Theodore Shapiro is reteaming with David Frankel on the upcoming drama COLLATERAL BEAUTY. The film stars Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Michael Pena and Naomie Harris. The movie follows a successful New York advertising executive who experiences a deep personal tragedy and retreats from life entirely and his colleagues devise a drastic plan to force him to confront his grief in a surprising and profoundly human way. Shapiro has previously collaborated with Frankel on the features The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me, The Big Year and Hope Springs.
COLLATERAL BEAUTY will be released on December 16, 2016 by Warner Bros. Pictures.
FYI, this is the 3rd movie set for release this December featuring Shapiro's original score...
1. Introducing Howard Inlet 2. The Dream and the Letters 3. Oncoming Traffic 4. Whit Follows Amy 5. Death Visits Howard 6. Whit’s Plan 7. Grief Group 8. Time Visit #1 9. The War Is Over 10. Love Visit #1 11. Like Being in the Movies 12. Collateral Beauty 13. Whit and Amy/Time Visit #2 14. Death Rides the F Train 15. Love Visit #2 16. Boardroom 17. Leaving the Boardroom 18. Blink of an Eye 19. They Go Through You 20. Simon Pays Brigitte 21. Olivia 22. The Bridge 23. Let’s Hurt Tonight (Collateral Beauty Mix) – One Republic
I think the clips sound very good. I like the contrast of orchestra with sharp short staccato synth ostinati. The harmonies he employs sound very nice as well. Looking forward to hearing the score in its entirety on Dec 9th.
Listening to the full score now. Wonderful sonic detail in the electronics and orchestra. There's a lot of really interesting things he's doing with the synths. Really enjoying it. The harmonic framework actually recalls Debussy to my ears- not pastiche but the way the chords work in tandem with the shifting timbres recall some stylistic tendencies of the French composer.
As much as I hated the film, I thought the score was an interesting turn / had some interesting elements for Shapiro. It's far more interesting than the plot, and I'm interested to hear it on its own.
This score reminds me a lot of similar 'type' scores by Mark Isham and Alexandre Desplat (there's one track where Shapiro even emulates that throbbing/pulsing bass that Desplat always does). It's quite modern/ambient/vibey, but the dreamier cues are really nice. As noted above, a nice blending of the orchestra with electronics. And is this CD really THAT rare these days!!!
