{"id":47930,"date":"2025-08-05T21:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47930\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T21:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:30:21","slug":"david-byrne-hayley-williams-pen-song-for-the-twits-film-sets-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47930\/","title":{"rendered":"David Byrne, Hayley Williams Pen Song for The Twits, Film Sets Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe ongoing musical collaboration between Talking Heads icon David Byrne<\/a> and Paramore singer Hayley Williams<\/a> is set to venture into as-yet-uncharted territories: animated feature adaptations of beloved Roald Dahl books. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe two \u2014\u00a0who have already recorded with one another, with Williams set to appear on Byrne\u2019s upcoming album \u201cWho Is the Sky?,\u201d and have previously covered each other\u2019s songs \u2014\u00a0have come together again to write the newly announced track \u201cOpen the Door,\u201d set to be the end credits song for Netflix\u2019s upcoming film \u201cThe Twits.\u201d The streamer has now given the film a release date of Oct. 17.<\/p>\n

\n\tByrne has also written and produced three original songs for the film \u2014\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re Not Like Ev\u2019ryone Else,\u201d \u201cLullaby\u201d and \u201cThe Problem Is You\u201d \u2014\u00a0which will be performed by the cast.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of the cast, Netflix has a number of additional names, including lead voice stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (\u201cNever Have I Ever,\u201d \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d) and Ryan Lopez (\u201cPrimos,\u201d \u201cPhineas and Ferb\u201d), alongside Timothy Simons (\u201cNobody Wants This,\u201d \u201cVeep\u201d), Nicole Byer (\u201cLong Story Short,\u201d \u201cWhy Won\u2019t You Date Me?\u201d), Jason Mantzoukas (\u201cPercy Jackson and the Olympians,\u201d \u201cBig Mouth\u201d), Alan Tudyk (\u201cAndor,\u201d \u201cSuperman\u201d), Mark Proksch (\u201cWhat We Do in the Shadows,\u201d \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d), Rebecca Wisocky (\u201cGhosts,\u201d \u201cDevious Maids\u201d) and Charlie Berens (\u201cGreen and Gold\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom director Phil Johnston (\u201cRalph Breaks the Internet\u201d) and based on Dahl\u2019s children\u2019s book first released in 1980, \u201cThe Twits\u201d tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Twit, described as the \u201cmeanest, smelliest, nastiest people on the face of the earth,\u201d and their \u201cepic battle against a family of magical Muggle-Wumps and two brave children who refuse to let the Twits\u2019 cruelty win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis was a fun project. Like other Roald Dahl books, this one has its share of dreadful characters \u2014 this time two of them are front and center,\u201d said Byrne. \u201cKids (and adults) love that they can vicariously imagine their own worst impulses played out, harmlessly, in a punky fun story. So when I was approached to write some songs for this movie I immediately said, \u2018Let me give it a try and see if you like what I come up with.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tByrne added that he \u201creached out to Hayley Williams to collaborate on the end credits song,\u201d adding that the singer was inspired by the story and came up with some lyric ideas. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBeing a part of this movie is like one pinch-me moment after another,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMy favorite Roald Dahl book growing up was \u2018The Twits.\u2019 I\u2019m drawn to learning about twisted characters like Mr. and Mrs. Twit and The Wormwoods from \u2018Matilda.\u2019 The way Phil and Daisy adapted the original story was really exciting to me, as was the animation style. It feels like a cautionary tale \u2014 and also a really lovely depiction of chosen family and community, which is one of my favorite topics. I owe David Byrne for pulling me into the music for this. It was so fun and so surreal starting a song from scratch with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s previously announced voice cast includes Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale as the Twits, plus Emilia Clarke and Natalie Portman.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlongside Johnston, who co-wrote the script with Meg Favreau, Katie Shanahan and Todd Demong co-directed, while Johnston produced with Maggie Malone and Daisy May West. The animation was made by Jellyfish Pictures (\u201cThe Boss Baby,\u201d \u201cThe Bad Guys\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI still can\u2019t quite believe that I spent the last few years collaborating with David Byrne, a musical hero of mine since I was 13,\u201d Johnston added. \u201cFrom the first demo he sent me, on which the featured instrument was a 100-year-old banjolele, I knew I was going to love the songs he wrote. Throughout the process, my collaboration with David has been incredibly fun and surprisingly easy, probably because I\u2019ve been stealing from him for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cWhen David and I started talking about an end credit song, the first potential collaborator David brought up was Hayley Williams. The first word I said was \u2018yes.\u2019 Followed by \u2018please.\u2019 I still can\u2019t quite believe that two of my favorite songwriters wrote a song together for \u2018The Twits.\u2019 The saying \u2018never meet your heroes\u2019 simply does not apply here. I met two of them, and boy howdy, it\u2019s been a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Twits\u201d marks Netflix latest adaptation of Dahl\u2019s books after \u201cMatilda the Musical,\u201d based on the hit stage play, and \u201cThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar\u201d directed by Wes Anderson. In 2018, the streamer paid a reported nine-figure sum to acquire the animation rights to 16 of the author\u2019s books, including \u201cThe Twits,\u201d while in 2021 it acquired The Roald Dahl Story Company, believed to be the biggest IP acquisition deal ever for Netflix at the time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ongoing musical collaboration between Talking Heads icon David Byrne and Paramore singer Hayley Williams is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,33113,75,33114,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-47930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-david-byrne","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hayley-williams","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}