Film Music Reporter

Weekly Film Music Roundup (November 2, 2012)

Posted: November 2, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music News
Tags: A Late Quartet, Alan Silvestri, Angelo Badalamenti, Chris Bacon, Christophe Beck, David Byrne, David Kitay, Flight, Henry Jackman, High Ground, Howard Drossin, Jack and Diane, Marcelo Zarvos, Mum, Paperman, RZA, The Bay, The Details, The Man with the Iron Fists, This Must Be the Place, tomandandy, Vamps, Will Oldham, Wreck-It-Ralph

Three new movies are opening nationwide this weekend:

Expected to top the weekend box office is the animated feature Wreck-It-Ralph directed by Rich Moore and featuring the voice talent of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch. The film’s score is composed by Henry Jackman (X-Men: First Class). Walt Disney Records has released a soundtrack album featuring the score, as well as one track by Skrillex who wrote some of the in-game music and other songs featured in the film. Check out our soundtrack announcement for the full details. Also click here for a number of video interviews with Jackman about his work on the project. Attached to the film is the animated short Paperman, which features an original score by Christophe Beck.

Also opening wide is the drama director Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, John Goodman, Melissa Leo and James Badge Dale. The director’s regular musical collaborator Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future, The Avengers) has composed the film’s original score. No soundtrack album has been released yet, but the score is available to listen to on Paramount Pictures’ Awards website. For more information about the film, visit our previous article. Also check out a short interview with the composer in Beatweek about his latest project. Read the rest of this entry »

Edgar Wright’s ‘The World’s End’ to Feature Music by Steven Price

Posted: November 2, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Scoring Assignments
Tags: Edgar Wright, Steven Price, The World's End

Steven Price has been tapped to score the upcoming comedy The World’s End. The film is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan. The movie is the third part of the director’s “cornetto” trilogy of comedies written by Wright and Pegg and starring Pegg and Frost, following Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz (scored by David Arnold). The comedy follows five childhood friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier and unwittingly become humankind’s only hope for survival. Nira Park (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Paul) is producing for Big Talk Pictures and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner (Love Actually, Atonement) are producing for Working Title Films. Price has previously scored last year’s Attack the Block, which was executive produced by Wright. Read the rest of this entry »

Henry Jackman on ‘Wreck-It-Ralph’

Posted: November 2, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Composer Interviews
Tags: Henry Jackman, Wreck-It-Ralph

SoundWorks Collection has published a video profile on the sound and music of Disney’s animated feature Wreck-It-Ralph. The video features interviews with composer Henry Jackman (X-Men: First Class, Puss in Boots), as well as sound re-recording mixers David Fluhr & Gary Rizzo and supervising sound editor Frank Eulner. Check out the full video after the jump. Also check out two video interviews with composer from the red carpet world premiere this past Monday at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, as well as a short interview courtesy of TrailerAddict below. A soundtrack album for the film featuring Jackman’s score, as well as the film’s songs and additional music by Skrillex is now available on Amazon. Read the rest of this entry »

Alan Silvestri’s ‘Flight’ Score Available Online

Posted: November 1, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music News
Tags: Alan Silvestri, Flight, Robert Zemeckis

The full score for Robert Zemeckis’ drama Flight has been made available online by Paramount Pictures. The music is written by Academy Award-nominated composer Alan Silvestri who has worked with the director for almost three decades on movies including Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away and The Polar Express. To listen to the full score, visit Paramount’s awards site. The track titles contain some minor spoilers. As the movie features just a little over 20 minutes of score, no soundtrack album has been announced yet. Flight starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, John Goodman, Melissa Leo and James Badge Dale tells the story of an airline pilot with substance abuse issues who saves 98 lives when a damaged engine threatens an airplane flight. Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Isham to Score TNT’s ‘L.A. Noir’

Posted: November 1, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in TV Scoring Assignments
Tags: Frank Darabont, L.A. Noir, Mark Isham, TNT

Mark Isham is scoring the upcoming TNT original series L.A. Noir. The show created by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) and based on on the book L.A. Noir: The Struggle For The Soul Of America’s Most Seductive City by John Buntin chronicles the battle between Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen, a one-time boxer who rose to the top of LA.s criminal world during the 1940’s & 1950’s. The series stars Jon Berthnal, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jeremy Strong, Neal McDonough, Milo Ventimiglia, Ron Rifkin, Pihla Viitala and Alexa Davalos. Darabont who has previously collaborated with Isham on the feature films The Mist and The Majestic directed the pilot episode and is executive producing the project with Michael De Luca (The Social Network) and Elliott Webb (Tall Time Tales). Read the rest of this entry »

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Soundtrack Details

Posted: November 1, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music Albums
Tags: An Unexpected Journey, Howard Shore, Peter Jackson, score, Soundtrack, The Hobbit

WaterTower Music has announced the details of the soundtrack albums for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The albums feature the film’s music composed and conducted by Howard Shore, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Also included is the original song Song of the Lonely Mountain written and performed by Neil Finn (Crowded House). The soundtrack will be released in a 2 CD Standard and 2CD Deluxe version. Visit Amazon to pre-order the standard version and click here to order the deluxe version. Check back on this site for audio clips. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Graham McTavish, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm and Elijah Wood will be released nationwide on December 14, 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Video Game Soundtrack Roundup (November 2012)

Posted: November 1, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music News
Tags: Assassin's Creed: Liberation, Assassins Creed III, Epic Mickey, Epick Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Halo 4, Jim Dooley, Lorne Balfe, Neil Davidge, score, Soundtrack, Steve Jablonsky, The Sims 3, The Sims 3: Showtime, Winifred Phillips

A couple of soundtracks for major video game titles have recently been announced:

Available now from Ubisoft Music is the soundtrack album for Assassin’s Creed III. The album features the game’s music composed by Lorne Balfe (Megamind, The Dilemma) who previously co-scored last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Revelations with Jesper Kyd. The soundtrack is now available to download on Amazon. Audio clips are available after the jump. Assassin’s Creed III has just been released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 earlier this week and a Wii and Microsoft Windows version is coming out in November. To learn more about the fifth title in the Assassin’s Creed series, visit the official game website. Read the rest of this entry »

Ilan Eshkeri to Score ‘I Give It a Year’

Posted: October 31, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Scoring Assignments
Tags: Dan Mazer, I Give It a Year, Ilan Eshkeri

Ilan Eshkeri has signed on to score the upcoming romantic comedy I Give It a Year. The film marks the directorial debut of Dan Mazer who is best known for his collaborations with Sacha Baron Cohen as a writer/producer of Borat, The Dictator, Bruno and Ali G Indahouse. The comedy starring Rose Byrne, Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Rafe Spall, Minnie Driver and Jason Flemyng follows a mismatched couple as they struggle to survive their first year of marriage. Mazer has also written the screenplay and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner (Atonement, Love Actually) are producing the Working Title Films and StudioCanal production with Kris Thykier (Kick-Ass, The Debt). Eshkeri has previously scored last year’s comedy Johnny English Reborn for Working Title. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ Soundtrack Announced

Posted: October 31, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music News
Tags: Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Jack Wall, score, Soundtrack, Trent Reznor

Activision will release a soundtrack album for the first-person shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The album includes the main theme composed by Trent Reznor (The Social Network), as well as more than 2 hours of the game’s score composed by Jack Wall (Mass Effect, Myst III & IV). The soundtrack will be released digitally on November 13, 2012 and is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Audio clips, as well as a video featuring footage from the recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios in London (via IGN) are available after the jump. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is the ninth title in the Call of Duty series and the sequel to 2010’s Black Ops game (scored by Sean Murray and Kevin Sherwood). The video game will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on November 13, 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

David Wittman Scoring ‘Empire State’

Posted: October 30, 2012 by filmmusicreporter in Film Scoring Assignments
Tags: David Wittman, Dito Montiel, Empire State

David Wittman is currently scoring the upcoming heist drama Empire State. The film is directed by Dito Montiel and stars Liam Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Emma Roberts, Nikki Reed, Chris Diamantopoulos, Michael Angarano, Jerry Ferrara, Paul Ben-Victor, Shenae Grimes and Greg Vrotsos. The movie is set in the 80s and follows two childhood friends from Astoria, N.Y., who plan to rob an armored car depository. Adam Mazer (Breach, You Don’t Know Jack) has written the screenplay and Randall Emmett & George Furla (16 Blocks, Rambo) are producing the Emmett/Furla Films with Sandy Kyrkostas. Wittman has previously co-scored Montiel’s other three features A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Fighting and The Son of No One with Jonathan Elias. Empire State is expected to be released in 2013 by Lionsgate.