Hounds of War (2024) - Feature Film

The brief

XYZ Films needed a full original soundtrack for Hounds of War, a Hollywood action feature directed by Isaac Florentine and starring Frank Grillo and Robert Patrick. The entire score had to be written and delivered in one month. The direction was for a conventional, orchestral-driven action score - the kind of rich, continuous underscore that carries a feature of this genre - with a handful of moments where a more modern, genre-based sound could break through.

What I made

I wrote the complete original score: the main theme, character motifs, and the full body of orchestral underscore running through the film - the traditional, continuous score that does the heavy lifting across drama, tension, and action. On top of that foundation, I placed a few deliberate modern touches: techno in selected combat moments and UK garage in chase sequences. These were variations within the score, not a replacement for it - the orchestral underscore remains the dominant texture of the film. I handled the full pipeline end to end: composition, arrangement, production, and delivery of final stems and mix-ready files, all within the one-month window.

The result

The score was delivered on schedule and used in the finished film. The result is a soundtrack that works firmly within the established language of orchestral action scoring - with the depth and continuity the genre expects - while a few modern genre-inflected cues give specific scenes a sharper, contemporary edge. It’s a good example of my range: I can deliver a full, traditional orchestral underscore at feature length under a tight deadline, and I know when and how to step outside it for effect.