WaterTower Music will be releasing the soundtrack album for the drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which marks the last major movie of the year for which no soundtrack announcement had been made yet (visit our upcoming soundtracks section for a full listing of the soundtracks coming out in the next couple of weeks). The album includes the original score from the movie composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat and will be released on January 17, 2011. The composer recently finished recording around 80 minutes of music that he wrote in less than one month after coming in as a replacement for Nico Muhly. Check back on this page for the full details and audio clips of the soundtrack within the next couple of weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

La-La Land Records has announced four new limited soundtrack albums, including two world premiere releases and two new editions of film music classics. First up is the previously unreleased score for Richard Donner’s 1988 holiday comedy Scrooged. The album includes the music from the movie by Danny Elfman. The project was Elfman’s first major Hollywood studio assignment before he scored his breakout score for Tim Burton’s Batman. To order the album and listen to audio previews, visit La-La Land Records’ website. Scrooged starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, David Johansen and Bobcat Goldthwait received one Academy Award nomination for Best Make Up.

The label has also announced the world premiere release of the 1989 docudrama Fat Man and Little Boy. The album includes the original score from the film by Ennio Morricone. The 2CD-set includes a number of cues that were not used in the final cut of the movie. Audio clips and more details about the release can be checked out in La-La Land Records’ online store. Fat Man and Little Boy was directed by Roland Joffe (The Mission) and stars Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz and John Cusack. Read the rest of this entry »

TNT is launching the Mystery Movie Night, a series of contemporary crime dramas, based on popular novels. The first six movies that are premiering in the next few weeks have some notable composers working on the music for the films. Airing tommorow, November 30 is the mystery drama Ricochet based on a novel by Sandra Brown and starring John Corbett, Gary Cole, Julie Benz and Kelly Overton. The movie centers on two homicide detectives find their careers and lives on the line when they get caught up in a case of murder and betrayal in high-society Savannah. Nick Gomez (Dexter, Drowning Mona) is directing and Howard Braunstein (The Informant!) and Jim Head are executive producing. The film’s music is composed by Chris Bacon who caught the attention of the film music community with his orchestral score for this year’s Source Code directed by Duncan Jones and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Read the rest of this entry »

Intrada Records has announced two new soundtrack editions of classic film scores. The first release is a 2-disc edition of Jerry Goldsmith‘s score for the 1979 action adventure movie The Great Train Robbery. The album includes the world premiere release of the complete score on one disc, as well as the original 1979 soundtrack assembly as produced by Goldsmith. To listen to audio clips and to order the album, visit Intrada’s website. The Great Train Robbery starring Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down was written and directed by Michael Crichton.

The label’s other new release is the world premiere release of James Horner‘s score for the 1981 horror thriller Wolfen. The album includes the complete score by Horner written for the film, including two alternate tracks not used in the movie. For more details on the release and to check out audio clips, visit Intrada’s online store. Wolfen directed by Michael Wadleigh stars Albert Finney as a New York cop who investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks.

Director Michael J. Bassett has recently announced on his official blog that Jeff Danna and Akira Yamaoka are set to reunite to score the upcoming sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. The movie based on the horror video game stars Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Malcolm McDowell and Carrie-Anne Moss. Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean and Deborah Kara Unger return as their characters from the first Silent Hill installment. The film’s story centers on a young woman who is plagued by terrifying nightmares and her father’s disappearance and discovers, on the eve of her 18th birthday, that she’s not who she thinks she is. Don Carmody (Resident Evil: Apocalypse & Afterlife) and Samuel Hadida (True Romance) are producing the project through Davis-Films. Read the rest of this entry »

In our second part of our fall television music series, we are taking a look at the new and returning shows on The CW:

Among the new shows on the network is the fantasy teen drama The Secret Circle produced by Kevin Williamson (Scream, The Vampire Diaries) and starring Brittany Robertson, Thomas Dekker, Shelley Hennig, Phoebe Tonkin, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Louis Hunter, Natasha Henstridge and Ashley Crow. The composer of the show is John Frizzell (Alien: Resurrection, Dante’s Peak, Office Space) who has worked with Williamson before on the writer’s directorial debut Teaching Mrs. Tingle. The Secret Cirlce has received a full season order and currently airs every Thursday night on the CW. Read the rest of this entry »

Following our television music series from the summer, Film Music Reporter presents a listing of this fall’s new network dramas and comedies and its composers, as well as the major new cable shows of the season that feature original music. Featured in part 1 are the shows on FOX. Articles for all other networks will be published within the next few weeks.

Currently finishing up its premiere season is the sci-fi adventure show Terra Nova produced by Steven Spielberg and Brannon Braga and starring Jason O’Mara, Stephen Lang, Shelley Conn, Landon Liboiron and Naomi Scott. Brian Tyler is the composer of all 13 episodes of the first season. Two videos from the orchestral recording sessions of the score on the Fox Scoring Stage can be checked out on YouTube (Cycles of Time and Magical Journey). Also check out an interview with the composer about his work on the show on Tracksounds, during which he announced that a score album is in the works. Read the rest of this entry »

Three new movies opened in wide release this past Wednesday:

The film released in most theaters this Thanksgiving weekend is the new movie adaptation of The Muppets directed by James Bobin and starring Amy Adams, Jason Segel and Chris Cooper. The film’s score is written by Christophe Beck and Bret McKenzie serves as the project’s music supervisor and has also written several songs for the movie. To find out more about McKenzie’s work on the film, check out interviews in the New York Times, TWoP and The Hollywood Reporter. A soundtrack album featuring the songs from the film has been released on Walt Disney Records. To find out more about the album, visit out our previous article. No release of Beck’s score has been announced at this point. To learn more about Beck’s contributions to the film, check out an article in Variety.

Also opening wide is the family movie Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Sascha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone and Christopher Lee. Howard Shore has composed the music for the film. A soundtrack album including the composer’s score has been released on his own label Howe Records last Tuesday. For more information and audio clips, visit our soundtrack announcement. Also check out Shore’s official website for an interview with the composer about his work on the film and a recent article in Variety to learn more about his latest collaboration with Scorsese. Read the rest of this entry »

Harry Gregson-Williams has mentioned in a recent interview with Animated Views that he has just started to work on the score for the indie drama Mister Pip. The movie is directed by Andrew Adamson who has collaborated with the composer on the director’s previous movies, including the first two Shrek films and the first and second installment in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Mister Pip is based on the novel by Lloyd Jones and stars Hugh Laurie as last the white man left on the war-torn island of Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea who reads the kids his favorite novel, Great Expectations. A young girl conjures the novel’s Victorian characters and befriends Pip who helps her to endure the violence and moral uncertainty of her daily life. Kerry Fox, Alliv Samson and Eka Darville are co-starring. Adamson is producing the Olympus Pictures and Eyeworks production with Leslie Urdang & Dean Vanech (Rabbit Hole, Beginners) and Robin Scholes (Once Were Warriors). Read the rest of this entry »

Rhino Records is set to release the official soundtrack album for Jason Reitman’s dramedy Young Adult. The album includes one track by the composer of the film Rolfe Kent (who previously scored the director’s Thank You for Smoking and Up in the Air), as well as five tracks by Juno composer Mateo Messina. Also featured on the soundtrack are the songs from the movie by artists including Diana Ross, 4 Non Blondes, The Replacements, Lemonheads, Veruca Salt, Teenage Fanclub, Cracker, Dinosaur Jr. and Suicidal Tendencies. The soundtrack will be released on December 6, 2011 and the CD is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Check out audio clips from all tracks on the album after the jump. Young Adult marks Reitman’s second directorial feature with writer Diablo Cody (Juno). Read the rest of this entry »