WIRE Buzz: Hans Zimmer extends Netflix theme; Freaks superhero trailer; HBO scares The Baby

The Netflix sound was the one part of the streaming service that didn’t get an overhaul when its intro last got a facelift in early 2019. Now, that percussive “ba-dum” that proceeds a Netflix binge session is changing a little — but only to get longer, fancier, and more cinematic thanks to one of the industry’s most beloved composers.

Hans Zimmer — he of the Inception roars, Interstellar synths, and Pirates of the Caribbean yo-ho-hoing — was given the job of extending the two-note Netflix soundscape into something more suitable for playing in a theater. And he came up with a pretty generic-sounding riff. Like it could be playing as the tune accompanying your local theater’s in-house ad.

Listen here:

Building synth-strings meandering around until The Sound arrives...well, it certainly eats up the time needed before a feature film in the theaters. Honestly the color work in the visuals is a more fun extension of the Netflix intro, but then again, that can’t be attributed to a working master like Zimmer.

Next, superhero shows are a dime a dozen nowadays, but getting one that’s free from the canons of DC and Marvel is still a bit of a rarity. Enter Freaks — no, not the 2018 indie sci-fi or the 1932 horror classic, but a superpowered series in the vein of Heroes. 

Random connected individuals showing off superpowers, some suppressed due to years of medication. The German Netflix series looks to kick off a new indie supergroup with its grounded approach to its first trailer.

Check it out:

So an invulnerable guy, an electric man, and the super-strong Wendy (Cornelia Gröschel). Looks like the making of a good team...as long as they can figure out their mission — and their origins. Looks like they’ll have a good sense of humor about things, though. The series also stars Wotan Wilke Möhring and Tim Oliver Schultz.

Freaks hits Netflix on Sept. 2.

Finally, a show that sounds like M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant mixed with an ‘80s parenting comedy is coming to the small screen thanks to HBO and Sky: The Baby.

According to a release, the eight-episode first season from creators Siân Robins-Grace (Sex Education, The End of the F***ing World) and Lucy Gaymer looks to tackle that beloved horror topic: motherhood. But with a sense of humor! When a baby shows up in the life of a woman pushing 40, her life gets flipped — and not just because the (possibly evil) baby has “violent powers.” The Boys showed us a baby with laser eyes, but The Baby could really have anything at this point.

"With The Baby, we want to explore the powerful anxiety around the question of whether or not to have children," said Robins-Grace and Gaymer. "The ambivalence of not knowing, the bafflement at everyone else’s certainty and the suspicion that the whole thing is one millennia-long scam.” Described as “twisted” and “horrifying,” the series looks to give a comic spin to the messed-up worlds Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen.

The Baby looks to be filmed in the U.K. in 2021.