Michael Abels on Scoring Hope, Na Hong-jin's Alien Thriller
Composer Michael Abels has spoken about writing the music for Hope, a South Korean science-fiction thriller directed by Na Hong-jin. His conversation with Deadline, published on 9 November 2026, appeared in its Sound & Screen Film series.
The film follows police officers and local residents in Hope Harbor who face an alien threat. Abels is one of the composers featured in Deadline's 2026 Sound & Screen Film lineup, a showcase of original music written for film, and he is described there as a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Na asked Abels to score the film because of his earlier work with Jordan Peele. During editing, Na used Abels' horror film scores as temp tracks, the placeholder music editors lay under scenes until the final score is written. The finished score is Abels' own.
The cast includes Hwang Jung-min as officer Beom Seok. Cameron Britton plays the creature. In the second half of the film, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell play three other aliens.
Na's film was selected In Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, the festival's main prize race. Cannes also noted that Na returned to the festival after a 10-year absence. The film opened in South Korea over the summer and reached US cinemas in the autumn, after its Cannes run.
For composers, a film's score often takes shape alongside the picture, so the choice of temp tracks can shape the sound that follows. Abels' interview gives a rare look at how that process started, with a director who already knew his horror work. Readers who want more detail on the score itself will find it in the full Deadline piece.
