Thomas Newman has won the Grammy Award for his music for the latest James Bond film Skyfall in the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media category. The other nominated composers in the category included Alexandre Desplat (Argo, Zero Dark Thirty), Craig Armstrong (The Great Gatsby), Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) and John Williams (Lincoln). Newman has previously received six Grammys for such projects as American Beauty, Wall-E and Six Feet Under. Check out the composer’s speech for the Thank You cam backstage at the awards ceremony after the jump. In the Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media, Paul Epworth and Adele Adkins won the award for the Skyfall title song. In the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Visual Media category, the soundtrack album for the documentary Sound City: Real to Reel released by RCA Records/Roswell Records was honored with a Grammy award.
Category: Film Music News
Weekly Film Music Roundup (January 24, 2014)
The only movie opening in wide release this weekend is the action thriller I, Frankenstein written and directed by Stuart Beattie and starring Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto and Jai Courtney. The film’s original score is composed by Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil (Cloud Atlas, One Hour Photo). Lisa Gerrard has composed additional music. Lakeshore Records has released a soundtrack album featuring the score earlier this week. Check out our previous article for the full album details and audio clips. The label has also released a separate soundtrack featuring the songs from the film by By Maker (feat. Geno Lenardo and Daniel Davies). Click here to learn more about the album.
Opening in around 400 theaters is the indie drama Gimme Shelter written and directed by Ron Krauss and starring Vanessa Hudgens, Rosario Dawson, Brendan Fraser, James Earl Jones, Ann Dowd and Dascha Polanco. Olafur Arnalds (Broadchurch, Another Happy Day) has composed the film’s original music. A soundtrack album featuring his score is set to be released next week. Details will be announced on this page soon. Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain), Paul Haslinger (Underworld) and Assaf Rinde are credited as composers of additional score/music. The movie also features tracked in cues from Mychael Danna’s score from Capote and Ed Shearmur’s score from Mother and Child. Visit Soundtrack.Net for the full music credits.
Riz Ortolani (1926 – 2014)
Riz Ortolani has passed away at age 87. The Italian composer scored around 200 films both in home country, as well as the United States, England and Germany. He received two Academy Awards for the original songs More from 1962’s Mondo cane and Till Love Touches Your Life from the 1970 western Madron. He was also Golden Globe-nominated for his Madron song, as well as the title song from Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell and his score for the Ingrid Bergman- and Shirley MacLaine-starring 1964 comedy The Yellow Rolls-Royce. He won a Golden Globe for the song Forget Domani from the same film. His score for Mondo cane also earned him a Grammy nomination. His other film scoring credits include 1964’s The 7th Dawn starring William Holden, the 1966 British comedy The Spy with the Cold Nose and the 1965 western The Glory Guys. In recent years, his music was chosen by Quentin Tarantino and used in the director’s Kill Bill features, as well as Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained.
Ellie Goulding to Perform on ‘Divergent’ Soundtrack
Ellie Goulding has announced that she has recorded the original song Beating Heart for the film adaptation of the young adult novel Divergent. She also announced on ABC’s Good Morning America today that she will be the “musical voice” of Shailene Woodley’s character Tris and that her voice will be featured on the instrumental score. Junkie XL is the composer on the film and Hans Zimmer serves as the executive score producer. Check back on this page for more information about the soundtrack and score. Divergent is directed by Neil Burger and stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Zoe Kravitz, Ray Stevenson, Jai Courtney, Ansel Elgort, Ashley Judd and Maggie Q. The movie based on Veronica Roth’s first of a trilogy of novels will be released nationwide on March 21, 2014 by Lionsgate.
Hans Zimmer Launching ‘Open Call’ Global Contest on SoundCloud
SoundCloud and The Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop – a joint venture between Extreme Music, the production music arm of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer’s company Remote Control Productions – have partnered to launch the talent quest Hans Zimmer Wants You!. The winner/s will get an opportunity to become a Bleeding Fingers staff composer working along-side some of Hollywood’s premier film and TV composers on Zimmer’s LA-campus. The finalists will be announced on or before March 20th. Zimmer has has posted an exclusive track to SoundCloud for its community members to recompose.
Kronos Quartet to Perform on Clint Mansell’s ‘Noah’ Score
Director Darren Aronofsky announced on Twitter that the Grammy Award-winning string quartet Kronos Quartet is reuniting with composer Clint Mansell to perform on his score for the upcoming biblical epic Noah. They have previously collaborated on the 2006 feature The Fountain, as well as on the director’s second movie Requiem for a Dream. Noah stars Russell Crowe in the title role as the man chosen by God for a great task before an apocalyptic flood destroys the world. Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Anthony Hopkins, Logan Lerman are co-starring in the film, which will be released nationwide on March 28, 2014 by Paramount Pictures.
Weekly Film Music Roundup (January 17, 2014)
Four new movies are opening nationwide this weekend:
Expected to top the weekend box office is the action comedy Ride Along directed by Tim Story and starring Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, John Leguizamo, Bruce McGill, Tika Sumpter, Bryan Callen and Laurence Fishburne. The film’s original music is composed by Christopher Lennertz (Revolution, Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief) who previously scored Story’s Think Like a Man and will also score its sequel. Back Lot Music has released a soundtrack album featuring the composer’s music earlier this week and a CD version will be coming out on January 28 by Varese Sarabande. Check out our previous news article for the full album details and to listen to audio clips.
Also opening wide is the action thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit written and directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, as well as Branagh himself. The director’s regular musical collaborator Patrick Doyle (Thor, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sense and Sensibility) has composed the film’s original score. Varese Sarabande has released a soundtrack album featuring the composer’s music digitally earlier this week and a CD version will be coming out in a few weeks. Check out our soundtrack announcement for the full album details and click here to listen to audio clips. Also visit YouTube for a video from the scoring sessions featuring an interview with Doyle.
Steven Price Wins Critics’ Choice Movie Award for ‘Gravity’
Steven Price was honored with the Critics’ Choice Movie Award in the Best Score category for his music for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity at tonight’s 18th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The other composers nominated in the Best Score category were Arcade Fire & Owen Pallett for Her, Thomas Newman for Saving Mr. Banks and Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave.
In the Best Song category, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez won the award for Let It Go from Frozen.
Academy Awards Nominations Announced
This morning, the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards were announced. Here are the music-related nominations:
Best Original Score:
- The Book Thief – John Williams
- Gravity – Steven Price
- Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett
- Philomena – Alexandre Desplat
- Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman
William Ross Returns as Oscar Music Director
Academy Awards producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today that William Ross will return as music director for this year’s 86th Oscar ceremony. He previously served as music director on the 79th, 83rd and 85th Academy Awards. Ross whose film scoring credits include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ladder 49, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and The Tale of Despereaux has also worked on the opening ceremonies of several Super Bowls, as well as the opening and/or closing ceremonies of five Olympic Games. The composer/arranger has earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Direction for his work on the 85th Academy Awards show.