Thomas Newman has signed on to score the upcoming legal drama The Judge. The film is directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Knights, The Change-Up) and stars Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vincent D’Onofrio, Vera Farmiga, Melissa Leo, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester and Billy Bob Thornton. The movie follows a big-city lawyer who returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) has written the original screenplay. David Seidler (The King’s Speech) and Robert Dubuque were hired to rewrite the script. Dobkin is also producing the Team Downey and Big Kid Pictures production with Susan Downey (Sherlock Holmes, Gothika) and David Gambino (The Brave One, Whiteout). The Judge will be released on October 10, 2014 by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Newman is also composing the score for the upcoming biographical drama Get On Up. The film is directed by Tate Taylor and stars Chadwick Boseman as James Brown, alongside Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Tika Sumpter, Jill Scott, Keith Robinson and Lennie James. The movie tells the life story of the Godfather of Soul from his impoverished childhood to his evolution into one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Jez & John-Henry Butterworth (Fair Game, Edge of Tomorrow) and Steven Baigelman (Feeling Minnesota) have written the screenplay. Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) and Erica Huggins (Flightplan) are producing the project for Imagine Entertainment and Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman (Shine a Light) are producing for Jagged Films. Newman has previously collaborated with Taylor on 2011’s The Help and also scored Imagine’s Cinderella Man. Get On Up is set to be released on August 1, 2014 by Universal Pictures.
As previously reported, also coming up for the composer who is up for an Academy Award for his score for Saving Mr. Banks is Pixar’s animated film The Good Dinosaur, which is set for a release on November 25, 2015.
