Mark Isham is currently working on two new scores. The Conspirator is a drama directed by Robert Redford about Mary Surratt, the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln. The movie stars James McAvoy, Alexis Bledel, Robin Wright Penn, Evan Rachel Wood, Kevin Kline, Danny Huston, Justin Long and Tom Wilkinson and is expected to come out later this year. The project marks Redford’s and Isham’s fourth collaboration after A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show and Lions for Lambs. In a recent video that Isham uploaded on YouTube, he mentions that the score will be influenced by Bartok.
Isham’s other new project is the action drama Warrior. The movie directed by Gavin O’Connor centers around the youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer who returns home, where he’s trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament. Warrior stars Nick Holte, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton and Lionsgate is planning to release the movie later this year. Isham worked with O’Connor before on Miracle and Pride and Glory. According to the composer, the music will be influenced by the instrumental post-rock band Explosions in the Sky (Friday Night Lights).
Also upcoming for the composer is the thriller The Factory starring John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter. The movie centers around an obsessed cop who is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, N.Y., but when his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any professional restraint to get the killer. Isham finished the score last year, but the movie is only scheduled to come out in January 2011.
Isham’s music can currently be heard in theaters in the horror remake The Crazies which got mostly positive reviews from critics. A score album is out on Varese Sarabande Records.
