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Arcade Fire to score the new movie from the producer of Donnie Darko.

The Canadian indie pop group The Arcade Fire has signed on to score the new movie from the producer of Donnie Darko. The Box is based on the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson and stars Cameron Diaz and is produced by Richard Kelly.

In case you were living without electricity or running water in 2001, Donnie Darko is a strangely awesome movie with a passionate cult following. The soundtrack threw the haunting Gary Jules cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" into the pop stratosphere.

However, soundtracks are one thing and scores another. A score is the background music which helps bring forward the desired mood of the viewer during a scene. Surely different than producing a song with a beginning, middle, and end. In producing a track the audio is the central experience; with scores, the music supports and contributes to the visual experience.

What other indie-popsters have scored movies? Have they done it well?

My Google searches came up empty. But I did find this little snippet example of Donnie Darko scoring. (It's a weird scene. The whole movie is like this.)


categories: The Arcade Fire
1

pat said on May 15, 2008:

movie ruined.

2

Jeanine Anderson said on May 16, 2008:

The latest in the Arcarde Fire / Donnie Darko Richard Kelly team up: Win Butler states in
his blog
that Arcade Fire is not doing the soundtrack.

Hi everyone. Hope you are having a great spring...just to let you all know that (internet-bast fact checking aside) Arcade Fire is NOT doing the soundtrack to any film...Regine, Owen Pallet and I may do an instrumental piece or two for Richard Kelly's new movie...We met at a show this year and hit it off, but we are not planning on doing any major work for a while, and this would not constitute a soundtrack or a release.

Just to clarify one more time: soundtrack and score are different animals. Some of the score may end up on the soundtrack, and bits of the soundtrack may be in the score (not always!), but they are not equivalent. I wonder if Win's statement is deliberate smoke and mirrors or just careless word use.

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