Thomas Newman is currently scoring the comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The film starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Tom Wilkinson follows a group of British retirees who decide to “outsource” their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. The movie is directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) who has worked with Newman on his last movie The Debt, which will be released in the US later this summer. The Best Exotic Marigold is based on the book These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach and adapted for the screen by Ol Parker (Imagine Me & You). Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin (In Bruges) are producing. No release date has been set yet for the Fox Searchlight production, but the movie is expected to come out in time for awards consideration towards the end of the year.
Apart from Madden’s The Debt, Newman has also written the music for the drama The Help as reported earlier this year. The film directed by Tate Taylor centers on an aspiring writer in 1960s Mississippi who sets out to write a book chronicling the way black maids are being treated by society. The movie stars Emma Stone, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Mike Vogel and Cicely Tyson. A soundtrack album will be released by Interscope Records later this summer. Mary J. Blige has recorded the new song The Living Proof for the movie, which will be featured on the soundtrack (check out the video below for more information). No word yet on how much of Newman’s score will be included on the album. More details on the soundtrack will be announced soon. The Help opens in theaters on August 12, 2011. For updates on the film, visit the official movie website.
