Last week, Bryce Dessner has recorded his score for the upcoming Netflix original movie The Pope. The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener, City of God, Blindness) and stars Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis, as well as Juan Minujín, Cristina Banegas and María Ucedo. The drama explores the relationship and opposing visions between two of the most powerful leaders in the Catholic Church, both of whom must address their own pasts and the demands of the modern world in order to move the church forward. Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour) wrote the screenplay. Dan Lin (It, Sherlock Holmes), Jonathan Eirich and Tracey Seaward (Philomena, Florence Foster Jenkins) are producing the project. Dessner who is best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning band The National recorded his music with the London Contemporary Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. He has previously co-scored several movies, including Michael Polish’s Big Sur and the thriller Transpecos and also contributed additional music to Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant. The Pope is currently in post-production and will be released on Netflix in 2019.
Dessner also recently scored the drama Richard Says Goodbye. The film is written and directed by Wayne Kramer and stars Johnny Depp, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odessa Young, Zoey Deutch, Danny Huston and Ron Livingston. The movie revolves around college professor who is given a life-changing diagnosis and then decides to throw all pretense and conventions to the wind and live his life as boldly and freely as possible. Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Sinister, Midnight Special) are producing the project. The drama premiered at this year’s Zurich Film Festival and will be released in select U.S. theaters by Saban Films following a debut on DirecTV.
