A couple of new video game soundtracks composed by some prominent film and TV composers have recently been announced. Coming out next week is the second volume for John Debney’s music for The Sims Medieval. The soundtrack features eight new score tracks by the composer and will be released on June 7 by Electronic Arts Recordings. To download the album, visit Amazon and check out the audio clips below. The first volume has been released in April and is also available to download on Amazon. The Sims Medieval is based on The Sims 3 Engine and is set in medieval times. The game allows the player to build a kingdom through quest-driven gameplay. The project marks Debney’s second score for a major video game title after his critically acclaimed music for 2007’s Lair. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Danna has taken over scoring duties on the crime drama The Convincer. He is replacing Alex Wurman who had completed a score for the film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The movie is directed by Jill Sprecher (Thirteen Conversations on One Thing) and stars Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup and Lea Thompson. The film follows a desperate insurance salesman whose scheme to get a hold of a rare violin leads to unforeseen consequences. Deadline reported in March that ATO Pictures is a wrapping up a domestic distribution deal for the drama, but no announcement has been made since and The Convincer is still awaiting a release date. Read the rest of this entry »

John Debney has signed on to score the upcoming thriller Dream House. The film is directed by Jim Sheridan (In America, My Left Foot) and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts. The movie centers on a successful publisher who quits his job in New York City and relocates his wife and two daughters to a quaint New England town, only to discover that their perfect new home was the murder scene of a mother and her two children. Among the project’s producers are Ehren Kruger (screenwriter of The Ring), David Bobker (The Skeleton Key) and James G. Robinson & David Robinson for Morgan Creek Productions. Read the rest of this entry »

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has announced today that composers Angelo Badalamenti and Alf Clausen will be honored at the 26th Annual ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards on June 23, 2011 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Badalamenti will be receiving the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award, which is awarded to composers in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music. The composer is best known for his scores for director David Lynch who will be presenting Badalamenti with the award at the ceremony. His credits include Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, The City of Lost Children and A Very Long Engagement. He also has been nominated for two Golden Globes for his scores for The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive. Read the rest of this entry »

Robert Rodriguez has teamed up with composer Carl Thiel to score the 3D family movie sequel Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World. In the newest installment in the series written, directed and produced by Rodriguez, Jessica Alba plays a mother who returns to her old profession as a retired spy in order to prevent a villain bent on stopping time. The film co-stars Joel McHale, Jeremy Piven,  Ricky Gervais, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook, Danny Trejo and Antonio Banderas. Rodriguez has been involved in writing the music for most of his films in the last decade. The previous Spy Kids movies also featured music by such composers as Danny Elfman, John Debney, Harry Gregson-Williams and Heitor Pereira.  Thiel has previously co-scored Rodriguez’s Planet Terror segment in Grindhouse and the family film Shorts in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Christophe Beck has been hired to score the upcoming action comedy Tower Heist. The movie directed by Brett Ratner revolves around a team of overworked operations and maintenance workers at a Manhattan luxury highrise who stage an intricately choreographed heist of its penthouse tenant, a Wall Street capitalist who pulled a Ponzi scheme and swindled the staff. The caper pic stars Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Tea Leoni, Michael Pena, Alan Alda, Gabourey Sidibe, Judd Hirsch and Nina Arianda. The projects marks the first collaboration between Beck and Ratner. Read the rest of this entry »

Varese Sarabande has revealed the details for the upcoming soundtrack release for HBO’s Game of Thrones. The album includes the original score from the series by Ramin Djawadi, including the composer’s main title theme, which can be checked out below. The soundtrack release date has been pushed back to June 28, 2011 since our initial announcement. The album is now available to pre-order on Amazon. Check out audio clips from all tracks on the album below. Game of Thrones premiered in April and is currently finishing up its first season run on Sunday nights on HBO. The show created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and starring Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley and Emilia Clarke already got picked up for a second season. Read the rest of this entry »

Universal Pictures has confirmed to Film Music Reporter that Steve Jablonsky will be scoring next year’s sci-fi action tentpole Battleship. The film is directed by Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom) and stars Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, Hamish Linklater and Rihanna. The movie based on Hasbro’s classical naval combat board game has been described as a massive Naval adventure across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Erich and Jon Hoeber (Red) have written the project’s script and Scott Stuber (Role Models, The Wolfman) and Sarah Aubrey (Bad Santa, Lars and the Real Girl) are among the film’s producers. Read the rest of this entry »

Intrada Records has announced a new soundtrack release for the 1981 adventure mini-series Masada. The album includes the complete original score from all four parts of the series composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens. Goldsmith scored the first two parts and Stevens wrote the music for Parts 3 & 4. The album comes in a 2-CD set and is limited to 5000 copies. To listen to audio clips from the soundtrack and order the CD, visit Intrada’s online store. Masada directed by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man) and starring Peter O’Toole and Peter Strauss tells the story of the historical siege of the Masada citadel in Israel by legions of the Roman Empire in AD 73. The mini-series was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and 3 Golden Globes and Jerry Goldsmith has won an Emmy Award for his score for the second part. Read the rest of this entry »

Cliff Eidelman has signed on to score the drama Everybody Loves Whales. The movie stars Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw, Stephen Root and Ted Danson. The film tells the true story of a small-town news reporter and a Greenpeace volunteer who enlist the help of rival superpowers to save three majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle. The project is directed by Ken Kwapis who has worked with Eidelman numerous times, most recently on the 2009 romantic comedy hit He’s Just Not That Into You. The movie also marks the composer’s first scoring assignments since his last collaboration with Kwapis. Everybody Loves Whales is based on Tom Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event and is adapted for the screen by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler (The Prince and Me, The Shaggy Dog). Universal Pictures has set a January 27, 2012 release date for the film.