At this point, considering the swarm of talent he has amassed, and the cornucopia of talent he keeps hinting at, the fact that Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” soundtrack may be released as a double album or two discs, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Wright twittered about the potential two-disc soundtrack because surely he has a surfeit of material to choose from (he also blogged about a recent scoring session, but it doesn’t reveal any faces we recognise). We already know that Wright has pretty much tapped one contemporary artist for every band in the film. To recap once again.
– Beck is writing the music for Michael Cera’s/Scott Pilgrim’s Sex Bob Omb band (original music of his was featured in the teaser trailer).
– Toronto synth-rockers Metric are standing in for Brie Larson’s band The Clash At Demonhead
– Canadian orchestral collective Broken Social Scene are composing the noise blasts for the loud and uber-terse band Crash And The Boys.
– San Francisco-based beatmaster and producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura is writing music for the Indian evil-ex boyfriend Matthew Patel.
– Japanese pastiche pop artist Cornelius is making the sonic tsunamis of sounds created by the evil ex-boyfriend twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi.
– Montreal turntablist Kid Koala is also making music for the film.
Could Wright have possibly hired one artist per evil ex-boyfriend meaning there could be at least three if not four more unrevealed notable musicians?
Chris Murphy from Canadian rock band Sloan did act as a musical coach/consultant on the film so its possible he or the group wrote music as well and the score was also produced by Nigel Godrich (Beck, Radiohead) and was at least partially written by Broken Social Scene founders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning (more undisclosed musicians participated and many of them evidently notable and name artists; Godrich also produced some of the original songs listed above).
This of course only accounts for the original music in the film (which already feels like twice the amount an average movie has). Whether they’ll be employed or not is unknown, but Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original graphic novels have myriad references to music including a recommended soundtrack-to-the-book tracklisting near the end of each volume. Add even Nigel Godrich even once said, “There are real bands in the story that we had to call upon too,” and some of those bands include, Spoon, Fleetwood Mac, Sloan, Neko Case, Joel Plaskett, Thrush Hermit, Uncle Tupelo, and Be Your Own Pet who we had heard rumors ages ago would be involved musically in the film, but of course they broke up (among many, many others).
So there could be a bevy of source music as well. Either way, the more the merrier and we’re looking forward to the musical riches Wright delivers. He’ll always have a music/movie-moment soft spot in our heart for utilizing two songs from The Kinks’ classic The Village Green Preservation Society album in “Hot Fuzz” (well played). “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” hits theaters August 13 and after three big consecutive (and expensive) Universal bombs (“The Wolf Man,” “Green Zone,” “Robin Hood”) you gotta wonder whether Wright is feeling pressure as the studio seems to have a lot riding on the picture.
The impressive “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” cast features Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Johnny Simmons, Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Jason Schwartzmann, Mae Whitman, Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Chris Evans and Satya Bhabha among many others.
Update: We’ve been reminded that Wright tweeted yesterday that he was at the scoring sessions with Nigel Godrich (who’s composing the score) and David Campbell. Who’s David Campbell, might you ask? Not only did he arrange strings on records by the likes of Carole King, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Green Day, Radiohead, and the soundtracks for the likes of “Dead Man Walking” and “Brokeback Mountain,” but he’s also the father of fellow “Scott Pilgrim” soundtrack-contributor Beck.