This just in at Varese:

THE BUCKET LIST
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Music Composed by Marc Shaiman

Jack Nicholson
Morgan Freeman

Corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and working class mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they “kick the bucket” and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are.

Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest. Each adventure adds another check to their list, all done with insight and humor.

The beautiful and heartfelt score for THE BUCKET LIST is by Tony Award-winning (Hairspray) composer Marc Shaiman, and features acclaimed recording artist Chris Botti on trumpet. Rounding out this musical feast are a selection of newly recorded themes performed by Marc Shaiman himself!

It’s a brand new score along with a fun look back at an astounding career … all on one CD!

Warner Bros. opens THE BUCKET LIST for Academy consideration on Christmas Day and will open nationwide on January 11.

Catalog #: 302 066 877 2
Release Date: 01/15/08

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I AM LEGEND
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Music Composed by James Newton Howard

Will Smith

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable … and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City … and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by “the Infected” — victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.

The gripping score by James Newton Howard is being described as one of the composer’s finest.

Warner Bros. will open I AM LEGEND nationwide on December 14.

Catalog #: 302 066 878 2
Release Date: 01/15/08

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AMERICAN GANGSTER
Original Motion Picture Score

Music Composed by Marc Streitenfeld

Directed by Ridley Scott

Also includes three original songs by Hank Shocklee

Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, Steve Zaillian and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult hero from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster.

Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Oscar® winner Washington), the quiet driver to one of the inner city's leading black crime bosses. But when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city's mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars. Richie Roberts (Oscar® winner Crowe) is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene.

Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, making them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation where only one of them can come out on top.

Washington (Training Day) and Crowe (Gladiator) lead a spectacular cast of accomplished and rising stars — including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Armand Assante, RZA, John Ortiz, John Hawkes and Ted Levine — in this blistering tale of a true American entrepreneur directed by Oscar® nominee Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and produced by Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) and Scott from a screenplay by Academy Award® winner Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List).

Newcomer Marc Streitenfeld contributes a sprawling score that is at turns both aggressive and beautiful.

Catalog #: 302 066 874 2
Release Date: 02/19/08

James

Clayton

Looking forward to the score to I Am Legend. I wonder if Will Smith survives getting bitten by digital dingos.

quote:

---

Originally posted by sean:
It's really too bad that Ridley Scott and Hans Zimmer don't work together; HZ could have turned the tied for both Kingdom Of Heaven and American Gangster, but alas we're provided with nothing substantial from Scott's new composer... what's his name?

[Message edited by sean on 12-04-2007]

---

Harry Gregson-Williams did a rather good job on KINGDOM OF HEAVEN until Ridley butchered it with the temp tracks.

Marc Streitenfeld worked on AMERICAN GANGSTER and also scored A GOOD YEAR for Ridley Scott.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bond1965:
(I AM LEGEND
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Music Composed by James Newton Howard

The gripping score by James Newton Howard is being described as one of the composer’s finest.

---

By whom? (Caught out again manufacturing hype, Varese. When will they learn?)

And we want descriptions of the music, not the plot!

quote:

---

Originally posted by sean:
Actually, there are parts of it that are almost exact rip offs of John Williams's synth work on Munich: You know, that subtle thumping beat for "Encounter In London."

---

I love MUNICH, but if you think that percussion loop was subtle, there's a reason why you think Hans Zimmer writes good drama scores.

James, I agree that HGW did a "good" job with Kingdom Of heaven, but it still left me with something to be desired. It lacked what the Goldsmith 13th Warrior temp track provided: A strong, heroic base. It was under-par, IMO, compared to what Zimmer could have done with the film.