HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 Composer John Powell Nominated for 2 Hollywood Music in Media Awards

John Powell has received two Hollywood Music in Media Award nominations for DreamWorks Animation’s HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2. Powell is nominated for Best Score – Animated Film and Best Song – Animated Film for “Where No One Goes,” his collaboration with Sigur Ros lead singer Jónsi.

The Hollywood Music in Media Awards will be held at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood on November 4th, 2014.

The HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 soundtrack is available on Relativity Records. The DVD will be available on November 11, 2014.

The film crossed the $600,000,000 global mark over the Labor Day weekend in September. A record-breaking opening in China coupled with phenomenal success in territories around the world catapulted DRAGON 2 to become the highest grossing animated film of the year and one of the top ten grossing films of the year in any genre.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3 is scheduled for a June 9, 2017 release date and will continue where the sequel left off.  The cast includes Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, America Ferrera as Astrid and Cate Blanchett as Valka. 

Thanks to Hiccup’s efforts in the first film, in HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, the residents of Berk, who once viewed dragons as a scourge to be eliminated, now live alongside (and ride!) them in friendship. This time around, they face a different kind of dragon problem, albeit a good one: There’s so many of them! With everyone owning his or her own personal dragon and dragons permeating their way of life, the isle of Berk is a vastly different place.

But when grown-up responsibilities loom on the horizon, Hiccup and his faithful dragon Toothless take to the skies in search of answers. It’s much more than he bargained for, though, when Hiccup discovers that a mysterious dragon rider is really his long-lost mother Valka (Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett) and that the peace between dragons and Vikings is threatened by the power-hungry Drago (Academy Award-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou) with help from the dragon trapper Eret, son of Eret (“Game of Thrones” actor Kit Harington).

As Astrid (America Ferrera), Gobber (Craig Ferguson) and Viking friends Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and twins Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig) and Tuffnut (T.J. Miller), lend their support, Hiccup, his mother and tribal chief father Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), must work together to protect the dragons they have grown to love. In the process, Hiccup finds the answers he has been looking for in ways he could never have imagined.

With the sequel calling for a more mature musical palette, Powell created a score that harkened back to the joyfulness of the original while breaking new ground. Powell comments, “We have a big choir, a big orchestra. We have a new set of characters and a whole new story. The characters have grown up since the last film so things are different. It’s a maturation story.” In addition to orchestra and choir, Powell used bagpipes, lending the score a celtic vibe.

John Powell is an Oscar nominated composer, and has scored films including Face/Off, Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Powell was recently named a Billion Dollar Composer this year by Variety. Powell has frequently collaborated with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass, on films including the Bourne trilogy, United 93 and Green Zone.

John Powell is currently composing a 45-minute oratorio called “Moltke,” to commemorate World War I, premiering in London January 2015.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 © 2014 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.