It’s a good day for Jon Brion and Alexandre Desplat, seeing as they’ve both been hired to score some pretty big projects. FilmMusicReporter (via ThePlaylist) has informed us that Brion will be providing the music to Judd Apatow‘s highly anticipated comedy The is 40, while they also tell us Desplat will provide his wonderful talent to Ben Affleck‘s Argo and the animated Rise of the Guardians.
I guess being the right-hand man to directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Michel Gondry has really payed off for Brion — he scored Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine as well as Charlie Kaufman‘s Synecdoche, New York. After scoring some not-so-great films over the past years, such as The Break-Up and The Other Guys, Brion seems to be getting back on track with This is 40. Apatow has definitely begun to gravitate towards a more serious side of directing, which shows in his hiring of the musician.
Apatow recently told IFC about 40, stating, “I started thinking about writing a movie about a family and their midlife crisis, and then I realized I already have that family in one of my movies and I like them. Why do I have to meet new actors? I can use these amazing actors that people seem to like and were interested in learning more about and it came out really well.” Comedy duo Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd will reprise their roles as Pete and Debbie, who we met in Knocked Up, while far too many talented comedic actors to name will be co-starring. Plot details are currently under lock down, but the film hits theaters December 21st.
It seems that composing powerhouse Alexandre Desplat just can’t get enough of Hollywood. After signing onto score what seems like hundreds of films in recent months — Midnight Kingdom, Rust and Bone, and Emperor among them — the French composer is adding two more (aforementioned) films to his bill.
Desplat is heading in a more mainstream direction with his career after he scored both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and The Ides of March last year. For those who haven’t heard anything about Affleck‘s Argo, it “tells the true story of how the CIA, with help from Hollywood, used a fake movie project to smuggle hostages out of Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis.” Although Desplat can master any score given, he does tend to lean more towards dramatic films, with Argo likely being no exception.
And even though he does love making some serious tunes, he’s also allowed to have some fun with it, which is why he’s signed on to score the DreamWorks animated film Rise of the Guardians, staring Chris Pine, Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Isla Fisher, and Jude Law, out November 21st. However, this isn’t the first animated feature Desplat has scored; he provided the music for Wes Anderson‘s Fantastic Mr. Fox back in 2009. With every project he attaches himself to, I get even more convinced that he’s one of the most versatile and creative composers working today.
What are your thoughts on this big scoring-related news?