M83 to Score Next Tom Cruise Movie
French electronic artist Anthony Gonzalez, who records as M83, is set to score the upcoming sci-fi film from Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski, Indiewire’s the Playlist blog reports.
Oblivion, which stars Tom Cruise, is a fitting aesthetic match-up for M83: over the past decade, Gonzalez’s act has developed a rousing synth sound with strong cinematic stylings. Last year’s record Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming was M83’s highest-charting effort to date.
“I’ve wanted to do soundtracks for so long,” Gonzalez told the Playlist. “Starting with such an ambitious project, especially in the sci-fi category, means a lot to me.”
While composing a soundtrack is new territory for Gonzalez, he said that the experience he’s gained during his career has prepared him for the task. “I like challenges, and it excites me more than frightens me,” he explained. “I can’t wait to hear my music played by amazing musicians and an orchestra and brass and maybe choirs. It’s a chance to create something big and I’m ready for it.”
Kosinski was listening to M83 in 2005 when he first started working on Oblivion. “He was part of this from the very beginning in my mind, kind of creatively,” he said. Not surprisingly, Gonzalez ended up on the director’s shortlist of collaborators for the project, and they met two years ago. “It was very clear he had a passion for film. I knew just from his electronic music that he had the potential to create something epic,” Kosinski added. “I need a score that is both emotional but, at the same time, can feel big and have a lot of space in it, and his music has that.”
Oblivion features Cruise as a drone repairman stationed on a desolate Earth whose life is turned around when he rescues a stranger after her spacecraft crashes. Gonzalez seems up for exploring its world. “This is a new adventure, so I’m going to push myself even harder and try to surprise people and move people with my music,” he told the Playlist. “My vision is really to have a combination of very electronic moments, very M83, and sometimes merge into something more soundtrack-y, but my kind of soundtracks.”
Oblivion is scheduled for release on April 26th, 2013.