As we scramble to get our last minute Christmas shopping done (damn, it's just a week away), the movie year is winding down in a hurry and soon we'll all be hibernating, however momentarily, at the homes of friends and family. But once the cork is popped on the New Year, we're jumping back into the grind and it will all kick off with the Sundance Film Festival. And as more and more continues to be revealed on the strong lineup of films playing the fest, details on who is composing scores and providing tunes to number of those films have also come out. And ranging from our indie faves to big pop stars, it looks like we're in for a great year in movie music in 2013. Read on….
Directed by George Tillman, Jr. (“Soul Food,” “Barbershop”), Alicia Keys has penned the score for "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete" in a coming-of-age drama that includes Jennifer Hudson, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Jordin Sparks, led by newcomer Skylan Brooks.
We just placed Devotchka frontman and founder Nick Urata's grossly underrated score to "Ruby Sparks" on our Best Soundtracks & Scores List of 2012. The songwriter will also be composing the music for "ACOD" a comedic drama starring Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Catherine O'Hara, Amy Poehler, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Clark Duke.
Precocious contemporary classical music composer Nico Muhly (who composed a great score for “The Reader” and he’s worked with Bjork, Grizzly Bear and Antony & The Johnsons among others) has written the music for the beat generation film "Kill Your Darlings" starring Daniel Radcliffe, Elisabeth Olsen, Dane DeHaan, Ben Foster, David Cross, Michael C. Hall and more.
Craig Wedren, ex-Shudder To Think, who scored “Wanderlust” and “Role Models," has composed the music to "Afternoon Delight" a dramedy starring Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple and Josh Radnor.
Perhaps no surprise here. Dustin O'Halloran, who scored Drake Doremus’ “Like Crazy” (and contributed music to parts of Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette") is also scoring Doremus' latest, "Breathe In" starring Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan and Mackenzie Davis. O'Halloran's heartbreaking piano compositions made our Best Scores of 2011 list.
Ryan Miller of Guster, who recently scored the Sundance indie hit "Safety Not Guaranteed," has written the music for actress Lake Bell’s feature-length directorial debut, "In A World." According to Miller on Twitter (thanks dude), he also scored Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ “Toy’s House” which features Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie and Mary Lynn Rajskub. Vogt-Roberts directed a short film we truly loved called "Successful Alchoholics" so he's one to watch.
Chemical Brothers, Underworld, M83, Jose Gonzalez, Moby, Sigur Ros, Lykke Li are all listed as providing music for the snowboarding documentary “The Crash Reel,” but presumably this means the doc uses their music and original tunes were not recorded for the film (otherwise, they have a pretty amazing music budget that rivals any of the films playing at Sundance.)
David Gordon Green is reteaming with his old composer pal, and Ola Podrida frontman/songwriter David Wingo for "Prince Avalanche." Wingo worked with post-rock faves Explosions In The Sky on the score for the film that stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. Green and Wingo have previously worked together on "The Sitter," "Snow Angels," "All The Real Girls" and "George Washington."
Other notable scores: Nathan Johnson, director Rian Johnson’s cousin is scoring Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut “Don Jon’s Addiction”; Graham Reynolds is once again reteaming with Richard Linklater on "Before Midnight" (he wrote the music to "Bernie") and as already reported by us, Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley has scored “Very Good Girls” starring Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen. Final note — while it was reported that Moby was the composer of "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman," Christophe Beck and Dead Monoa actually composed the score and the soundtrack features Moby, M83 and more.
