We Bought A Zoo Soundtrack

Comments Off
Share Button

We’ve got the details for the We Bought A Zoo soundtrack courtesy of jónsi’s official site.

The soundtrack that comprises of over 30 minutes of brand new music from jónsi – the soundtrack comprises of two new songs from jónsi: “ævin endar” (life ends) & “snærisendar” (end of a rope) as well as nine shorter “theme” pieces, plus reimagining’s of songs from jónsi’s debut solo album “go”. the soundtrack also includes “hopipolla” by sigur rós.

Here is some words about the soundtrack recording process:

“[jónsi] arrived from iceland with a toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas,” says cameron. “within a week, [he] had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we’d hoped for. in his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. the instinct that made the movie come full circle.”

cameron’s relationship with jónsi and sigur rós goes back almost as far as the band’s position in the international spotlight, to 2001 and the director’s much-noticed inclusion of three of the band’s songs in the hugely successful tom cruise film ‘vanilla sky’. cameron has long heralded the band and their filmwork, to the extent that the secret project name for we bought a zoo was, in fact, ‘heima’ in honor of the band’s 2007 tour film.

“early on it was obvious that [sigur rós’] music would have a profound effect on the making of we bought a zoo,” says cameron. “in preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of sigur rós’ transcendent documentary, ‘heima’.”
even ahead of getting jónsi on board as composer, we bought a zoo was broadly ‘temped’ with jónsi’ solo material. it’s an open secret that cameron would encourage matt damon, scarlett johansson and the other actors on the movie to listen to specific songs by the band to create the right energy for a scene.

“the actors listened to the music during their takes; it quickly became part of the film’s dna,” says the director.

perhaps even more potent is the fact that the closing scene of we bought a zoo is a cinematic homage to a specific moment in ‘heima’ when gleeful crowds stream in a sigur rós show in the far north of iceland or, in this case, the newly opened zoo.

among the original score and new songs is ‘gathering stories’, a song co-written by jónsi and cameron, in something of a collaborative first for the notoriously private icelander. orchestral arrangements on the score have been handled by previous jónsi working partner, and ‘reader’ soundtrack composer, nico muhly, who brings his quixotic genius to the string and brass sections.

here is the tracklisting for the soundtrack:

  • why not?
  • ævin endar – jónsi *new track
  • boy lilikoi – jónsi
  • sun
  • brambles
  • sinking friendships – jónsi
  • we bought a zoo
  • hoppipolla – sigur rós
  • snærisendar
  • sink ships
  • go do – jónsi
  • whole made of pieces
  • humming
  • first day
  • gathering stories – jónsi *new track

The soundtrack will be out on December 13th. The movie hits theaters on December 23rd.

Filed under News

Favorite Rock Docs

Comments Off
Share Button

Cameron and the members of Pearl Jam shared their favorite rock documentaries with Reuters as part of the Pearl Jam Twenty press at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. Here’s their picks:

Cameron Crowe
Can I do two? Okay, Gimme Shelter and Don’t Look Back. Gimme Shelter, because it’s just amazing, on-the-fly film-making and Don’t Look Back because it just captures the white-hot heat of somebody like Bob Dylan, who’s exploding and there are cameras and microphones everywhere.

Eddie Vedder
The Kids are Alright and Last Waltz. It reminded of the time I got caught smoking pot and got grounded for a week in the summer. And it wasn’t that bad, because all I did was listen to Last Waltz for 18 hours a day.

Matt Cameron
I saw Jimi plays Berkley and Jimi Hendrix (film). Those two films kind of blew my mind as a teen. And I also remember watching Freddie and his friends, about Freddie Mercury’s home life. It had nothing to do with the band Queen, just how Mercury was as a person. It was mind-blowingly cool.

Jeff Ament
There was a documentary that came out three or four years ago called American Hardcore. That was sort of the music that I learned to play and to see the footage of some of the Detroit bands and the Boston bands was pretty amazing.

Stone Gossard
Spinal Tap has got to be in there too. It really is something that affected me hugely.

Mike McCready
I would say one life changing film was Woodstock. My first concept of a rock singer ever was probably Roger Daltrey at Woodstock doing his thing. And Hendrix, of course his version of The Star Spangled Banner was the one that went into my soul and I grabbed it, grabbed it and I ran with it.

Please chime in! What are your favorite rock documentaries?

Filed under News

Happy Halloween!

Comments Off
Share Button

Courtesy of AF

Filed under News

Pearl Jam Twenty – TIFF Press Conference

Comments Off
Share Button

Now that most of you have seen Pearl Jam Twenty, I thought it was a good time to share the Toronto International Film Festival press conference with you. This footage is courtesy of Now magazine. My videos didn’t turn out nearly this good. I’ve also transcribed the press conference, if you’d like to read it, you can here.

Filed under News

Editing Pearl Jam Twenty

Comments Off
Share Button

Chris Perkel sat down for a lengthy chat with The AWL to discuss the editing of Pearl Jam Twenty. As you know Chris, along with editor Kevin Klauber and assistant editor Adi Cabigting were integral in editing down the massive amount of footage that was available. It’s an interesting and candid interview, so do check it out!

Filed under News

Pearl Jam Twenty: Out Now!

Comments Off
Share Button

Pearl Jam Twenty is now available for your viewing (or repeated viewing pleasure). To celebrate, there’s a couple of performance clips (from The Kids Are Twenty) out today too. “Last Exit” (above, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) and “Not For You”, (exclusively over at IMDB.com). In North America, you can pick it up Pearl Jam Twenty and The Kids Are Twenty in the following ways:

Filed under News

Pearl Jam Twenty: PBS American Masters Tonight!

Comments Off
Share Button

Don’t forget to check your local listings for the time in your area, as Pearl Jam Twenty makes its television debut tonight on PBS as part of their American Masters series. Tonight’s screening will be hosted by director Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil’s Advocate, Against All Odds). We would love to hear your thoughts on the film, so feel free to leave your comments.

Sound off. Tell us what you think of Pearl Jam Twenty!

Filed under News

Happy Birthday: Tom Petty!

Comments Off
Share Button

Photo by Neal Preston

Today is legendary rocker, Tom Petty’s birthday. He is 61 years young. His history with Cameron is a long and fruitful one. In addition to the Heartbreakers Beach Party MTV special, there’s been a numerous journalism pieces and Petty’s contributions to soundtracks such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Maguire and Elizabethtown. Here’s a few to articles to peruse. Happy Birthday Tom!

Filed under News

  • Almost Famous- Paramount+, AMC+
  • David Crosby: Remember My Name- Starz
  • Elizabethtown- FUBO
  • Say Anything...- Disney+, Hulu, AMC+
  • Vanilla Sky- Paramount+,Showtime
  • We Bought A Zoo- Disney+, Roku