Move over Clint Mansell and your constantly aped original songs from “Requiem For A Dream,” “The Fountain” and to a lesser extent, “Smokin’ Aces,” recycled for various trailers to import gravitas into lacking films. There’s apparently a new musical game in town. Or actually, an old rival in the trailer music game: John Murphy whose “28 Days Later” theme was once the trailer song du jour for a moment Mansell and Murphy are constantly jockeying for position in this field or rather, music supervisors for trailers are always reaching for these go-to guys to juice their previews with sonic drama.
Murphy seems to have the upperhand today as a remix of “Surface Of The Sun,” from Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine,” is the track that helps elevate this “Amelia” trailer — Hilary Swank’s “Amelia,” biopic about pioneering female aviator, Amelia Earhart — to such great heights.
While Mansell’s aforementioned scores have been used to death in trailers to “I Am Legend,” “LOTR: The Two Towers” and “Frost/Nixon” to name just a few, Murphy’s “28 Days Later,” and now “Sunshine” cuts are still being utilized more and more to push the envelope of dramatic grandiloquence ( Murphy’s ’28 Days’ score was aped by the “Beowulf,” and “Death Sentence” trailers). Basically, the grander and more sonorous the music, the greater chance that a band like Explosions will be featured, but we gotta say, the use of their music in this “Amelia” trailer is almost laughably melodramatic.
As for the film itself? Well it’s about the relationship between famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her husband George Putnam (Richard Gere) and of course Earhart is played by one of our not-so-favorites, horseface Hilary Swank (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Mia Wasikowska and Virginia Madsen also co-star). It’s set to hit theaters October 23 via Fox Searchlight and apparently has Oscar on its mind, but it remains to be seen if this one is going to be a true contender. Honestly, some more understated music might serve it a little better. We’re big fans of Murphy’s “Sunshine,” score some of it performed and written with British techno duo Underworld, but we’re the first to admit it’s a little over-the-top (though it works for the sci-fi world of Boyle’s picture).
“Amelia”
“In A Heartbeat” John Murphy’s “28 Days Later” theme
“Beowulf” (around the 1:11 mark)
“Death Sentence” (near the end)