UPDATE (May 31, 2011): The release date of the score album has been pushed back to June 28, 2011, while the song album is still scheduled to come out on June 14.

Reprise Records will be releasing two different soundtrack albums for the upcoming sci-fi action sequel Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The track list of the song album recently surfaced and can be checked out after the jump. Artists included on the album are Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Goo Goo Dolls and Mastodon. Also featured on the soundtrack is Linkin Park’s song Iridescent, which will be featured as the end credits song in the film. As reported last month, the band is also collaborating with composer Steve Jablonsky on the movie. The song soundtrack will be released on June 14, 2011 and is now available to pre-order on Amazon. A separate score album will also be released on June 28. The release featuring Jablonsky’s score for the film can be pre-ordered here. More details on the score album will be posted soon. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mexican thriller Days of Grace (Dias de gracia) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last week and features music by some prominent composers. The movie directed by Everardo Gout is set in Mexico City and weaves together three kidnappings that take place during the soccer World Cup tournaments in 2002, ’06 and ’10. The film’s press material (via The Playlist) reveals that different composers have worked on the three segments of the film. According to an interview with Gout, the 2002 segment is scored by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (The Proposition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), whose music integrates sounds, noises, urban and animal backgrounds. The 2006 segment features music by recent Academy Award winner Atticus Ross (The Social Network), who has worked on the project before his win. The 2010 segment is scored by Shigeru Umebayashi (In the Mood for Love, 2046), whose music is described as the quietest and the most sophisticated of the three by the director. Read the rest of this entry »

Varese Sarabande has announced the newest titles in their CD Club series. Among the new releases is a deluxe edition of Marco Beltrami‘s score for Wes Craven’s original Scream film. Only about 12 minutes of music from the horror movie has previously been released on a compilation with the sequel’s score. The new album features more than an hour of music from the film, which introduced Beltrami to a wider audience. One track on the CD is credited to Christophe Beck, who also was just starting out at the time of the film’s release. The album is limited to 2000 copies and is now available to pre-order on Varese’s website, where you can see the full track list and listen to audio clips from the soundtrack. Scream was released in 1996 and it’s cast included Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy and Drew Barrymore. Read the rest of this entry »

Nima Fakhrara has been hired to score the crime action thriller The Courier. The movie starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mickey Rourke and Til Schweiger centers on a daredevil courier who’s pursued by corrupt cops and rival crime bosses when he has to deliver a briefcase to a notorious underworld figure who can’t be found. The film is directed by Hani Abu-Assad, who is best known for helming the Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning political thriller Paradise Now. The movie’s screenplay is written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (3:10 to Yuma, Wanted). Read the rest of this entry »

Nacional Records has announced a soundtrack release for the upcoming drama A Better Life. The album includes the original score by composer Alexandre Desplat, as well as the original song El Jardinero by Ozomatli. The soundtrack will be available on June 21, 2011 as a digital download release on Amazon. To listen to audio clips from each track on the album, check out the box below. A Better Life directed by Chris Weitz (Eclipse, The Golden Compass) and starring Demian Bichir centers on a gardener in East L.A. who struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city’s wealthy landowner. Read the rest of this entry »

Watertower Music has revealed the details of the upcoming soundtrack release for Green Lantern. As previously announced, the album includes James Newton Howard‘s original score from the comic book adaptation. The soundtrack features 18 tracks for a running time of over 52 minutes. The album will be released on June 14, 2011 and will be available to download on Amazon. Check out audio clips from each track below. Green Lantern is directed by Martin Campbell and stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Saarsgard and Mark Strong. Warner Bros is set to release the movie on June 17. Read the rest of this entry »

The Russian drama Elena recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Composer Philip Glass wrote an original score for the movie. The film is directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev who is best known for helming the 2003 drama The Return, which received a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign language film. Elena centers on an elderly woman who has lived with her rich husband in a large, comfortable home and tries to rescue her alcoholic son from poverty and give his family the opportunity for a better life that she alone could not provide.  The film has won the Un Certain Regard special jury prize in Cannes and has received mostly positive reviews, which makes an international and domestic release likely. Read the rest of this entry »

Christopher Tyng (Futurama , Rescue Me) is scoring the new legal drama Suits. The show created by Aaron Korsh and starring Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Rick Hoffman and Gina Torres centers on a top Manhattan corporate lawyer who recruits a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout as a new associate. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) who has worked with Tyng on multiple TV shows, including The OC, Knight Rider and Covert Affairs is executive producing the show. Kevin Bray directed the pilot. Suits (formerly known as A Legal Mind) is set to premiere on June 23, 2011 on USA and the first season of 12 episodes will be airing every Thursday night. Read the rest of this entry »

Only one movie is opening wide this weekend:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides directed by Rob Marshall and starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruzis is the fourth entry in the adventure series. The film’s music is composed by Hans Zimmer featuring Rodrigo y Gabriela. A soundtrack album including selections from the score, as well as number of remixes has been released on Tuesday by Walt Disney Records. Visit our previous article for the full track list and audio clips. Film Music Magazine has published a lengthy audio interview with Zimmer talking about his work on the film. Also check out a short video interview with Zimmer that we posted earlier this month.

Opening in limited release today is Woody Allen’s comedy Midnight in Paris starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cottilard and Michael Sheen. As most movies by the director, the film doesn’t have an original score, but features several songs. No soundtrack album has been announced yet for the movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last week. Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Menken has revealed in a recent posting on Twitter that he is in talks to work on the Dreamworks Animation musical Lidsville. The project would be the first non-Disney animation project for the multiple Academy Award-winning composer. The film is based on characters developed by Sid and Marty Krofft (Land of the Lost) from the 1970’s TV series of the same name. In the movie, a rebellious kid falls into an alternate reality world of living hats and talking caps. Conrad Vernon, who directed the animated hits Shrek 2 and Monsters vs Aliens brought the project to Dreamworks. The Krofft brothers will serve as exectuive producers on the production. Read the rest of this entry »