oscar bait

The New Aladdin Movie Will Have Songs from the Greatest Showman and La La Land Writing Duo

Photo: Disney

Not to overstate things, but it’s pretty clear that songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are locked in an Oscar bait grudge match with songwriting couple Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The former won the Best Original Song Oscar last year for La La Land’s “City of Stars,” the latter took home a statuette on Sunday for Coco’s “Remember Me, and now Pasek and Paul are apparently gearing up for another big feature: the new live-action Aladdin. While there’s no way to guarantee they’ll nab an Oscar nom for their work, according to an interview they gave Variety on the Academy Awards red carpet, Pasek and Paul wrote the lyrics for two new songs for the upcoming Aladdin, so that’s two chances right there. They even had help of Disney musical legend Alan Menken, who himself won eight Academy Awards, four for Best Original Song. One of those wins was for, fittingly enough, “A Whole New World.”

Greatest Showman and La La Land Duo to Write Aladdin Songs