Film Music Reporter

Lorne Balfe has been hired to score the upcoming thriller The Frozen Ground. The film is written and directed by Scott Walker and stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, Radha Mitchell and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The movie centers on the investigation of notorious serial killer Robert Hansen who murdered as many as 21 women, kidnapping them and taking them out to the Alaskan wilderness to turn them loose and hunt them. Randall Emmett & George Furla (16 Blocks, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans) are producing the thriller with Mark Ordesky (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) & Jane Fleming for Amber Entertainment. A theatrical release later in 2012 is expected.

Balfe is also scoring the British crime drama The Sweeney.  The movie directed by Nick Love (The Football Factory) is based on the 1970s cult TV cop series and stars Ray Winstone and Ben Drew (aka Plan B) as two detectives in the Flying Squad, the London police unit dedicated to fighting armed robbery. Damian Lewis and Hayley Atwell are co-starring. Love has co-written the film’s screenplay with Academy Award-nominated writer John Hodge (Trainspotting, The Beach). The Vertigo Films and Embargo Films production is produced by Allan Niblo & James Richardson and Rupert Breston (Monsters, Bronson), Christopher Simon and Felix Vossen. The Sweeney is scheduled to be released in September 2012 in the UK. No word yet on a domestic release. Check out the recently released first trailer of the film below.

The composer whose previous credits include the animated feature Megamind and Ron Howard’s comedy drama The Dilemma (both co-scored with Hans Zimmer) also has the documentary Salinger coming up. The film directed by Shane Salerno chronicles the life of author JD Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) who died at age 91 two years ago. Around 150 sources, including actors Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito and Martin Sheen were interviewed for the film. The documentary is expected to receive a theatrical release later this year.

Finally, Balfe is also returning to the Assassins Creed video game franchise to score Assassins Creed III, which is set to be released this October. The Ubisoft game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and Microsoft Windows takes place during the American Revolution. The composer previously worked on last year’s Assassins Creed Revelations.