Santa Monica, CA, June 28, 2011– LIONSGATE has announced an unprecedented film music collaboration between Academy Award® winner and two time nominee T Bone Burnett (CRAZY HEART, COLD MOUNTAIN) and four time Academy Award® nominated composer Danny Elfman (ALICE IN WONDERLAND, SPIDER-MAN) on the music for the highly anticipated film adaptation of THE HUNGER GAMES, based on the first in Suzanne Collins’s runaway bestselling book trilogy. The announcement was made by Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group President Joe Drake.
Elfman and Burnett will be collaborating on the film score, with Burnett also serving as the film’s Executive Music Producer, producing songs for the film and soundtrack.
Said Lionsgate’s Head of Film Music Tracy McKnight of the musical dream team assembled on behalf of the film, “THE HUNGER GAMES is such a special property – it has worldwide mass appeal, but it’s also sophisticated, cerebral, soulful, and rebellious. We needed a composer who can translate these qualities musically, and we have not one but two incredible artists in an absolutely thrilling first time ever collaboration.”
Production president Alli Shearmur is overseeing the production for the studio, and the deals for both artists were negotiated by McKnight with Lenny Wohl, EVP Business Affairs Music & Publishing, on behalf of Lionsgate.
Elfman is represented by Richard Kraft and Laura Engel of Kraft-Engel Management, who negotiated the deal on his behalf. Larry Jenkins manages Burnett and negotiated the deal with Jason Karlov of Barnes & Thornburg LLP on his behalf. Burnett is also represented by Brian Siberell at CAA.
About T Bone Burnett
T Bone Burnett’s 40 years of experience in music and entertainment have earned him an unparalleled reputation as a first-rate innovative artist, songwriter, producer, performer, concert producer, record company owner and artist advocate.
He is a 12-time Grammy® Award winner, earning numerous statues in 2009 — including Album of the Year and Record of the Year — for his production work on Raising Sand, the worldwide smash album from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. That same year, he was also awarded a Grammy® for Best Traditional Blues Album for his work on B.B. King’s One Kind Favor. He received two Grammys® in 2011 for his work on the music for the film Crazy Heart. He previously earned five Grammys® for his work on the 8-times Platinum release, O Brother Where Art Thou?, which also spawned two highly successful national concert tours. Further Grammys® followed for his work on the platinum soundtrack to the Johnny Cash biopic, Walk The Line, and the platinum Tony Bennett / k.d. lang duets album, A Wonderful World.
T Bone produced the critically acclaimed hit film Crazy Heart. He also composed the film’s score and co-wrote many of its original songs, including “The Weary Kind,” which earned T Bone and co-writer, Ryan Bingham, an Academy Award®, a Golden Globe® Award and a Grammy® Award (plus an additional Grammy® for Crazy Heart as Best Compilation Soundtrack album). T Bone’s work on that film also garnered him awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, as well as numerous other critics organizations throughout the U.S.
He was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2004, along with Elvis Costello in the category of Best Original Song for “The Scarlet Tide” from the film, Cold Mountain. For his work on that film, Burnett also earned the BAFTAs Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music.
Burnett’s work as an in-demand music producer spans three decades and has resulted in some of music’s biggest-selling and most critically-lauded releases. He is currently producing album projects for Lisa Marie Presley and Jeff Bridges, which will be released in the second half of 2011. Burnett is also collaborating with Mellencamp and author Stephen King on the music for the play Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County. Other major productions include best-selling albums from Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Los Lobos, Cassandra Wilson, Roy Orbison and Ralph Stanley.
T Bone’s first major foray into film was his 1999 collaboration with the Coen Brothers on The Big Lebowski, for which he served as “Musical Archivist.” He has since served as Executive Music Producer on numerous additional films, including Across The Universe, the aforementioned Walk The Line (for which he also composed the score) and The Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
About Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman has earned numerous honors, including a Grammy Award®, an Emmy Award®, three Golden Globe® nominations, and four Academy Award® nominations. In 1998, he was honored with dual Oscar® nominations for Best Original Score for his work on Barry Sonnenfeld’s “Men in Black” and Gus Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting.” He received his third Oscar® nomination for the score for Tim Burton’s acclaimed fantasy “Big Fish.” Elfman earned his most recent Oscar® nomination for his score for the acclaimed biopic “Milk,” directed by Gus Van Sant and his most recent Golden Globe® nomination for his score to Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
In all, Elfman has composed more than 60 motion-picture scores of every genre, including “Spider-Man (1&2),” “Batman” and “Batman Returns” “Men In Black (1&2),” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Beetlejuice,” “To Die For,” “A Simple Plan,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Family Man,” “Wanted,” “Taking Woodstock,” “Dick Tracy,” “Darkman,” and “Chicago.”
For 17 years he wrote and performed with rock band Oingo Boingo, producing such hits as “Weird Science” and “Dead Man’s Party.”
Elfman’s first full-length orchestral commission, Serenada Schizophrana premiered at Carnegie Hall. His first composition for ballet “Rabbit and Rogue” had its American Ballet Theatre (ABT) World Premiere at The Metropolitan Opera House at New York’s Lincoln Center in June 2008. The ballet was choreographed by Twyla Tharp and commissioned by ABT.
Elfman’s most recent film credits include the smash hit, “Alice In Wonderland,” and the upcoming “Reel Steel,” directed by Shawn Levy, Gus Van Sant’s “Restless”, “Frankenweenie”, and ”Dark Shadows.”
His Cirque du Soleil show, “Iris” opens as a permanent show at Hollywood’s Kodak Theater in 2011.
About The Hunger Games
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobson’s Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Collins’ best-selling novel, which has over 3 million copies in print in the United States alone, is the first in a trilogy of novels which have developed a global following.
The film will be released on March 23, 2012.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and new channel platforms. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as “Mad Men”, “Weeds” and “Nurse Jackie” along with the popular comedy “Blue Mountain State” and the syndication successes “Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne”, its spin-off “Meet The Browns,” “The Wendy Williams Show” and “Are We There Yet?”.
Its feature film business has generated more than half a billion dollars at the North American box office in the past year, fueled by such hits as THE EXPENDABLES, THE LINCOLN LAWYER, TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY, SAW 3D, THE LAST EXORCISM, KICK ASS and PRECIOUS. The Company’s home entertainment business has grown to more than 8% market share and is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 13,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand remains synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
