The first 10 seconds of the teaser for Antoine Fuqua’s new film Michael feature no music. For this biopic about the King of Pop, we open with a close up of Jaafar Jackson (cast as his uncle Michael) putting on headphones in the studio. Voiceover from Quincy Jones (played by Kendrick Sampson) makes a meta reference “I know you’ve been waiting a long time for this.” It’s true we have. This film has been in development since 2019.

Scored by trailer music house Alloy Tracks, the latest instalment in the Now You See Me heist film franchise (2013, 2016, 2025) sees an AAA ensemble cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, and Morgan Freeman return alongside newcomers Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, and Rosamund Pike. Brian Tyler returns as composer and Ruben Fleischer directs.

This week we’ll explore the official trailer for Park Chan-wook’s new film No Other Choice, which recently won the International People’s Choice Award at TIFF.

The trailer opens with a spin on the original series theme by Nathan Johnson, this time with tubular bells carving out that signature rising minor motif, suggesting the sacred context and accompanied by pizzicato strings for intrigue. At 0:21 the strings almost rise out of control, only to be grounded by blaring synth at 0:23 alongside a ticking sound. Carrying on the sacred context a wordless choir punctuates the monologue of the series star, detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig); the ticking doubles up at 0:38 as our intrigue deepens over the story of a monsignor (a kind of priest) who appears to be murdered just out of plain sight—a “classic impossible crime”, in Blanc’s words.

Starring Tessa Thompson and with music Hildur Guðnadóttir, there’s no shortage of reasons to get excited about Amazon Prime’s Hedda, a lesbian love triangle drama film set in the upper crust of 1950s British society–it’s Nia Da Costa’s fresh take on a Henrik Ibsen play.

In a refreshingly original story written and directed by Ugo Bienvenu and produced by Natalie Portman, the premise is simple but poignant: What if “rainbows are actually time travellers from our future”? Arco, a ten-year-old boy living in the year 2932, decides to travel in time two years before he is allowed—and ends up stranded in the year 2075, meeting Iris, offering a perspective on both the near and far future.

We’re less than two months out from the theatrical release of Jon M. Chu’s epic Wicked: For Good. Let’s check out the film’s Final Trailer, which Universal released last week. We’ll see how it compares to the film’s Official Trailer that we analyzed back in June.

Even in the wake of (or despite) recent controversy, a Star Wars film is still a sure bet some six years after The Rise of Skywalker. Rather than start a brand new story arc, however, this spinoff film continues the hit Disney Plus series The Mandalorian, with Pedro Pascal reprising one of his most successful roles alongside Grogu (or “Baby Yoda”, should you prefer).

Edward Berger (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front) is back with a new film: Ballad of a Small Player, based on Lawrence Osborne’s book by the same name.

Directed by Oliver Hermanus and released by MUBI, The History of Sound is based on a pair of short stories by Ben Shattuck detailing students Lionel and David’s relationship while attending the Boston Music Conservatory circa 1917, as they travel together recording the folk songs of people across rural Maine.

As a departure from regular Trailaurality fare this week, we’re going to explore a 30-second trailer for a single episode of Alien: Earth. This is the first tv series in the Alien franchise originally created in 1979 by Ridley Scott which, after over a dozen films, is still going strong. In an ambitious and novel take on trailers, the creative team behind Alien: Earth are releasing a new trailer for each episode. As is clear from this trailer, the show relies as much on sound design as it does on Jess Russo’s tense score.

This week, we’re looking at probably the strongest contender for the theatrical holiday season, as James Cameron prepares us for the next film in the Avatar series—with a third film taking a fairly reasonable three years from the last, in stark contrast to the thirteen-year wait between the first and second movies.

Topping off a summer that has seen and heard K-pop ascending new global heights thanks to the runaway hit film KPop Demon Hunters (whose soundtrack as of this writing has seven songs in the top 30 on Billboard”s Hot 100!), Apple TV is about to launch a K-pop song battle tv series titled KPOPPED.

The first few seconds of the trailer set up Keanu Reeves as an amiable would-be angel, with epic choir and strings serving as a foil to his clearly fake wings; the music drops out as a by stander expresses incredulity. But Reeves’ character persists, stating “I’m an angel” as the iconic piano riff from Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” ring out.

Zach Cregger’s new film Weapons comes out this Friday. Over an ominous synthesizer drone, the film’s second trailer opens with elementary school teacher Justine (Julia Garner) facing a gym full of angry and worried parents. At 0:09 we catch a glimpse of one of the mysterious runaway kids running, arms spread wide, on black and white CCTV footage - and a growling synthesizer adds menace.

Based on a bestselling novel by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary follows Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a middle school science teacher tasked with saving Earth from a mysterious organism that is dimming the sun. Compounding the challenge is the fact that he awakes from a coma having no idea how he got there in the first place.

The official teaser for the fifth and final season of Netflix’s hit sci-fi tv series Stranger Things came out last week. Using a classic Deep Purple song, it delivers adrenaline and goosebumps.

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a screen adaptation of a musical under the same name, originally run in Toronto in 1992, and later the West End and Broadway in 1993.

The Naked Gun is being rebooted with Liam Neeson playing the lead. A film franchise known for comedy that is at once raunchy, slapstick, and tongue-in-cheek, this trailer cleverly flips trailer music conventions on their head for a laugh. Its microteaser features the sound of a siren, as Frank Drebin Jr (Neeson, as the son of the cop played by Leslie Nielsen in the original films) gets passed a cup of coffee as if through a drive-through window. At 0:05, we see the skyline of Los Angeles at night and hear a single high register piano note, a familiar action thriller trailer trope. Martial drum rhythms come in at 0:10, as we see a motorcycle chase accompanied by Neeson’s seemingly serious voice-over. But the music cuts out at 0:14 to make space for the squelch of the Monty Python-esque adversary’s arms being ripped off mid-fight.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, The Roses is a reboot of the 1989 black comedy The War of the Roses; its ensemble cast include comedy luminaries such as Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, and Zoë Chao.