It was reported earlier this year that the film, The Hunger Games, was going to be scored by the very talented Danny Elfman and T Bone Burnett. However, Elfman recently had to drop out due to conflicts in his busy schedule. 

Variety has reported that James Newton Howard will now score the film and will continue to team up with Burnett for the project. Howard had previously scored many popular films such as  The Prince of Tides, The Fugitive, Dinosaur, King Kong, I Am Legend, and, most recently Green Lantern that was released this year. He is also a known collaborator with director M. Night Shyamalan in which he has scored all of his films since The Sixth Sense in 1999.

The Hunger Games is a film adaptation of the book series by Suzanne Collins. It is also set to star Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Toby Jones, and Donald Sutherland.

It is coming to theaters on March 23, 2012 and so far seems to be one of the most anticipated films of the new year. We all know how important a musical score for a film can be, with its ability provoke emotion at certain times, so I hope that Howard does a good job. He has good films under his belt and they wouldn’t have picked him if they didn’t think he could a good job.

What do you think? Do you think that Danny Elfman would do a better job?