Marco Beltrami Creates A Haunting Score For THE HOMESMAN – Video

Academy Award nominated composer Marco Beltrami brings raw emotion to THE HOMESMAN.

Directed by Tommy Lee Jones, the film’s all-star cast includes Jones, Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep, and Hailee Steinfeld. The unconventional western follows three women, driven mad by pioneer life, who are being transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy (Swank), who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs (Jones) to assist her.

The film marks Beltrami’s third collaboration with director Tommy Lee Jones, previously scoring The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and The Sunset Limited.

The film opens in select theaters on November 14th, 2014 and the score album will be released through Varese Sarabande digitally on November 17th, 2014 and on CD December 9th, 2014.

Director Tommy Lee Jones says of Beltrami, “He’s different, that’s what he brings. He’s original.” This originality stretches to their work on The Homesman.

While most composers record their music inside a studio in pristine conditions, Beltrami went outdoors – recording the music on the mountains of Malibu, CA. Beltrami took a piano and put it atop a hill, with the piano wires stretching 175 feet across the mountains to capture the sound of the blowing Santa Ana winds.

“Tommy encouraged originality and creativity. The thing that struck me first about the movie was that these woman went crazy from disease, famine and isolation. The thing that characterizes this was the ever present wind. We wanted to find a way to musically harness the wind and make it more than a sound-effect in the movie, but rather something we can work with that’s tunable,” explains Beltrami.

Beltrami was recently nominated for Film Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards and was honored as the Distinguished Film Composer of the Year by the Middleburg Film Festival. This year alone, Beltrami has had five films have a theatrical release, including Snowpiercer, The Giver, The November Man, The Drop and The Homesman.

He’s earned a reputation as genre innovator with non-traditional horror scores for the Scream franchise, The Woman in Black, and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. He proved his versatility by scoring numerous action-packed blockbusters, including World War Z, Hellboy, and The Wolverine, as well as dramas, such as Trouble with the Curve and The Sessions. His talent earned him accolades including Oscar nominations for Best Original Score for Hurt Locker and 3:10 to Yuma. Beltrami’s knack for powerful compositions have also earned two Critic’s Choice Award nominations, an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for The Practice and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Score from The International Press Academy for Soul Surfer.

Read our WORLD WAR Z interview with Beltrami HERE.

Read our THE NOVEMBER MAN interview with Beltrami HERE.