White Stripes Climb the “Mountain”
White Stripes frontman Jack White has landed a bit part in the
upcoming movie Cold Mountain, and he will write songs for
the soundtrack. Starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Natalie Portman
and Renee Zellweger, the film — based on Charles Frazier’s book of
the same name — is the story of a wounded Confederate soldier’s
odyssey from a hospital to his North Carolina home and the woman he
left behind.
White, a film buff who worked lyrics of songs and dialogue from
Citizen Kane into the Stripes’ song “The Union Forever”
(from 2001’s White Blood Cells), has great admiration for
the craft of writing film music and especially for those who wrote
for the classic musicals. “When songwriters back then were writing
songs for a musical, they had a job to do,” he recently told
Rolling Stone. “In order to get paid they had to get these
melodies across. I like that because it forces someone into a box
where they have to relate to their fellow man. It’s very hard to
sit down and say, ‘I’m going to write a catchy song.’ I think that
job is really interesting.”
The film will begin shooting in Romania later this month and is
expected to hit theaters next spring.
The White Stripes recorded their fourth album, tentatively
titled “Elephant,” last month at Toe Rag Studios in East London. It
is due early next year. The Detroit rock duo (which also includes
drummer Meg White) will play a short series of home-and-home shows
with New York’s Strokes later this summer, with each band
headlining in its own hometown.
White Stripes/Strokes dates:
8/9: Detroit, Chene Park
8/14: New York, Irving Plaza
8/15: New York, Radio City Music Hall