MovieScore Magazine

Scott Glasgow scores ‘Awesomest Maximus’

Mikael Carlsson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:01:56 +0000

Up and coming composer Scott Glasgow, whose recent score for Lo is receiving critical acclaim and whose other credits include Chasing Ghosts, Hack!, The Gene Generation, Bone Dry and Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, is currently composing the score for veteran director Jeff Kanew’s new film, The Legend of Awesomest Maximus, for National Lampoon. This is Glasgow’s first project with Kanew, who is the director of such comedy classics as Revenge of the Nerds and Tough Guys.

The Legend of Awesomest Maximus makes fun of various epic sword-and-sandal movies such as Gladiator, Troy and 300. The cast includes Will Sasso, Kristanna Loken, Rip Torn, Ian Ziering and Sophie Monk.

Thomas Newman to score ‘Adjustment Bureau’

Mikael Carlsson — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:22:41 +0000

The Adjustment Bureau, a feature film based on the Philip K. Dick short sci-fi story “The Adjustment Team”, will get an original score by Thomas Newman. The attachment of the American Beauty composer to the project has been confirmed to MovieScore Magazine by Universal Pictures, who will release the film on July 30. The story is an unusual one about two lovers, a politician (Matt Damon) and a ballerina (Emily Blunt), who are kept apart by mysterious forces while a big conspiracy is unveiled.

Directing and writing the screenplay based on the short story is George Nolfi, a writer who is helming his first feature after writing the scripts for The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean’s Twelve. Other members of the Adjustment Bureau cast include Anthony Mackie, Terence Stamp and Daniel Dae Kim.

Thomas Newman, whose recent credits include Jim Sheridan’s Brothers and John Madden’s thriller The Debt, is best known for his strong drama scores such as American Beauty, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, but also for his Pixar scores, Wall-E and Finding Nemo.

Rolfe Kent to score ‘Charlie St Cloud’

Mikael Carlsson — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:31:45 +0000

Universal Pictures recently hired Rolfe Kent to score their upcoming drama Charlie St Cloud, starring Zac Efron as a young man who takes a job as a caretaker of the cemetary where his brother is buried. The film is directed by Burr Steers whose previous film was the comedy 17 Again, also scored by Rolfe Kent. Charlie St Cloud, which co-stars Kim Basinger and Amanda Crews, is scheduled to be released on October 15. Rolfe Kent’s other upcoming films include Killers, an action thriller directed by Robert Luketic. Kent had a strong 2009 with the acclaimed scores for Up in the Air and The Men Who Stare at Goats crowning his achievements.

Powell takes over Disney project from Zimmer

Mikael Carlsson — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:22:31 +0000

John Powell is the new composer hired to score Walt Disney Pictures’ upcoming family movie Mars Needs Moms. Originally, Hans Zimmer was attached to the film but he had to withdraw from the project due to a scheduling conflict – Zimmer is, among other things, doing the score for the animated Rango (by Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski) which is due out in March 2011, just like Mars Needs Moms.

The film is directed by Simon Wells who previously worked with both Powell and Zimmer on The Prince of Egypt and is based on Berkeley Breathed’s children’s novel about a young boy whose mother is abducted by Martians. Filmed with performance-capture technology and produced by Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers (who used the same technology in A Christmas Carol and The Polar Express), Mars Needs Moms will star Seth Green and Joan Cusack. It is scheduled to be released on March 11 next year.

Giacchino to score ‘John Carter of Mars’

Mikael Carlsson — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:20:24 +0000

Academy Award winner Michael Giacchino, who won the Oscar for his Up score a couple of days ago, continues his fruitful relationship with Walt Disney Pictures. The studio has confirmed to MovieScore Magazine that Giacchino will be writing the score for John Carter of Mars, the new film by Andrew Stanton. Interestingly, Stanton’s previous films as a director (Wall-E and Finding Nemo), were both scored by Thomas Newman. John Carter of Mars is based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels and stars Samantha Morton, Dominic West, Polly Walker and Willem Dafoe. The imaginative story takes place on the planet Mars where Civil War veteran John Carter is imprisoned by 12-foot tall green creatures, escapes and encounter the Princess of Helium. The film is scheduled to come out in 2012.

Young to score manga adaptation ‘Priest’

Mikael Carlsson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:36:01 +0000

Screen Gems has confirmed to MovieScore Magazine that horror icon Christopher Young has been hired to compose the original score for their adaptation of the Tokyopop Manga Priest, directed by Scott Stewart (Legion) and starring Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban and Lily Collins. The film was originally supposed to come out in 2010 but has been pushed to a January 14, 2011, release. Priest is produced by, among others, Sam Raimi, for whom Christopher Young has scored several projects, including Spider-Man 3 and Drag Me to Hell. The title character in Priest abandons church law in order to track down the vampires who killed his niece.

Christopher Young, who has shown great versatility in his filmography lately (ranging from biopic Creation to horror fest Drag Me to Hell and romantic comedy When in Rome), started out in horror and is a devoted fan of the genre. Among his many credits are the two first Hellraiser films, the two American Grudge films, The Fly II, The Uninvited, The Dark Half and Bless the Child.

John Ottman set to score ‘The Losers’

Mikael Carlsson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:10:25 +0000

Composer John Ottman has updated his filmography on his official web site to include The Losers, a new project with DC Comics for whom he scored Superman Returns in 2006. Ottman, who recently scored the animated Astro Boy, is also doing the music for The Resident, a thriller directed by Renny Harlin protege Antti Jokinen, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Christopher Lee and Hilary Swank.

The Losers is based on Andy Diggle’s graphic novel and stars Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba and Jason Patric. The story is about a team of CIA agents who seeks vengeance on a number of individuals who targeted them for assassination. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) directs from a script by Peter Berg (director of Hancock and Friday Night Lights). Music editors on the picture are Shie Rozow and Derek Somary. Amine Ramer is handling music supervision. Warner Bros will release the film on April 23.

Giacchino wins his first Oscar for ‘Up’

Mikael Carlsson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:03:54 +0000

Michael Giacchino won his first Academy Award last night. The Oscar for ‘Best Original Score’ went to his widely acclaimed score for the Pixar hit Up, a score that previously has been awarded the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and a Grammy among many other honours. Giacchino spoke about the dream coming true in his acceptance speech, saying to the “kid out there who do not have a support system” that “if you want to be creative, go out there and do it. It is not a waste of time.”

Ryan Bingham and T. Bone Burnett took home the ‘Best Original Song’ Oscar with “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart. The score from the same film was never in competition as it had been ruled ineligible.

During the Oscar show, the original score nominees (Up by Giacchino and Avatar by James Horner, Fantastic Mr. Fox by Alexandre Desplat, The Hurt Locker by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, and Sherlock Holmes by Hans Zimmer) were presented through choreography, and veteran Hollywood and Broadway composer Marc Shaiman directed the orchestra with great spirit.

‘Furry Vengeance’ gets Shearmur score

Mikael Carlsson — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:57:51 +0000

The upcoming comedy Furry Vengeance, to be released by Summit Entertainment on April 2, gets an original score by Edward Shearmur. He is best known for his big symphonic scores for films such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Reign of Fire and The Count of Monte Cristo, but a lot of his output lately has been focused on light comedies such as Bride Wars, Epic Movie and College Road Trip. The last-mentioned was directed by Furry Vengeance helmer Roger Kumble, and this is in fact their fourth film together after Cruel Intentions and The Sweetest Thing. Furry Vengeance stars Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields and Ken Jeong and tells the story about a real estate developer’s who faces an unusual group of protesters: furry creatures who don’t want their homes disturbed. The music editor on the picture is Bryan Carrigan.

Edward Shearmur’s other recent films include The Wolfman where he contributed additional music to Danny Elfman’s score, and last year’s acclaimed drama Mother and Child.

John Debney on ‘Predators’ confirmed

Mikael Carlsson — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:21:19 +0000

Costa Communications, who handles publicity for composer John Debney, has confirmed that Debney has been hired to compose the original music for Predators, the upcoming sci-fi action adventure written and produced by Robert Rodriguez. Debney has provided music for several of Rodriguez’ previous films, including Sin City and Spy Kids. Predators, which is scheduled to be released by Fox in July, is directed by Nimród Antal (Armored) and has been described by Rodriguez as a “re-boot” of the Predator film series (which kicked off with the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic). Whether or not Debney will score the film on his own or, to some extent, in collaboration with Rodriguez remains to be confirmed. Rodriguez has contributed themes and score to many of the films he has directed himself. On his Facebook page, John Debney commented that “fans won’t be dissapointed” and also said that “nothing compares to Alan’s score for Predator” (referring to Alan Silvestri’s score for the 1987 picture).

John Debney is currently finishing work on his score for Iron Man 2. Facebook proves once again to be a nice source for information: among other things, the composer reveals that the orchestra is joined by a choir singing “in a language other than English,” that he has written over two hours of music for the film including some “Goldsmith-tinged hero music,” and that there are a lot of “fun references” in the score.