John Ottman

Who is John Ottman?

John Ottman is an American film editor, composer and director.

He is best known for his collaborations with film director Bryan Singer, acting as film editor and composing the scores for The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns, Valkyrie and most recently Jack The Giant Slayer. Ottman will work with Singer again in X-Men: Days of Future Past. He performed both duties in addition to directing the horror film Urban Legends: Final Cut. He won a BAFTA award for his editing of The Usual Suspects.

Ottman also scored the 2005 superhero movie Fantastic Four and its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. He modified John Carpenter's original Halloween theme for the sequel Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, and worked on the 2007 film The Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. In addition, he provided the music for the 2005 remake of House of Wax as well as Snow White: A Tale of Terror and Astro Boy. "Tricks of the Trade" from Incognito was sampled on Aaliyah's "We Need a Resolution".

Ottman graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts of the University of Southern California in 1988. One of his first assignments was to provide original music for the computer game I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. In 2007, Ottman appeared in the documentary Finding Kraftland for his agent Richard Kraft.