Uhh, is James L. Brooks adding some unexpected bombast to his upcoming romantic comedy, formerly titled, “How Do You Know?” starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson?
Cause according to Moviemusic magazine the dramedy-esque filmmaker has hired Hans Zimmer (“The Dark Knight,” “Inception”) to compose the score for the film that’s due in theaters December 17.
The film was originally titled, “How Do You Know?,” but then reverted back to an “Untitled” state midway through 2009 (we kinda bet it comes back) and is a sports-centric rom-com which centers on a love triangle between a white collar executive (Paul Rudd) and a professional baseball player (Owen Wilson) who are both vying for the affections of a woman (Reese Witherspoon) who comes from a sports-loving family and is just recovering from a major break-up.
You’ll recall that Bill Murray was originally pegged to play one of the father figures, but then the elusive actor went AWOL (as he is wont to do) and Brooks was forced to reach out to Jack Nicholson instead.
Written, directed and produced by Brooks, the screenplay is a massive 160-plus page tome that we had to eventually put down because it was so thick and gigantic (and the puck bunny sports stuff sort of turned us off, but we’ll hopefully go back to it before release). Brooks comedies are generally two-hours plus and with that script length we expect no different. Scattered throughout this piece are set photos posted by Haveuheard last year.
So back to Zimmer, is it odd that he’s scoring this thing? No, he’s known for epic films like, “King Arthur,” “The Last Samurai,” “Black Hawk Down ” and the last two ‘Batman’ and ‘Pirates’ films, but he also does his rom coms (“Something’s Gotta Give,” “It’s Complicated”) and more importantly he and Brooks have a long-standing relationship. The composer has scored the director’s last three pictures, “Spanglish,” “As Good as It Gets” and 1994’s lesser-known, “I’ll Do Anything.”
Zimmer’s a busy guy. He’s just come off the excellent work in “Sherlock Holmes,” is finishing up “Inception” now, has “Rango” later this year, and presumably will be on board for the ‘Holmes’ sequel as well.
“How Do You Know?”/Untitled also features appearances by Kathryn Hahn (“Step Brothers”), Andrew Wilson and Domenick Lombardozzi (‘Herc’ from “The Wire”) among other character actors. Hopefully it’s not as long as say, “Funny People,” but if it is, can actually sustain itself until the end.