"Joker" composer Hildor Gudnadóttir has confirmed that he will be composing music for Sarah Polley's "Bell Jar" starring Billie Eilish.

Composer Hildor Gunadottir, who won an Academy Award for "Joker," is already deep into "The Bell Jar." The recently completed Sylvia Plath adaptation of Sarah Polley gives pop icon Billie Eilish her first starring role while offering the composer a new kind of creative partnership. “[Working with an Oscar-winning musician like Eilish] makes […]

Composer Hildor Gunadottir, who won an Oscar for "Joker," is already deep into "The Bell Jar."

The recently completed Sylvia Plath adaptation of Sarah Polley gives pop icon Billie Eilish her first starring role while offering the composer a new kind of creative partnership.

"[Working with an Oscar-winning musician like Eilish] makes a huge difference," Gwendothtir tells Variety. "You know he understands the process of writing music, so what you write can really resonate with him." RELATED STORIES CJ ENM, MBC Group sign long-term deal to expand Korean entertainment across Middle East, North Africa, a 'natural next step' (Exclusive) Marion Cotillard as Jury President of Morocco Film Festival.

Building on a relationship built on the 2022 Oscar-winning film "Women Talk," Guanadotir joined Polly's latest project early and wrote themes the filmmaker could play on set. He was equally eager to connect with Eilish before the singer went on camera. Popular in Variety

"We talked about what we envisioned for the music and how we could translate Silvia's experiences into it," says Guðnadóttir. For me, the core of Plath's writing is her search for identity. He keeps asking, "Who am I?" And then he uses his writings to understand it. Billy, Sarah and I have been exploring how we hear it, how we can translate it into music, and what music Sylvia herself might have been listening to.

Guðnadóttir calls the film a career highlight.

"This is one of the most exciting projects I've ever done," he says. Sarah and I are good friends, so it's amazing to tell this story with her. I think it's one of the most amazing books ever written."

"You can feel it in every word that Sylvia Plath writes," he continues. “This intense need and desire to find himself through his writing. I've read a lot of his work, including his books, essays, and poems, and it's vast. People tend to remember the drama of his story, that he had mental health struggles and that he had a tragic end. But his writings are so full of life, creativity and energy that people tend to forget. I really hope this film can bring that back into the limelight and celebrate his glorious lifestyle."

Variety caught up with the composer at this year's World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, where he was the guest of honor. Hours before his trip to Belgium, Gunadottir was still mixing Enemies, the A24 thriller produced by Ari Aster. The Chicago crime drama, directed by Henry Dunham and starring Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler, allows him to play with the sounds of the urban environment.

"I think it's really interesting how the sounds of the city work with the film," he says. I work a lot with environmental textures and city sounds and how they relate to film music. "Listening is always in my heart, along with my curiosity."

Guðnadóttir would also love to return to the 28 Years Later franchise, whenever the next installment comes. Speaking at the World Soundtrack Awards, he described the "nerve-wracking" experience of watching the first episode of the new series scored by Young Fathers, after finishing work on Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: Bone Temple.

"When I was working on 'Bone Temple,' I never got to hear a note or see a frame of [Donny Boyle's '28 Years Later,'" he says.

I kept asking if we should have a connective tissue between the scores, but it was a deliberate decision to keep the two completely separate. So when the first episode came out, I went to the cinema with everyone else. I was sitting there thinking, "Please work together, please work together," because I had already delivered my part and I couldn't change a thing. It was funny, but nerve-wracking!”

The description can be applied to the entire collection.

"The wonderful thing about these stories, and ['Bone Temple'] in particular, is that they seem so violent and aggressive and violent, but at the same time, they're also very human, soft and funny," he says. "I think the second part is funny. So the question was how the music could enhance that."

Dacosta wanted strings, while Guðnadóttir sought to counteract their ethereal quality with something more grounded. Taking the film's title literally, he turned to an unlikely source for percussion.

"I have a friend who owns a burger joint just outside of Berlin," he explains. "He has a good relationship with his butcher, so I made a deal to remove the remaining bones. All the percussion in the film is made of bone. The scapular bones make interesting percussion, and the bigger ones are better for deeper percussion. The smaller pieces were better for the flute."

He had to prepare his instruments first.

"I do everything myself, and that includes boiling the bones," Gwendothyr says with a smile. "I'm very practical."