Oscar-winning Composer Morricone Dead at 91

FILE PHOTO: Italian movie composer Ennio Morricone conducts the Sinfonietta orchestra during a Christmas concert in Milan December 16, 2006. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Italian movie composer Ennio Morricone conducts the Sinfonietta orchestra during a Christmas concert in Milan December 16, 2006. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo
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Oscar-winning Composer Morricone Dead at 91

FILE PHOTO: Italian movie composer Ennio Morricone conducts the Sinfonietta orchestra during a Christmas concert in Milan December 16, 2006. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Italian movie composer Ennio Morricone conducts the Sinfonietta orchestra during a Christmas concert in Milan December 16, 2006. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo

Ennio Morricone, one of the world's best-known and most prolific film composers, has died in Rome, Italian media reported on Monday.

Morricone, who was 91, died in hospital where he was being treated for a fractured femur following a fall, the reports said.

He composed the music for about 500 films, including Sergio Leone's 1966 spaghetti western, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" for which he won an Oscar in 2016.



‘Alien’ Franchise Crafts New Creatures for ‘Alien: Earth’ TV Show

Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Alien’ Franchise Crafts New Creatures for ‘Alien: Earth’ TV Show

Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Noah Hawley attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, September 15, 2024. (Reuters)

Both new and familiar alien lifeforms lurk around in the Disney series “Alien: Earth,” based on the original 1979 Ridley Scott "Alien" movie.

“By bringing the story to Earth, we're shifting to, ‘can humanity itself survive, right?’ And then it becomes a question of, ‘well, what is humanity, and do we really deserve to survive?’” director Noah Hawley told Reuters.

“These creatures that are coming, are a kind of representation of the natural world reasserting its dominance, right? Reminding us that we're still part of the food chain,” the "Fargo" creator added.

"Alien: Earth," which begins streaming on Hulu and FX on Tuesday, follows a group of travelers with various jobs that are drawn into action when a spacecraft carrying alien samples crash-lands on Earth.

It is set two years before the first “Alien” movie that introduced audiences to actor Sigourney Weaver's character, Ellen Ripley, and the terrifying alien called a xenomorph.

Other than the xenomorphs that fans are familiar with, there are four other deadly creatures on the crashed spacecraft.

"These creatures have some, to varying degrees, great recognition factor," said producer David W. Zucker.

"They're sort of perverted versions of insects and otherwise that we can recognize. So, I think that brings it into an even more sort of visceral place, not to mention, touching upon certain sensations that we're already familiar that they can invoke,” he added.

"Don't Worry Darling" actor Sydney Chandler portrays the show’s lead named Wendy, a metahuman with the body of an adult human and the mind of a child, who leads a team that also has adult bodies with childish minds, called The Lost Boys, onto the crashed spaceship.

"Kids are great acting teachers. They're so present, they're so honest, instinctual, they do what their body tells them to do or what their mind thinks of right away,” Chandler said, referring to her approach to Wendy's child-like mannerisms.