That's the trouble with ya New York dope fiends. Ya got a rotten attitude...

You know that bit of music, that bit that you keep hearing? The stirring orchestral strings, swelling, making the images of that trailer look like the best film ever made? Chances are it’s Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream. For ages I thought it was from the Sunshine soundtrack because of it’s use in the trailer. It just turned up, again, on the poor looking Babylon A.D. trail. It’s a great piece of music and since it was written in 2000 for Darren Aronofsky’s drug fulled downward spiral, it’s been on quite a journey. British born Clint Mansell of Pop Will Eat Itself fame composed it, and although he has a musical background, Requiem was only his second soundtrack, which is bloody impressive. He’s scored all of Aronofsky’s films and has gone on to carve a good sounding Hollywood career including scores to Sahara, Smokin' Aces and the up and coming sci-fi film Moon with Sam Rockwell and Matt Berry about a man stranded on Earth's only natural satellite.

Most famously Lux Aeterna was re-arranged and re-recorded for the bloated Lord of the Rings 2 trailer using a full choir. It was named Requiem for a Tower. I’m sure most Rings fans think it was written especially for the production.

Other trailers it pops up in are:
24: Exile (Again - shouldn't they use music they already have from the show?)
The Da Vinci Code
I Am Legend
Zathura
The Trials of Darryl Hunt (an independent film released by HBO)
Valley of Flowers

Plus numerous uses on the small screen, I’ve seen it in Top Gear and the like. Strangely enough Sky Sports news seems to have adopted it as their theme. I’m sure if their executives knew of it’s original location and the subject matter of Requiem for a Dream they may re-think their choice. Although saying that, sport’s news always makes me think of heroin abuse and double-ended dildos.

Strange as it might be using the score from one film to advertise an entirely different one, it isn’t all that new. Looking through the Robocop extras released on DVD a few years ago, I came across the original trailer. Almost immediately I recognised the score: The Terminator theme. Interestingly both films are about a cyborg and distributed by Orion.

I imagine this is a practice that goes on more that we’ll ever notice. When a trailer is released the film is usually still in post production and it is unlikely a score has been written, much less recorded. As studios hold the rights to thousand’s of original soundtracks it much easer to go to the library and choose one. (Which means Peter Jackson must have loved it to use it on the LORT2 trail as they could have used music from the Fellowship of the ring)

Perhaps who ever is cutting trailers at the moment should go back to that library and choose something else. As good as Lux Aeterna is, it’s starting to drag.

If anyone notices any other trailer/soundtrack crossovers let me know.
Woooof…

Somebody blows their nose and you want to keep it..?

The film I have viewed the most is Ghostbusters, without a shadow of doubt. I love it. I can quote it (to the annoyance of other viewers), I revel in its trivia, I collect it’s memorabilia and I’ve got a dog size proton pack and little overalls with COSMO on the pocket – the whole shooting match.

Consequently the prospect of a third film has always interested and worried me. GB2 was okay, slightly duff story but still good fun; I was young enough to not notice its flaws. But GB3? Now? Nearly 20 years later?

Script development and studio rumors have been flying around for years and the announcement last November that Sierra will be releasing Ghostbusters: The Video Game just stoked the fire. Dan Ackroyd had allegedly penned a script back in ‘99 where the Ghostbusters go to Hell. Jumping between dimensions using an “inter-dimensional phase system”, and they discover an alternate NYC. “There’s Manhattan and ManHELLton…a netherworld full of phenomenal visual environments and boiling pits" In 2005 co-writer Harold Ramis had been backing the idea including the casting of a new Ghostbuster played by Ben Stiller, and the return of Dan Ackroyd and Rick Moranis.

Sounds bonkers, but even crazier there were rumours of doing it as a GCI film. Dan Ackroyd revealed why back in 2007 to CISN fm: “Billy [Murray] won’t come on to the live action but he will voice his part, as a CGI animated project… And the difficulty of shooting an alternative hellish New York: “…with CGI, and animation, the way these cartoons are done, we can do everything I wrote in that script for a lot less money…”

I’m still undecided; the script idea sounds too far fetched (I’ve yet to find a copy) the real world of NYC worked so well with in the original film, contrasting with the supernatural underworld. I think best left alone; it’s been too long. Audience tastes are different, film making styles have altered and technologies have advanced. A live action, effects led project would be soulless and as we’ve recently seen with Indy, leaving a 20 year gap between sequels doesn’t seem to work.
Although Aykroyd's original idea for Ghostbusters was set in the future, where an army of Ghostbusters fought hordes of ghosts! So who can say.

I think we should count the Video Game as the third film – it is set to have all the voices of the original cast including William Atherton as Walter ‘Dickless’ Peck. Quite excited about that.

It was paraded at the New York licensing show this month with a giant inflatable Staypuft Marshmallow Man. I want one. There were also pictures of promotional material advertising a remake of Robocop. Stay tuned for a rant as to why this is the worst idea since they released the rehash of Get Carter with Sly Stallone.
Check here for a comprehensive rundown of development hell from as far back as '93.
Also check out some fan made material. Interesting crossover.

Bark...