Rob Simonsen has been tapped to score the comedy drama The Spectacular Now. The film is directed by James Ponsoldt (Smashed) and stars Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Brie Larson, Kyle Chandler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bob Odenkirk and Andre Royo. The movie follows a high school senior and the mercurial introvert he attempts to “save” from life as a social outcast. The dramedy is based on a novel by Tim Tharp and has been adapted for the screen by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer, which Simonsen co-scored). Tom McNulty (Date Night) & Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum), Michelle Krumm and Andrew Lauren are producing the 21 Laps, Global Produce and ALP production. Read the rest of this entry »

La-La Land Records has announced the details of the soundtrack release for Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller Jack Reacher. The album features the film’s original music composed by Joe Kraemer (The Way of the Gun). The soundtrack is now available to download on iTunes, where you can also check out audio clips. A CD version featuring one track not included on the digital album will be released on January 4, 2013 by La-La Land Records. Click here to pre-order the CD and listen to more audio clips. Jack Reacher stars Tom Cruise as military policeman-turned-drifter Jack Reacher, who gets sucked into the mystery surrounding the arrest of a sniper accused of killing five random people in a shooting. Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo and Robert Duvall are co-starring in the film, which will be released on December 21 by Paramount Pictures. Read the rest of this entry »

Mychael Danna will be honored with the Frederick Loewe Music Award at the 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. The composer will be receiving the award for his work on Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, for which he already received a Golden Globe, as well as a Broadcast Film Critics Association Movie Award nomination. Danna composed the score and has also co-written the original song Pi’s Lullaby for the film. Past recipients of the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing include Alexandre Desplat, Danny Elfman, Howard Shore and Randy Newman. Danna will be be recognized at a gala on January 5, 2012 at the Palm Springs Convention Center along with other honorees Richard Gere, Bradley Cooper, Helen Mirren, Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Naomi Watts, Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hooper and the cast of Argo.

Decca Records will release a soundtrack album for the BBC original mini-series Dancing on the Edge. The album features the features the series’ original score composed by Adrian Johnston (Becoming Jane, Kinky Boots). The soundtrack will be released in the UK on January 14, 2013. Dancing on the Edge is written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff who has previously collaborated with Johnston a number of times and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Wunmi Mosaku, Angel Coulby and John Goodman. The five-part series produced by Nicky Kentish Barnes (Match Point, About A Boy) follows the Louis Lester Band as they find fame amongst the parties and performances of upper class society in the capital. The BBC production will premiere in January 2013 on BBC2. Read the rest of this entry »

The details of the score album for the action crime drama Gangster Squad have been revealed. The album features the film’s score composed by Steve Jablonsky (Transformers trilogy, Battleship). The soundtrack will be released on January 8, 2013 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Click here to listen to audio clips from the album. As previously announced, a separate soundtrack album featuring the film’s songs will be released on WaterTower Music. Gangster Squad is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and stars Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Isham is teaming up with singer/songwriter Alicia Keys to score the upcoming drama The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete. The film is directed by George Tillman Jr. and stars Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright, Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon. The movie follows two boys in Brooklyn who are left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities. Keys is also executive producing the project. Michael Starrbury has written the screenplay and Jana Edelbaum (The Answer Man), Rachel Cohen (Dirty Girl) and Bob Teitel (Barbershop, Faster) are producing. Tillman Jr. has previously collaborated with Isham on the Robert De Niro-starring drama Men of Honor. Read the rest of this entry »

Alexandre Desplat has won his first Satellite Award in the Original Score category for his music for Ben Affleck’s Argo at tonight’s 17th Annual Satellite Awards ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel in Beverly Hills. He was previously nominated for his two scores for the final two Harry Potter movies. The other composers nominated in the category were Dario Marianelli (Anna Karenina), Thomas Newman (Skyfall), Jonny Greenwood (The Master) and John Williams (Lincoln). In the Original Song category, Claude-Michel SchonbergHerbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil received the honor for the song Suddenly from Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables.

Graham Reynolds is reuniting with director Richard Linklater on the indie romance Before Midnight. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy who reprise their roles as star-crossed lovers Jesse and Celine from the director’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The film is set almost two decades since their couple’s first encounter on a train bound for Vienna and finds them in their early forties in Greece. Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Ariane Labed, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick are co-starring. Linklater has also written the script with Hawke and Delpy and is producing the film with Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch and Kostas Kefalas. Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly TV Music Roundup (December 16, 2012)

Posted: December 16, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in TV Scoring Assignments
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Airing tomorrow, December 17 on NBC is the pilot for the new comedy series 1600 Penn created by Jason Winer (Modern Family, Arthur) and starring Bill Pullman, Jenna Elfman, Josh Gad, Martha MacIsaac, Amara Miller, Benjamin Stockham and Andre Holland. The show’s score is composed by Orr Rebhun and Erica Weis who have previously written a couple of tracks for the feature comedies The Other Guys and The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard and worked on the score for the first couple of episodes of ABC’s Don’t Trust the B— in Apt. 23. The comedy follows a dysfunctional family living in the White House. Winer has also directed the pilot and is executive producing the series with Gad and Jon Lovett. 1600 Penn will premiere on January 10, 2013 and air every Thursday night on NBC. Visit the official show website for updates.

Nico Muhly is the composer of the upcoming drama Kill Your Darlings. The film is directed by John Krokidas and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Elizabeth Olsen, Dane DeHaan, Ben Foster, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Huston. The movie tells the previously untold story of murder that brought together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs at Columbia University in 1944, providing the spark that would lead to the Beat Generation. Krokidas has also co-written the screenplay with Austin Bunn and is producing the Killer Films and Benaroya Pictures Pictures with Michael Benaroya (Margin Call, Lawless), Christine Vachon (Far from Heaven, Boys Don’t Cry) and Rose Ganguzza. Read the rest of this entry »