Metallica to compose special music for Disney’s Jungle Cruise

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If the boat in Disney's JUNGLE CRUISE is a-rockin' it's likely due to the fact that Metallica has come a-knockin'.

The legendary heavy metal band Metallica are set to raise their horns while composing music for Disney's JUNGLE CRUISE, which is based on the popular Disney Parks ride and stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. It's recently been revealed that Metallica will create an orchestral version of their 1991 hit "Nothing Else Matters" with composer James Newton Howard, specifically for the upcoming film. Previously, the band had presented fans with an orchestral version of the song for their live 1991 album S&M (an abbreviation of Symphony and Metallica).

"It really goes back to [Disney production president] Sean Bailey, who is a lifelong rock fan," Metallic drummer Lars Ulrich recently explained to Collider, "and is just all-around one of the greatest, most friendly, generous, warm, and embracing people you'll find in the music business."

As it turns out, Metallica became a part of the Jungle Cruise score at Bailey's request.

"We've gotten to know each other well," said Ulrich. "My wife and I are big Disney fans, so there's a great friendship there, and he's always looked for the right match where there was a way that Metallica could contribute to some project of theirs. This was the right fit, with Sean leading the calvary, and with James Newton Howard and his track record, and what he’s done.”

While I would have preferred Metallica's "Battery" or "Ride the Lightning" as a part of the film's soundtrack, it sounds as if Howard has a very specific vision for how "Nothing Else Matters" will be included in the upcoming film.

"It’s kind of an interesting morph because it’s kind of — and I don’t want to give too much of it away — but it’s a very unusual morph in that it’s kind of his arrangement of “Nothing Else Matters” that we’re playing. We wrote the song, but he took the song and rearranged it to fit something specific in the film — and obviously, I’m not going to give any of that away — but we then kind of took on his version of it. I think that’s all that should be said," Ulrich teased about the song's inclusion.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (THE SHALLOWS, ORPHAN), Disney's JUNGLE CRUISE is based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element. The film stars Dwayne Johnson as Captain Frank and Emily Blunt as Lily Houghton. Also set to appear in Disney's next money-printing adventure are actors Paul Giamatti, Jesse Plemons, Veronica Falcón, Edgar Ramirez, and Jack Whitehall.

Disney's JUNGLE CRUISE is scheduled to set sail in theaters on July 30, 2021.