We don't know if we'd call Alexandre Desplat the best working composer — although an argument could certainly be made for that. But we'd certainly call him one of the most prolific. Since the French composer broke out a decade or so ago with "Girl With A Pearl Earring" and the amazing music for "Birth," he's been in high demand, and ever more so as time goes on. In 2011, for instance, he penned the music for no fewer than NINE films — "Largo Winch II: The Burma Conspiracy," "The Well Digger's Daughter," "A Better Life," "The Tree Of Life," "Carnage," "The Ides Of March," "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2," "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" and "Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir."
This year he's kept to the same pace, with scores for "Cloclo," "Max Von Sydow: Dialogues With The Renter," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Rust & Bone," "Reality," "A Therapy," "Renoir," "Argo" and "Rise Of The Guardians" all unveiled, or still in the works. But it looks like he's determined to break his own personal record, as according to Film Music Reporter, Desplat's taken on one more project due for release before the end of 2012, as the site's announced that the composer will score Kathryn Bigelow's hunt-for-Bin-Laden procedural "Zero Dark Thirty."
Bigelow has a history of working with a wide range of composers — Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders were behind the music for her last film, the Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker." Desplat's a great choice, and it should be something quite different for him: there's not much on his CV to compare with the film. Could it finally provide him with an Oscar (he's been nominated four times, but never won)? Well, we'll have to wait a few months to find out. "Zero Dark Thirty" stars Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Chris Pratt, Mark Duplass, Harold Perrineau, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez, Frank Grillo, Stephen Dillane and Fares Fares, and hits theaters on December 19th.
