The Brothers Giacchino: Working together on a Marvel Studios project and beyond

It’s always an interesting dynamic when siblings work together in show business, but for brothers Michael and Anthony Giacchino, it was like making movies when they were kids.

“Working together brought back a lot of memories,” Michael said about having his brother on set while he moved out of the composer’s piano and into the director’s chair for his Marvel Studios directorial debut, “Werewolf by Night.” “Yeah, and a lot of laughs, too!”,” said his brother Anthony.

Anthony was tasked with creating the accompanying documentary to “Werewolf by Night” simply titled “Director by Night” chronicling Michael’s time directing and creating. “He was following me around–and I even let him stay with me at the Airbnb I was using while shooting,” Michael said.

The documentary is a unique look at Michael’s creativity ability beyond what the world knows him for and his iconic movie scores. To do that, Anthony weaved together shooting behind-the-scenes footage of making the MCU ‘Special Presentation’ and more documentarian pieces like showing the show’s department heads footage of Michael’s old films.

“Many of them didn’t know he made movies, because who would have known in this public life he has been living?” Anthony said about his brother’s career. “Seeing him create as a director and a composer–it all felt very familiar to me. There was nothing strange about it because so much of our childhood was about all this,” Anthony added.

Michael’s multi-dimensional creativity shined in “Werewolf by Night” because he also scored the film and brought his signature sound to it.

As for why Michael’s career was relegated to movie and TV scores, he answered simply that he never was given an opportunity to showcase the whole of his talents. “Those early opportunities in my career just happened to be for music, so that’s what I did,” Michael said. “I’m super happy that an opportunity like this came through. It’s an honor to do something to this degree and in this way finally.”

“Director by Night” acts like a how-to about filmmaking as well according to the Giacchino brothers, at least they hope it does. “When we were growing up, you had to work really hard to figure out how to make pictures,” Michael said. Anthony added, “And a lot of what I thought of when I was cutting the documentary was how to inspire people to be obsessed with what they were creating, much like how Michael was creating his early movies and now an MCU picture.”

The documentary also is a testament to what it takes to create any film project–a good support system of people that Michael says allowed him to create comfortably. “For all the years I’ve been working with orchestras, I already had experience working collaboratively with hundreds of people and leading a creative charge. Those long hours were easy to put in because everyone I’ve worked with for the most part has been all-in because they love what they do,” Michael said.

And it’s in that spirit of love between the brothers Giacchino and their collective love of movies that allowed these two Marvel Studios projects to be made–and hopefully more projects that the brothers can do together.

“Maybe telling a story about our family from Italy might be the next thing,” Michael said. “Yeah, enough telling stories with you at the center, brother,” added Anthony.

Marvel Studios’ “Werewolf by Night” and the making-of documentary “Director by Night” are now streaming exclusively on Disney+.