Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood Score Out of Oscar Race!
“Damn.”
Let’s hope this isn’t a sign of things to come in regards to the Academy Awards for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood: Jonny Greenwood’s feted instrumental soundtrack for the film, seen as a shoe-in for Best Original Score, has been officially disqualified. The reason? The score contains preexisting music. Red Carpet District reports that Greenwood’s score contains “35 minutes of original recordings and roughly 46 minutes of pre-existing work (including selections from the works of Arvo Pärt, as well as pieces in the public domain, such as Johannes Brahms’ “Concerto in D Major”). Peripheral augmentation to the score included sporadic but minimal useage (15 minutes) of the artist’s 2006 composition “Popcorn Superhet Receiver.”
While I downloaded the soundtrack and admire it, I admit that the above details regarding source material eluded me. Rules are rules; even though I’m sure some die-hard Radiohead and PTA fans can’t be talked into coming down from their anger trees right now. What’s more surprising is the supreme suddenness of the Academy’s announcement, with Greenwood learning the decision via an official letter on January 17th, and the studio, Paramount Vantage, two days later. In comparison, Paramount Vantage says they learned that the soundtrack for their Into the Wild was also ineligible (due to predominant use of songs) much further in advance. And it sounds as if the studio would have appealed the TWBB decision if they had the proper time.
Right when the impossibly important category starts to attract the attention and interest of a younger demographic, poof! Maybe it’s time to reinstate the “Adaptation and Song Scores” category, which has been off the ballots since 1984?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O Handling SDTRK to Spike Jonze’s Wild Things
Expectations for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are have cooled off a bit ever since the film was pushed back to 2009 due to purported issues with the titular creatures’ elaborate special effects. Audience reviews from surprisingly early test screenings described the $80 million film as unapologetically melancholic, beautifully strange, and very “adult.” But these reviews also stated polite shock at how much vital work on the film was left to be done. Did Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) bite off more than he could chew, or is he perfecting a trippy masterpiece for the world’s coolest toddlers? Who knows, but any kids’ film with a soundtrack crafted by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is destined to be one of a kind.
It was rumored that the punk ingenue behind one of the more original and marvelous rock bands in recent years was contributing to a song or two. Not so, according to the director’s music producer brother, Squeak E. Clean né Sam Spiegel.
“Karen is doing most of the music. I’ve helped out a little with ideas, but she is pretty much doing the whole thing,” Spiegel writes to The Playlist.”
This information is supported by a note left on the MySpace belonging to composer Carter Burwell, an oft-collaborator with the Coen Brothers who worked on Jonze’s prior two films, that said Karen O was contributing both songs and “other pieces of music.” With the YYYs, Karen’s voice is famous for its manic episodes and banshee-like wail but on certain tracks it has an ephemeral, intimate quality. But as for vocal-less compositions, I have no idea what that would sound like, similar to the mystery surrounding Jonny Greenwood’s Wendy Carlos-like score for There Will Be Blood or Neil Young’s haunted power line guitar work for Dead Man. Add to the fact that Jonze and Karen O used to date and have collaborated several times in the past, and the imagination conjures something even wilder. More info on this film and soundtrack as we get it.
New There Will Be Blood Movie Trailer
Sorry for the lack of updates as of late, but we’re in Canada for the Toronto Film Festival. So excuse me for cutting this short. The new movie trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. This film looks very old school intense.
Based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil, There Will Be Blood is a story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century Texas prospector (Daniel Day-Lewis) in the early days of the business.
The new trailer also announces that the film will feature “Original music by Jonny Greenwood” (of Radiohead fame). Check it out after the jump.