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Why Metallica’s Lars Ulrich is providing the 'Jungle Cruise' soundtrack

Drummer Lars Ulrich of the American heavy metal band Metallica performs at the Apollo Theater in New York September 21, 2013.  REUTERS/Adrees Latif (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)
Drummer Lars Ulrich of the American heavy metal band Metallica performs at the Apollo Theater in New York September 21, 2013. REUTERS/Adrees Latif (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has opened up about his involvement in the upcoming action adventure blockbuster Jungle Cruise, which will feature an orchestral version of the band’s hit song Nothing Else Matters.

The thought of the heavy metal giants working on a Disney movie was certainly a surprise for fans of the band. But it turns out that Sean Bailey, who is the production president over at the studio, isn’t just a huge Metallica fan, but that Ulrich loves Disney movies, too.

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“He’s always looked for the right match where there was a way that Metallica could contribute to some project of theirs,” Ulrich told Collider. “This was the right fit, with Sean leading the cavalry, and with James Newton Howard and his track record, and what he’s done.”

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Ulrich then took this opportunity to wax lyrical about Howard, who has been nominated for an Academy Award eight times, and is composing the score for the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt film.

“Considering what he’s done, it’s an absolute honour to have done this with him, and we’re excited for the world to hear it. 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.”

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“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.”

Jungle Cruise was initially supposed to be released on October 11, 2019, but it was then delayed until July 24, 2020, only for COVID-19 to push it all the way back to July 30, 2021.