Opening in most theaters is the action drama The Grey directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson and James Badge Dale. The film’s music is composed by Marc Streitenfeld who has become go-to composer of Ridley Scott (who is producing The Grey) over the last couple of years, having previously scored such films as American Gangster and Robin Hood. Lakeshore Records has released a soundtrack album featuring the composer’s score. For audio clips and the full album details, visit our previous article.

Also opening wide is the action thriller Man on a Ledge directed by Asger Leth and starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Genesis Rodriguez, Edward Burns and Kyra Sedgwick. Henry Jackman (X-Men: First Class, Puss in Boots) has written the music for the film. Summit Entertainment has released a soundtrack album featuring Jackman’s music. The album is already available to download and the CD version will be released on February 7. To listen to audio clips and find out more about the film and score, check out our soundtrack announcement. Also visit YouTube for a short video interview with the composer at the Hollywood premiere of the movie earlier this week.

The final wide release of the week is the action comedy One for the Money directed by Julie Anne Robinson and starring Katherine Heigl, Jason O’Mara, John Leguizamo and Debbie Reynolds. The film’s score is composed by Debroah Lurie (Dear John, Footloose). Lakeshore Records has released a soundtrack album featuring both Lurie’s score, as well as the songs from the film by artists including Colbie Caillat, Vanessa Bryan & Mista Youngblood, Kristina & The Dolls and Amy Loftus. For audio clips and more information about the release, check out our previous news article.

Opening in limited release after receiving an Oscar-qualifying run in LA at the end of last year is the period drama Albert Nobbs directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Brendan Gleeson and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Brian Byrne is the composer of the film, which has just been nominated for three Academy Awards. Varese Sarabande has released a soundtrack featuring the composer’s score, as well as the Golden Globe-nominated song Lay Your Head Down co-written by Byrne and lead actress Glenn Close and performed by Sinéad O’Connor. Check out our soundtrack announcement for more details and to listen to selections from the score and the song. Also visit the LA Times, Below the Line and Variety for articles about the film’s music, as well as 123 Film Easy for an audio interview with the composer.

Craig Wedren

Wedren also has the comedy Wanderlust directed by David Wain and starring Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Malin Akerman, Ray Liotta and Justin Theroux coming up. The movie produced by Judd Apatow is scheduled for a release on February 24, 2012 by Universal Pictures. Check out the trailer below and visit the official movie website for updates on the film.

Here’s the album track list:

1. I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) [Single Edit] – Meat Loaf
2. Specks – Matt Pond PA
3. England – The National
4. Leaving On The 5th – Voxhaul Broadcast
5. This Too Shall Pass – OK Go
6. Get Some – Lykke Li
7. Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly) – Phosphorescent
8. Come On, Come On [Dean & Britta Remix] – Scott Hardkiss (feat. Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham)
9. Play My Way – Maya von Doll
10. Problems Of Our Own – Light FM
11. Neon Blue – Still Life Still
12. Pictures Of You – The Cure

Among the documentaries that premiered at this year’s festival is Finding North directed by Kristi Jacobson (Toots) and Lori Silverbush. The film examines the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity. Both directors are also producing the movie with Julie Goldman (Buck) and Ryan Harrington (American Teen). T Bone Burnett and The Civil Wars have written the documentary’s music. The project marks Burnett’s first documentary credit as a composer. He has previously contributed music to a number of high profile films, including Crazy Heart, O Brother Where Are Thou?, Walk the Line and the upcoming The Hunger Games. To learn more about the film and to watch the trailer, visit TakePart’s official movie website.

A music-themed film that premiered at the festival is the drama California Solo written and directed by Marshall Levy (Blue State) and starring Robert Carlyle as a Britpop ex-rocker who now works on a farm, gets caught driving drunk and faces deportation after living in Los Angeles for many years. The supporting cast includes Alexia Rasmussen, Kathleen Wilhoite, A Martinez, Michael Des Barres and Danny Masterson. Mynette Louie is producing the project. The film’s score is written by T. Griffin. The songwriter, composer and producer has previously worked with Louie on the 2009 drama Children of Invention. No word yet on a distribution deal for California Solo.

A film that is expected to be picked up for distibution in the near future is the comedy Safety Not Guaranteed directed by Colin Trevorrow and written by Dean Connolly. The movie about two magazine employees who head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel stars Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Lynn Shelton and Kristen Bell. Duplass is also among the executive producers with his brother Jay Duplass (Cyrus). Trevorrow and Connolly are also producing alongside Marc Turtletaub & Peter Saraf (Little Miss Sunshine, Our Idiot Brother) and Stephanie Langhoff. Ryan Miller has written the project’s score. Another newcomer to the film scoring world, Miller is best known as the lead singer and principal songwriter for the alt-rock band Guster.

Another movie with no distribution deal in place yet is the drama Price Check written and directed by Michael Walker (Chasing Sleep). The movie starring Parker Posey, Eric Mabius, Annie Parisse, Josh Pais, Cheyenne Jackson, Edward Herrmann centers on a family man who copes with rising debt and a job he hates. Dolly Haal (54, High Art) is producing the film. The music is composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips whose most notable previous scoring assignment has been Noah Baumbauch’s Academy Award-nominated The Squid and the Whale starring Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney and Jesse Eisenberg. More information about the duo can be found on their official website. To watch the trailer for Price Check, visit Apple’s trailer page.

A film that has just been acquired by a distributor is the comedy drama Liberal Arts written and directed by Josh Radnor (happythankyoumoreplease). Radnor also stars in the film as a thirtysomething admissions worker at a New York college who visits his liberal arts alma mater where a 19-year old student tries to romance him. Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro and Elizabeth Reaser are co-starring. Radnor is producing the project with Jesse Hara, Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra and Lauren Munsch. Ben Toth is best known as a theater composer, but has started scoring movies over the last couple of years. To learn more about Toth’s work, visit his official website. IFC Films has picked up US rights for Liberal Arts and a theatrical release is planned for later this year.

Also among the high profile titles at the festival is the comedy Goats directed by Christopher Neil and written by Mark Poirier (Smart People) based on his own novel. The film stars Graham Phillips as a teenager who transfers to the East Coast prep school Gates Academy, where he reconnects with his estranged father. David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, Ty Burrell, Justin Kirk and Keri Russell are also starring in the movie produced by Daniela Taplin Lundberg (The Kids Are All Right), Eric Kopeloff (W., Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and Shannon Lail. The film’s music is written by Woody Jackson and Jason Schwartzman. While Goats marks Jackson’s most prestigious film music assignment to date, he has previously co-scored the hit video game Red Dead Redemption. While Schwartzman is best known as an actor in such films as Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, his music has been featured in several movies, including Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Composer Brian Reitzell had previously been attached to score Goats as reported in 2010.

Another notable film that premiered at the festival is the drama LUV written and directed by Sheldon Candis. The movie starring Common, Michael Rainey Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton and Michael Kenneth Williams centers on a shy 13-year-old who forms a bond with his troubled uncle. The film’s producers include Common, Jason Michael Berman, W. Michael Jenson, Gordon Bijelonic, Datari Turner, Joel Newton and Derek Dudley. The composer of the movie is Nuno Malo who has received a lot of praise for his score for the Portuguese drama Amalia. Detailed information and audio clips of the composer’s work can be found on his official website.

Check back for our fourth and final part in our Sundance series to be published within the next couple of days.

Aaron Zigman

Also coming up for Zigman is Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds starring Perry, Thandie Newton, Rebecca Romijn, Gabrielle Union and Jamie Kennedy. Check out the trailer below and visit the official movie website for more information. The composer has also scored the drama We the Peeples, produced by Perry, directed by Tina Gordon Chism and starring Craig Robinson, Kerry Washington, Tyler James Williams and David Alan Grier. Lionsgate has recently announced that the movie will be released on March 29, 2013.

Here’s the album track list:

1. Safe House (3:16)
2. A Hundred Lies A Day (3:16)
3. Get In The Trunk (4:25)
4. Do I Make You Nervous? (3:08)
5. I Used To Be Innocent Like You (2:11)
6. Tobin Frost (2:19)
7. Off The Grid (3:28)
8. Do What You Have To Do (4:49)
9. Don’t Kill Innocent People (3:45)
10. Who Do You Work For? (3:45)
11. Walk Away (6:04)
12. People Change (2:17)
13. Be Better Than Me (4:12)
14. Langa (6:14)
15. More Past Than Future (3:19)
16. 12 Months (3:06)
17. Truth (3:43)
18. I’ll Take It From Here (5:47)

Best Original Score

• The Adventures of Tintin – John Williams
• The Artist – Ludovic Bource
• Hugo – Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse- John Williams

Best Original Song:

• Man or Muppets from The Muppets – Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
• Real in Rio from Rio – Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown and Lyric by Siedah Garrett

For a full list of nominations, click here. The Academy Award ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.

The label has also announced the premiere soundtrack release for the 2010 documentary Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny. The album includes the film’s original score by Lee Holdridge. The music was recorded with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava. For audio clips and the full soundtrack details, visit Intrada’s website. Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny directed by Richard Trank and narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley highlights Churchill’s years in the political wilderness, his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism, and his support for Jews under threat by the Nazi regime.

A film that is likely to find distribution within the next few days or weeks given its high profile cast and positive critical reaction is the comedy drama Robot and Frank directed by Jake Schreier. The movie stars Frank Langella as an elderly ex-jewel thief who leads a lonely life until his grown children install a robot to care for him, sparking off an unlikely friendship. Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Peter Saarsgard (as the robot’s voice), Jeremy Sisto and Jeremy Strong are co-starring. Christopher Ford has written the screenplay and Galt Niederhoffer (The Romantics), Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman Bisbee and Lance Acord (BAFTA-nominated cinematographer for Lost in Translation) are producing. The film’s music is written by Francis and the Lights (aka Francis Farewell Starlit). The project marks the singer/songwriter’s first film music project. Check out his official website for more information about his previous work.

A music-themed movie that has received mostly enthusiastic reviews at the festival and has been compared to the 2007 Sundance indie hit Once is the drama I Am Not a Hipster written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The film set in San Diego’s indie music and art scene tells the story of a San Diego musician struggling to deal with himself and his family. The film’s cast includes Dominic Bogart, Alvaro Orlando, Brad William Henke, Tammy Minoff, Kandis Erickson and Lauren Coleman. Cretton is also producing the film with Ron Najor and Trevor Fernando. San Diego musician Joel P. West has written all the original songs from the film and also composed the movie’s score. A soundtrack album has already been announced for a release later this year. The album will feature recordings of performances from the film, as well as songs by various San Diego indie artists including Black Mamba, The Donkeys and Jamuel Saxon. For more information about the film and soundtrack and to watch the trailer, visit the official movie website.

A movie that was already shown at other film festivals last year (including a premiere in Toronto), but premiered at Sundance with a new original score is the Indonesian martial arts action film The Raid directed by Gareth Huw Evans. The film about a SWAT team that infiltrates and attempts to take over an apartment complex acting as a safe house for a drug lord is produced by Ario Sagantoro and stars Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Donny Alamsyah, Ray Sahetapy, Joe Taslim and Pierre Gruno. The film’s new score is written by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese who previously collaborated with Daft Punk on their music for Tron: Legacy. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up domestic rights for the film and will be releasing the film on March 23, 2012. Click here to watch the trailer.

Another well received film that appears to be nearing a major distribution deal is the drama Beasts of the Southern Wild directed by Benh Zeitlin and starring Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry. The movie revolves around an intrepid six-year-old girl who lives with her father in “the Bathtub,” a southern Delta community at the edge of the world and goes in search of her lost mother. Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey and Josh Penn are the producers of the project. Zeitlin has written the music for the drama with composer Dan Romer who is also known as the lead singer of the indie rock band Fire Flies. Beasts of the Southern Wild marks his first major feature scoring assignment. To learn more about the film, visit the official Facebook movie page.

Among the most critically acclaimed movies at the festival so far is the drama Compliance written and directed by Craig Zobel. The film starring Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy and Bill Camp is based on a true story about mind games at a fast-food restaurant. Zobel is producing the indie production with Sophia Lin & Tyler Davidson (Take Shelter), Lisa Muskat (All the Real Girls) and Theo Sena. David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) is among the executive producers. Heather McIntosh has written the score for the film, which has been singled out in a couple of reviews by major publications, including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. To learn more about the composer, visit her official website. Compliance has gathered interest from a number of major distributors and is expected to sell in the near future.

Another film that premiered last weekend is the drama For Ellen written and directed by So Yong Kim (In Between Days) and starring Paul Dano, Jon Heder, Jena Malone, Margarita Levieva, Shaylena Mandigo and Julian Gamble. In the movie, Dano plays a struggling musician who arrives in a small Midwestern town to deal with his impending divorce and to fight for custody of his young daughter. Yong Kim also produced the project with Jen Gatien (Hounddog) and Bradley Rust Gray (The Exploding Girl). The film’s music is composed by Johann Johannsson. The Icelandic composer’s previous credits include the 2009 drama Personal Effects staring Michelle Pfeiffer and Ashton Kutcher. For updates on the composer’s work, visit his official website. No word yet on a distribution deal for the drama.

Among the short films to premiere at Sundance and worth mentioning because of the involvement of a major film composer is the documentary The Movement: One Man Joins an Uprising directed by Greg Hamilton and Kurt Miller who is also producing the project. The film follows Rick Finkelstein who was paralyzed in a ski accident on Aspen Mountain. Six years and nine surgeries later, cameras captured his dramatic return to Aspen. Composer Trevor Rabin (National Treasure, Armageddon, Remember the Titans) has written the music for the short film narrated by Robert Redford and Warren Miller.

Finally, another film scored by a well known composer within the film music community and classical music world is the documentary Me @The Zoo directed by Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch. The movie revolves around Chris Crocker, a video blogger from a small town in Tennessee and chronicles the controversial rise of the Internet folk hero. Nicholas Shumaker, Jack Turner are producing alongside both directors. Nico Muhly (The Reader, Margaret) has composed the music for the film. HBO Documentary Films has bought U.S. broadcast rights for Me @the Zoo and no air date has been announced yet.

Check back for our third part of the Sundance series to be published within the next couple of days.