Music like The Hunger Games

James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American composer, conductor, and record producer. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and nine Academy Award nominations. His film scores include Pretty Woman (1990), The Fugitive (1993), Space Jam (1996), King Kong (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). He has collaborated extensively with directors M. Night Shyamalan and Francis Lawrence, having scored nine of Shyamalan's films since The Sixth Sense and all of Lawrence's films since I Am Legend, including the Hunger Games series.

Howard was born in Los Angeles. He is from a musical family; his grandmother was the Pittsburgh Symphony's concertmaster and violinist during the 1930s and '40s.