Ok, so the poster for Judd Apatow’s Christmas biopic spoof comedy “Walk Hard” is out there and you’ve likely already seen it, and it’s cute and all, right? Whatever. But it’s all about the details.
We won’t bother you with rehashing the story other than you already know it’s a rock movie spoof that stars John C. Reily as a Johnny Cash-like character.
The interesting part to us, is the poster credits. If you look closely enough on a larger version, you can actually make out the credits which read “Music by Michael Andrews.”
Now we want to know, this is Michael Andrews, the L.A. multi-instrumentalist and composer of the “Donnie Darko” score and the very excellent “Me & You & Everyone We Know” score, yes?
Survey says: Yes. Andrews first entered into the world of film composing via the film, “The Zero Effect” directed by one Jake Kasdan – the director of “Walk Hard.”
Turns out Andrews has already mentioned this quietly. “I’ve recently had the honour of working with Van Dyke Parks. I’ve been working on a movie, I wrote a song with him and we, like, totally orchestrated it. I’ve been hanging out with him, fucking he’s so sweet, such an incredible person. Song Cycle is a masterpiece of an album in fact I’ve been wanting to make a documentary about it…it’s just total musical freedom.”
It turns out that rumors of a Box of Cox may be necessary as the number of songs recorded for the film has now surpassed 30 tracks. “I’ve produced the songs for it – about forty- then I’ve gotta write the score for it this summer,” Andrews told Rant magazine in July. “That’s what I’ll be doing when I get back. It’s a farcical story of this musician’s life. John C. Reilly is playing this guy called Dewey Cox, like a rock icon parody….it’s not an indie movie, it’s for Sony and it’s MASSIVE! It’s crazy but really cool. I had to record music which sounded like it was from the ’50s right the way up to the ’70s…””
Incidentally, Andrews has all the promise and skill to be the next John Brion if he keeps at it. At least in our humble opinions; if you asked us to make a top 10 of the best film scores of this decade, Andrews’ brilliant score for Miranda July’s Me & You & Everyone We Know” would be right up there.
Kasdan and Apatow actually began writing songs for the film more than a year ago. Kasdan actually has songwriting skills that he showed off in his first feature, “Zero Effect,” which included star Bill Pullman performing two songs they had co-written. “We both play really mediocre adolescent Jewish-boy-who-loved-Bob-Dylan, campfire-type guitar,” Kasdan told the LA Times in early 2006 about his and Apatow’s guitar skills. “We both know the same six chords.”
However, whether those songs, as basic as they may be, get used in the film remains to be seen. The list of people who have contributed here seems to be growing and growing. Songwriters Dan Bern, Candy Butchers frontman Mike Viola, Van Dyke Parks and Marshall Crenshaw have all contributed to the songs (not film score) according to Rolling Stone.
Lyle Lovett with the help of Jewel, Ghosftace Killah and Jackson Browne recorded a version of the title track, “Walk Hard.” Other musicians that show their face are Jack White and Eddie Vedder. Musicians spoofed by actors in the film include the Beatles, Elvis Presley (White) and Buddy Holly among others.
What’s up next for Judd Apatow’s comedy dominance? Oh about 10 more films at least that already have actors, scripts and directors attached.