It may not surprise you when we say that we’re extremely excited about Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “Drive.” The Danish director made a massive impression with the one-two punch of “Bronson” and “Valhalla Rising” a couple of years back, both films confirming the promise he showed with the “Pusher” trilogy. For his Hollywood debut, a minimalist crime thriller based on the novel by the great James Sallis, about a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver, he’s assembled quite a cast, led by Ryan Gosling, and also including Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Oscar Isaacs.
The script, by Hossein Amini, is lean and mean, and Gosling’s description of the project as “Blue Velvet” meets “Purple Rain” only piqued our interest further, and that was before this morning’s announcement that the film would premiere in competition at Cannes. But now there’s one more little cherry on top, with the news, from Film Music Reporter, that Cliff Martinez is writing the score.
Martinez, a one-time drummer for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, is best known for his many collaborations with Steven Soderbergh — starting with “Sex, Lies & Videotape,” Martinez has penned the music for nine of the director’s films, and the two are shortly to work together for the first time in nearly a decade, on the thriller “Contagion.” He’s also racked up credits on the likes of “Narc,” “Wicker Park,” “Wonderland” and, most recently, “The Lincoln Lawyer” and, while he’s not the most prolific composer around, we always look forward to his work — his “Solaris” score is a thing of wonder.
The site also reports that Martinez is working on Xavier Giannoli‘s “Talk Show,” having previously worked with the French director on 2009’s “In The Beginning,” but it’s the collaboration with Refn that we’re anticipating the most. It seems, with the announcement of the Cannes premiere, that some of us will be able to hear it sooner rather than later, but for those that can’t make it on to the Croisette, Film District will open “Drive” on September 16th.
