Know The Score: Rock Stars-Turned-Composers

Rock stars are a versatile bunch. They can write tunes, reduce mild-mannered crowds to baying, moshing masses, trot the globe for months on end and go triple platinum, all while wearing improbably tight trousers. And as Trent Reznor and Attica Ross prove this week with their terrific work on The Social Network, they can also knock out a highly accomplished movie scores when they set their minds to it. So if you’re looking for a composer to provide a full whack of tuneful ditties for a major Hollywood release, you could do a lot worse than head to Glastonbury. Or just have a read of our guide to some of the best rock-star/director collaborations of recent years…

Movie: The Social Network (2010)

Director: David Fincher

Standout track: The Gentle Hum Of Anxiety

Further listening: Nine Inch Nail’s Pretty Hate Machine (1989), Year Zero (2007)

Movie: The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Director: Sofia Coppola

Standout track: Highschool Lover

Further listening: Moon Safari (1998), Talkie Walkie (2004)

Movie: About A Boy (2002)

Directors: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz

Standout track: Silent Sigh

Further listening: The Hour Of Bewilderbeast (2000), It's What I'm Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes (2010)

Movie: There Will Be Blood

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Standout track: Open Spaces

Further listening: OK Computer (1997), Amnesiac (2001), In Rainbows (2007)

Movie: Tron Legacy (2010)

Director: Joe Kosinski

Standout track: released November 22.

Further listening: Homework (1997), Discovery (2001)

Movie: Hanna (2011)

Director: Joe Wright

Following The Soloist, Joe Wright’s next film, the Bourne-meets-Nikita actioner Hanna, sees him tackle a bold new musical direction as well as cinematic genre. Swapping Beethoven for altogether chunkier beats, Wright has called on The Chemical Brothers, auld muckers of his from the early ‘90s warehouse scene, to provide the score. Back when they were still Dust Brothers, Tom and Ed Chemical called on Wright’s visual skills to create suitably psychedelic projections for their sets. While the Hanna score is still under wraps, Wright is promising ‘a modern beat’. With luck that means something akin to John Powell’s edgy work on the Bourne films, only dragged through a nightclub by its hair and force-fed half a dozen Red Bulls. We do know that for a movie in which Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana batter seven shades of hell out of Western Europe, it’s not going to sound much like Star Guitar.

Standout track: Released sometime 2011.

Further listening: Exit Planet Dust (1995), Surrender (1999), We Are The Night (2007)

Movie: Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

Director: Spike Jonze

Standout track: Building All Is Love.

Further listening: Fever To Tell (2003), It’s Blitz! (2009)

Movie: Moon (2009)

Director: Duncan Jones

Standout track: Welcome To Lunar Industries.

Further listening: This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! (1989), Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)

Movie: Sunshine

Director: Danny Boyle

Standout track: Capa Meets the Sun (To Heal).

Further listening: Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994), Second Toughest In The Infants (1996), Barking (2010)

Movie: Out Of Sight (1998)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Standout track: Rip Rip.

Further listening: This Film’s Crap Let’s Rip The Seats (1995), The Holy Pictures (2009)