Deadline is reporting that Gustavo Santaolalla and Paul Williams are writing songs for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming CG-animated film The Day of the Dead. The movie is directed and co-written by Jorge R. Gutierrez (El Tigre) and is being described as a “Romeo and Juliet-style love story set against a the Mexican holiday “Day of the Dead””. Del Toro is producing the Reel FX production with Aaron Berger and Carina Schulze. The project marks del Toro’s first Mexican film production in almost two decades. The Day of the Dead is targeting a release in the fall of 2014. Santaolalla who received two Academy Awards for his work on Brokeback Mountain and Babel is also composing the music for a stage version of Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 hit film Pan’s Labyrinth about a young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer who finds refuge and terror in a fantasy world in 1944 Fascist Spain. Del Toro and Jeremy Ungar are adapting the material for the stage and Paul Williams is writing the lyrics for the songs. Robert Fox (The Hours, Noted on a Scandal) is producing the musical with del Toro and Gary Ungar (Gothika). Javier Navarrete has scored the film version and received an Oscar nomination for this music.
Santaolla’s music is also featured in Walter Salles’ On the Road starring Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams and Kirsten Dunst. The film is being released in the US on December 21, 2012 by IFC Films.
