Four new movies are opening wide this weekend:

Opening in almost 3000 theaters is the horror comedy Fright Night directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Please, David Tennant and Toni Collette. The film’s music is composed by Ramin Djawadi. A soundtrack CD will be released on August 30, 2011 by Varese Sarabande. The album is already available to download on iTunes, where you can also listen to audio clips. Check out our soundtrack announcement for more details.

Also opening wide is the action remake of Conan the Barbarian directed by Marcus Nispel and starring Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowan and Stephen Lang. Warner Bros Records has released a soundtrack album featuring the film’s music by Tyler Bates. For more details and audio clips, visit our previous article. Also check out a lengthy audio interview with the composer on Film Music Magazine, as well as interviews with Bates about the project on Billboard, Huffington Post and Examiner. Finally, a short video feature, which includes Bates talking about his approach for the project can be found on ARTISTdirect. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Danna to Score ‘The Expatriate’

Posted: August 19, 2011 by filmmusicreporter in Film Scoring Assignments
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Jeff Danna has signed on to score the upcoming action thriller The Expatriate. The movie stars Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA agent who hopes to make a fresh start with his estranged 15-year old daughter. He takes a job in Belgium as a security expert for a multinational corporation and arrives one day to find the corporation no longer exists and his assistant is really a trained operative out to kill him and his daughter. Olga Kuryelenko and Liane Liberato are co-starring. The film is directed by German filmmaker Philipp Stolzl (North Face) and written by Arash Amel. The Expatriate was shot this spring in Montreal and Belgium and is currently in post-production. Read the rest of this entry »

Quartet Records has released a soundtrack album for Pedro Almadovar’s drama The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito). The album includes the film’s original score by Alberto Iglesias, as well as songs from the movie by Concha Buika, Trentmöller and Chris Garneau. The score is performed by the London Sessions Orchestra. The soundtrack is currently available overseas as a digital download. To listen to audio clips from the score, visit Amazon.co.uk and Silva Screen RecordsThe Skin I Live In starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Marisa Paredes tells the story of a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE (November 14, 2011): Check out our new article for the details on Howard Shore’s soundtrack.

The credits on the official movie website of Martin Scorsese’s upcoming drama Hugo reveal that a soundtrack album for the movie will be released on Howard Shore‘s own label Howe Records. According to The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, Shore’s music will be recorded later this year. Scorsese has previously worked with the composer on a number of films including The Aviator, The Departed, The Gangs of New York and After Hours. More details on the soundtrack album are expected to be announced within the next few months. Hugo is set in 1930s Paris and centers on a 12-year-old orphan who lives in a train station and must finish what his late father started by solving the mystery of a broken robotstars . Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Mothersbaugh has written the score for the upcoming HBO comedy Enlightened. The show stars Laura Dern as as a health and beauty executive who has a terrible public breakdown and, after some rehab and meditation, must come back from the hardship to try to live a more illuminated existence. Diane Ladd, Luke Wilson and Timm Sharp are co-starring. The comedy is created by Mike White (The School of Rock, Nacho Libre). Enlightened is set to premiere on October 10, 2011 and will be airing every Monday night on HBO. Read the rest of this entry »

‘The Help’ Score Album Details

Posted: August 18, 2011 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music Albums
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Varese Sarabande has revealed the details of the score album for the hit drama The Help. The album includes the original score by Thomas Newman. The soundtrack CD is available for pre-order on Amazon and is scheduled to be released on September 13, 2011. The release is also already available to download. Check out audio clips from all tracks on the album below. A soundtrack album featuring songs from the film, including The Living Proof performed by Mary J. Blige and co-written by Newman has already been released as reported here. The Help directed by Tate Taylor and starring Emma Stone, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Mike Vogel and Cicely Tyson opened last week and is currently playing in theaters. Read the rest of this entry »

Gast Waltzing has recently scored the British romantic comedy Hysteria. The movie directed by Tanya Wexler stars Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones. Christian Henson (the Devil’s Double, Black Death) has written additional music for the film. Sarah Curtis (Her Majesty Mrs. Brown), Judy Cairo (Crazy Heart) and Tracey Becker are producing the comedy, which centers on the invention of the vibrator in Victorian London. The story follows a young doctor treating cases of Hysteria who struggled to establish himself while confronting the gutsy daughter of his boss. The project is arguably Waltzing’s highest profile scoring assignment to date. The composer previously scored the 2008 comedy drama JCVD starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Read the rest of this entry »

The World Soundtrack Academy has announced the nominees for the 2011 World Soundtrack Awards to be presented in three categories: Film Composer of the Year, Best Original Score of the Year and Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film. The names of the winners will be announced at the World Soundtrack Awards & concert on Saturday, October 22, the closing night of the Ghent International Film Festival. Here are the nominations:

Film Composer of the Year

Alexandre Desplat
A Better Life, Tamara Drewe, The Burma Conspiracy, The King’s Speech, The Tree of Life, The Well Digger’s Daughter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

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Paul Cantelon is the composer of the upcoming drama Violet & Daisy. The movie is written and directed by Geoffrey Fletcher who won an Academy Award for his adapted screenplay for 2009’s Precious. Saoirse Ronan and Alexis Bledel are playing two teenage assassins who believe they’ve landed a straightforward assignment but soon find themselves thrown off their game when their latest target isn’t who they expected. James Gandolfini and Danny Trejo are co-starring. Fletcher is producing with Bonnie Timmermann and John Penotti (Awake). The project is the second movie scored by Cantelon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Other Boleyn Girl) to premiere this year following The Music Never Stopped, which debuted at Sundance. Read the rest of this entry »

Varese Sarabande has announced a soundtrack release for the upcoming horror thriller The Thing. The album features the movie’s original score by Marco Beltrami. The soundtrack will be released on October 11, 2011. The full details of the release are expected to be announced within the next couple of weeks. The Thing directed by Matthijs van Heijingen Jr., produced by Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (Dawn of the Dead, Children of Men) and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Eric Christian Olsen and Joel Edgerton is a prequel to the 1982 classic directed by John Carpenter, which featured a score by Ennio Morricone. The movie will be released on October 14 by Universal Pictures. Read the rest of this entry »