worlds has gone further than any other BBC series to capture the spectacular, unseen and unexpected stories of Earth’s seven Continents. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Zimmer and his team at Bleeding Fingers Music will score the brand new seven-part series from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, due to hit screens around the world this Autumn.
Talking exclusively at the BBC Studios trade event in Liverpool, Zimmer said “To compose music for yet another ground-breaking BBC natural history show is something we were incredibly excited about, particularly after such wonderful experiences with Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II. It’s very different from previous big landmark series – each episode is a real, tangible place, a place where we live and belong and a place with its own unique feel and distinct character and that’s really exciting from a musical perspective. The character of each continent will be reflected in the music and I think that will resonate with the audience.
Attended by hundreds of buyers and in its 43rd year, BBC Studios Showcase is the world’s largest international television market hosted by a single distributor. Zimmer will be taking part in an exclusive session at the event to talk about the upcoming landmark, where he will be joined by naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, Executive Producer for One Planet: Seven Worlds Jonny Keeling, along with other filmmakers to showcase content from the internationally renowned BBC Studios Natural History Unit.
Speaking of Hans’ involvement in the series, BBC Studios’ CEO Tim Davie said: “We are thrilled that Hans and Bleeding Fingers are onboard once more for what will be an incredible series. His musical flair is unsurpassed and we cannot wait to have his immersive sonic experience enthrall us when we watch One Planet: Seven Worlds.”
Planet Earth II
Bleeding Fingers first worked with the BBC Studios NHU back in 2016 on Planet Earth II, for which they were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (original dramatic score). Following the success of the series music, a one-off special Planet Earth II Live in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall was created, which featured breath-taking footage from the highly-acclaimed BBC series. Accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show was conducted by Jessica Cottis, playing the remarkable music by Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, and Jasha Klebe and hosted from the stage by Mike Gunton, Creative Director of the Natural History Unit and Executive Producer of Planet Earth II.
Blue Planet II
The team then went on to work with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit once again to take part in an incredible collaboration with rock legends Radiohead. Creating the exclusive music track for the ‘Blue Planet II Prequel’, and inspired by the sounds and musical palette of Blue Planet II, Radiohead and Hans Zimmer recorded an orchestrally reimagined version of the Radiohead song Bloom, with Thom Yorke re-recording the vocals. The track was produced by Russell Emanuel of Bleeding Fingers Music.
As well as the prequel, Bleeding Fingers also created an iconic score for the Blue Planet II series, which was nominated by the International Film Music Critics Award for Best Original Score for a Documentary Film as well as a Jerry Goldsmith Award for Best Documentary Score.
The success of the Blue Planet II composition resulted in BBC Studios and FKP Scorpio presenting a 13 date UK & Eire live tour, which brought the wonders and mysteries of the planet’s oceans and wildlife to the UK arena stage, featuring the music of Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and David Fleming for Bleeding Fingers.
Hans Zimmer Biography
Hans Zimmer has scored more than 150 projects across all mediums, which, combined, have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honored with an Academy Award®, two Golden Globes®, three Grammys®, an American Music Award, and a Tony® Award. Zimmer’s work can currently be heard in Widows, which reteams the composer with director Steve McQueen after previously working together on the critically acclaimed 12 Years A Slave. Zimmer most recently co-scored the critically acclaimed Blade Runner 2049 alongside Benjamin Wallfisch, which earned the pair Grammy, BAFTA and Critics’ Choice nominations for Best Score. Additionally, Zimmer created the score for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, for which he was nominated for multiple awards including an Academy Award, Grammy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, and Critics’ Choice Award. Other notable scores of Zimmer’s include Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down and The Last Samurai. Upcoming projects include X-Men: Dark Phoenix which will be released by Fox June 2019 and a live-action remake of The Lion King, which will be released by Disney in July 2019. Last summer, Zimmer completed a highly successful, critically acclaimed tour across Europe and the U.S.
About Bleeding Fingers
Emmy and BAFTA nominated Bleeding Fingers Music has assembled an exceptional, sonically diverse composer roster, each selected for their unique and complementary skills to create superlative original film and television score. We believe that collaboration breeds innovation and working in an environment where the gifted are empowered to be adventurous, experimental and creatively generous results in extraordinary music.
Our 20 state-of-the-art studios based on Hans Zimmer’s world renowned campus and our best-in-class production team allow us the ability to produce music at the very highest standard.
Bleeding Fingers has created original music for productions including: Blue Planet Ii (BBC), Planet Earth II (BBC), The Simpsons (Fox), Superfly (Sony Pictures), Princess Diana: In Her Own Words (Nat Geo), Dope (Netflix), Alien Zoo (Dreamscape), Challenger: The Lost Tapes (Nat Geo), American Playboy (Amazon), Roman Empire (Netflix), Barbarians Rising (History), The World Wars (History), Big Cats (Bbc), Snatch (Crackle), The Making Of The Mob (Amc), Savage Kingdom (Nat Geo), Intervention (A&E).
About One Planet: Seven Worlds
A 7 x 60’ production from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, Tencent Penguin Pictures, ZDF and France Télévisions.
Bleeding Fingers credits for One Planet: Seven Worlds
Theme: Hans Zimmer & Jacob Shea for Bleeding Fingers Music
Original Music: Jacob Shea for Bleeding Fingers Music
Score Producers: Hans Zimmer & Russell Emanuel
About BBC Planet
The BBC Planet franchise represents the foremost natural history content from the BBC. The brand encompasses the iconic landmark series Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II which have gained a global audience of more than 1 billion people worldwide. Collectively the BBC Planet series have transformed our relationship with the world we inhabit, bringing us closer and empowering audiences to understanding the greatest issues affecting our planet and our relationship with the natural world. In February 2019 BBC Studios announced a further five BBC Planet titles in production: One Planet: Seven Worlds, Green Planet, Frozen Planet II and Planet Earth III produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Perfect Planet produced by Silverback Films for the BBC.
BBC Planet sits within BBC Earth, the global factual brand for BBC Studios. The BBC Earth brand is present in over 169 countries and across multiple platforms including branded channels, digital platforms, innovative AR and VR extensions, live events, cinema and giant screen releases, publishing and ancillary products.
About BBC Studios
BBC Studios, a global content company with British creativity at its heart, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Formed in April 2018 by the merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios, it spans content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries. BBC Studios’ award-winning British programs are internationally recognized across a broad range of genres and specialties. It has offices in 22 markets globally, including seven production bases in the UK and production bases and partnerships in a further nine countries around the world. The company, which makes over 2,500 hours of content a year, is a champion for British creativity around the world and a committed partner for the UK’s independent sector.
In the Americas, BBC Studios’ operates two production units – one in Los Angeles, responsible for ratings juggernaut and Emmy®-nominated Dancing with the Stars and multi-award-winning Life Below Zero, and the other in Brazil, where local productions Dancing Brasil and Bake Off Brasil have become breakout hits. The company manages joint venture relationships with AMC Networks for flagship channel BBC AMERICA (U.S.) – home of original series Killing Eve and global brands Dynasties, Doctor Who, and Top Gear – and with ITV for SVoD service BritBox (U.S./Canada), as well as strategic partnerships in Canada with Blue Ant Media for BBC Earth Channel and Corus for BBC Canada.
Press Contact
For more information contact:
Verity Cunningham
Communications Officer
BBC Studios
verity.cunningham@bbc.com