As initially chaotic as the career choices of David Gordon Green appear, it should also be noted that the director maintains a consistent roster of collaborators. His latest film, “Prince Avalanche” starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, features much of the same crew from Green’s “George Washington” days, and one of them—composer David Wingo—even scored his student short film. It’s a loyal group of talent, and so it is with little surprise that Green will tackle a new curveball project with regulars, while hinting at a few intriguing others.
Having shot to prominence via his longtime work with Green and more recent efforts with Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter,” “Mud”), David Wingo contributes another excellent, emotional score to “Prince Avalanche” (in stores as of yesterday) with help from instrumental rockers Explosions In The Sky. It’s not the first time the two entities have played together (they’ve also released albums under the name Ola Podrida), but clearly they enjoy one another’s company, as they’ve now announced (via Hitfix) they will score Green’s upcoming directorial effort, the Al Pacino drama, “Manglehorn.” Following “an eccentric man who tries to come to terms with a past crime that cost him the love of his life,” the film sounds like an interesting choice for Wingo and Explosions, as well as a promising platform for Pacino, whose most notable recent roles have aired on HBO.
Meanwhile, Wingo will feature musically in Green’s other showcase starring Nicolas Cage, “Joe,” set to play at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and even as the idea of more upcoming projects seems daunting, the filmmaker has dropped a number of hints for some in his “Week In Pop Culture Consumption” for Vulture. Amidst accounts of watching “Fox and the Hound” and The Discovery Channel, he also chose the likes of “ParaNorman,” because “he’s doing some new Mr. Peanut commercials with Planters, and we’re working with Laika, who does the brilliant stop-motion work in this movie.” Perhaps an animated feature isn’t too far behind?
The other tidbit came with a screening of “No Pryor Restraint: Life In Concert,” the new, comprehensive box set of comedian Richard Pryor’s work. Green claims Pryor as his “favorite actor of all time,” and he also put forth the idea of making a film “just about Richard Pryor when he was shooting David Lynch‘s ‘Lost Highway.’“ Playing a wheelchair-bound auto shop boss, the actor was battling MS at the time, and it is a bizarre and shocking appearance to witness (check out a clip here). Conjecture for now, but we’ll see if Green explores the occasion in the future, cinematically or otherwise.
“Prince Avalanche” hits theatres on August 9th, and you can check out a new clip from that film below.