Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward Are Go-Getters

You may recall hearing about "The Go-Getter" film and accompanying soundtrack earlier this year. A parental death begats a road trip story, the film stars Lou Taylor Pucci (the breakout star of "Thumbsucker"), Zooey Deschanel, Jena Malone and has been scored by sensitive Merge alt-folkie M.Ward (who also has a cameo in the film as one of Pucci's friends).

Directed by Martin Hynes (the writer of "Stealing Harvard"), the film premiered at this past Sundance in February and the production is still chasing a distributor, but hopefully it will be out before the end of the year. The soundtrack will also contain songs by Elliott Smith and the Replacements.

Both female leads have been venturing into singing world of late - Deschanel has a cabaret act with Samantha Shelton called If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies and is working on an album with assistance from Ward; Malone recorded a '7 inch earlier this year has been done some recent touring. So it's fitting that the "The Go Getter" soundtrack culminates with Deschanel and Ward dueting on a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's "When I Get to the Border."

We offer both versions below (and be forewarned, some rather dubious quality video clips of the aforementioned singers)

Download: M. Ward w/ Zooey Deschanel - "When I Get To The Border"
Download: Richard and Linda Thompson - "When I Get To The Border"
Watch: Jena Malone and the Bloodstains at Joe's Pub in New York
Watch: M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel at Sundance
Watch: Sundance interview and clips of "The Go-Getter"

The Scum Manifesto Girl Shot Andy Warhol

The "I Shot Andy Warhol" is, if nothing else, an interesting musical example of economics at play. The setting is late '60s, early '70s Factory-era New York, but who can afford tracks by Bob Dylan or the Velvet Underground? Certainly not director Mary Harron; the poor girl has seemingly made every movie on an almost non-existent budget (to this day, watching the godawfully low production values on "American Psycho" make it difficult to stomach).

What does one do in pinch? The creative budget route is to approach contemporary artists who imbue the spirit of the past (Luna, Wilco, Bettie Serveert) and ask them to record covers of classic songs from that era. It's an interesting idea, but the execution (and perhaps choice of bands, errr...Jewel, Ben Lee?) leaves a sketchy proposition at best. So REM tackle the Troggs, Jewel and Luna take on Donovan and you basically get the picture.

The proper score was composed by VU multi-instrumentalist John Cale which at least is some sort of feather in Harron's cap and does evince some legitimate credibility. But ultimately, the score, much like the film, is uneven and grasping at straws.

Of course Yo La Tengo "played" the factory house band The Velvet Underground in the movie, which if you're in a bind, isn't a bad substitute either considering how much YLT owe to the VU and Lou.

Download: Wilco - "Burned" (Neil Young cover)
Download: Jewel - "Sunshine Superman" (Donovan)
Download: Luna - "Season Of The Witch" (Donovan)
Download: Bettie Serveert - "Keep It With Mine" (Dylan/Nico cover)
Download: R.E.M. - "Love Is All Around" (Troggs)

Vedder-dendum

We tried to make it somewhat clear, but people like to make fancy headlines. As you'll recall we said that by looking at the trailer, "it appeared" that Eddie Vedder might have a small role in the Sean Penn film "Into The Wild." Obviously we ourselves weren't sold on this and it was an educated speculation that turns out to be wrong. Oh well, we weren't silly enough to throw in our headline like you real sources.

Also Gustavo Santaolalla who we said was contributing to the score "according to IMDB" (whose unreliability we've written about ad nausem) , is apparently doing so, as is guitarist Kaki King according to sources (whatever that means, just don't bank on it).

Micheal Brook is actually the primary composer of original music in the film and his participation is legit.

Otherwise Vedder is still releasing a disc that will be what is essentially the closest he's ever done to releasing a solo album on September 18. We assume their will be Brooks score material on the disc, but this again is just educated speculation.

Download: Eddie Vedder & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "The Face of Love"
Download: Eddie Vedder & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "The Long Road"

Soundtrack Of The Day: The Virgin Suicides

No, we're not talking the excellent atmospheric and gauzy Air score (that's another post onto itself).

We're talking the dreamy '70s flavored songs that director Sofia Coppola sprinkled among the atmospheric swoon by the aforementioned Gallic duo; namely, Todd Rundgren. Yes, the soundtrack is mostly remembered (at least pop-song-wise) for its rebellious and riotous Heart songs and the inclusion of five Sloan songs (that you'd only hear in the film if you were paying the nerdiest of attention), but it's the gauzy Rundgren songs, plus songs by 10cc and the Hollies that really seem to capture the vibe and aura of the era and setting of that film.

The Heart songs we assume you've heard, you know and you can find elsewhere (same goes for the Sloan songs, sorry), but it's the lesser known, aforementioned artists that have that slick '70s, vaseline-lensed sheen that really make this thing swoon (and are frankly, very underrated).

Download: Todd Rundgren - "Hello It's Me"
Download: 10 CC - "I'm Not In Love"
Download: Todd Rungren - "A Dream Goes On Forever"
Download: Gilbert O'Sullivan - "Alone Again (Naturally)"

The New York Times Hearts Screenwriters

The New York Times is in love with screenwriters of late and has written three different pieces on them in the last two weeks. We've read the pieces on the writers and the movies they've penned, digested them and provide the synopis of what you really need to know.

The "Transformers" Writers
Weened on French cinema screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci apparently vowed to writer character-driven pieces if they ever got a break in Hollywood. So what did they do? The wrote the Transformers movie. And before that they wrote for the T.V. shows "Hercules," "Alias" and then eventually big-screen fare like "Mission Impossible III" and "The Island." Some might say they strayed a little far from home, but they insist that even on their big-budget projects they've been enlisted to inject (wait for it) humanity into these box office tent pole films. The duo are currently writing JJ Adams "Star Trek" year-zero project which is supposed to follow the adventures of young Spock and Kirk in the academy (and apparently is causing nerd controversy because William Shatner isn't being asked to make an appearance, umm, guys this is the whole point. The update is the writers want him, sigh...).

Apparently the duo is perfect for the franchise as Orci is a total Trekkie, but Kurtzman gave up and has a fresh, non-loser, non-40-Year-Old-Virgin perspective on the story (of course, this already has hard-core nerds interpreting it as the film won't be made for them). The ideal thing about this writing pair is that they apparently think about which canonical storylines to question. “Why are they even called Autobots if there are no cars on their planet?” Mr. Orci said. “If you can come up with a good reason to do it as it was originally, fine. If not, you come up with something different.” Deep. Though they haven't really started writing they have a good motivator: the movie poster that recently arrived at their doors that says, Christmas 2007.

The "Evening" Writers (Writer)
This chick-flick film starring Vanessa Redgrave (and Claire Danes as her younger version) is getting brutal reviews and it seems the original author, the apparently horribly repressed Susan Minot, isn't to blame. The Times piece's premise is built on what Minot wrote and what her adaptor (Michael Cunningham who wrote the rather implausible "The Hours") changed. Basically reading between the lines, the story suggests that Minot novel was screwed over by smirking douchebag Cunningham (for whatever reason his picture makes us want to smack him). He changes story elements left, right and center, drops characters from the original novel, and what's more he should: two hour run-times for films generally can't absorb the massive girth of most books in comparison. But there's an implicitly oily twinge to all of Cunningham's quotes that make his motives sound rather suspect.

And though the bride’s brother, Buddy, is barely mentioned in the novel, Mr. Cunningham placed him in the middle of the emotional triangle. “I find myself drawn to threesomes,” Mr. Cunningham said. “As you count up from one, three is the first interesting number. Not that I think Buddy is gay. It’s too soon to tell. I think of him as a fool for love, in the best sense.”

You'd have to read the entire thing to get the gist of his repeated defense of the changes, but something just doesn't sit right about it.

"You Kill Me" Writers
The Times piece about screenwriting Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
(these dudes wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia" and the rather awful, "“The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" for HBO) is admittedly rather dull and there's little to say about it. They wrote "You Kill Me" in 1995 and it got their foot in the door in Hollywood. Then films like "Grosse Point Blank" appeared and their black-comedy noir idea became overdone. The story doesn't really give much insight into these guys, but at least they seem harmless enough and with the right intentions. “I like movies fine, but we’re not film school people, so this isn’t a route to director or going to parties.” Markus concluded, “I really want to write, and it’s the only thing I’m good at."

So screenwriters are the new black, riveting, right?

Soundtrack Of The Day: Morvern Callar

Without giving away anything that's not already in the Netflix synopsis, the gist of Morvern Callar is this: Movern Callar (Samantha Morton) comes home to discover her live-in author boyfriend has committed suicide. He exits this mortal coil with a cryptic note that doesn't explain his intentions, but does leave her a mixtape that becomes the oblique soundtrack for making sense of her now decimated life. He also leaves a novel which she appropriates and its potential kicks off a peripatetic and hedonistic voyage.

The soundtrack, which includes a lot exquisitely disaffected and disembodied tracks by Aphex Twin, Can, Former-Can founder Holger Czukay, Broadcast, Stereolab, Lee "Scratch" Perry, the Velvet Underground and many other achingly tasteful choices, acts as the aural fog and haze in which Morton wanders through struggling to find a larger life meaning. There's a dreamlike, almost-hallucinogenic tone to the film and the abstract songs underpin this eerie mood.

The mixtapes in the original book are longer and their are 3 of them. They look like this (obviously director Lynne Ramsay takes some artistic license, but the Can influence sticks):

Mixtape 1
Last Exit - Straw Dog
Last Exit - You got me rockin'
Last Exit - Take cover
Last Exit - Ma Rainey
Last Exit - Crack butter
Last Exit - Panzer be bop
Miles Davis - Great expectations
Sonny Sharrock - Dick dogs
Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society - Undressing
Luciano Berio - Visage
Miles Davis - Pharaoh's dance
Ronald Shannon Jackson - Taboo
Challenge to manhood
Bill Laswell - Assassin

Mixtape 2
Salif Keita - Nyanafin
Les Tetes Brulees et Zanzibar - Essignan
This Mortal Coil - Anorther Day
The Ink Spots - Up a lazy river
Cocteau Twins - Blue bell knoll
Material - Disappearing
Can - Future days
Holger Czukay - Persian love
Can - Pinch
Can - Sing swan song
Can - Vitamin C
Can - Soup
Can - I'm so green
Can - Spoon

Mixtape 3 - Sunshine Mix
Czukay Wobble Liebezeit - Full circle
Zawinul - The harvest
PM Dawn - So on & so on
Can - Pauper's daughter & I
Scritti Politti - A little knowledge
Neville Brothers - With god on our side
Robert Calvert - Ejection
Hardware - 500 years
Keziah Jones - Free your soul
Daniel Lanois - Still water
Spirit - Topango windows
John McCormack - Come my beloved
James Chance - Roving eye
Hunters & Collectors - Dog
Leisure Process - A way you'll never be
Update: My friend reminds me that Callar director Lynne Ramsay directed the Doves video for "Black and White Town." What is she up to next? According to the often unreliable Wikipedia, an adaptation of the novel "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

Download: Can - "Spoon"
Download: Aphex Twin - "Goon Gumpas"
Download: Holger Czukay - "Cool In The Pool"
Download: Broadcast - "You Can Fall"
*obviously this post has nothing to do with Independence day, sorry. I'm not very thematic, see yesterday's post.

Independence Day Jaunt

Starting tomorrow we'll be away for not only grand ol' Independence Day, but for an entire week. Never fret, we did our homework over the weekend and will be presenting you with one soundtrack a day until we get back (and potentially some regular blogging if we get the chance, but don't bank on it). So have fun, eat lots of bbq and chillax all you can.

Watch: Galaxie 500 - "Fourth of July"

Sly Stone: Boredom Precipitates Productivity After 25 Years Of Idleness

"[Cause] it's kind of boring at home sometimes." - Hey, mystery solved! After 25 years of almost absolute-reclusiveness (save a Grammy appearance here and there), Sly Stone drops the revelatory bomb on why he's returned to make music all of a sudden. Vanity Fair writer David Kamp chased Stone on-and-off to clinch this interview for nearly 12 years. [Vanity Fair]

"I'll be probably doing [Batman] in dinner theater somewhere in my '50s, so I won't knock it. Because who knows where I'll end up?" - Wisely recognizing the franchise is his meal ticket, Batman actor Christian Bale won't say no to the potential "Justice League" movie, but he's not saying yes either. 100-1 odds this movie never happens, btw. [IGN]

The Original Transformers Movie Was Gangsta

"Transformers," the Michael Bay directed aggro CGI-pileup has opened in theaters and the summer blockbuster gauntlet has been thrown down (or something like that).

We loathe nostalgia or nincompoops that claim the '80s are back all of a sudden, but you know we'll take Stan Bush and Weird Al over Billy Corgan and Linkin' Park any day of the week (it's sort of not fair; that's not really a contest).

You'll remember Paul Thomas Anderson slyly appropriated the Transformers' "Touch" song for his summer of porn-love film, "Boogie Nights." The song that Marky Mark and John C. Reilly "write" while they're in the studio is none other than Bush's over-the-top anthem and we still get wet thinking what a choice look this was for PTA (nice work).

To indulge in a little reminiscing: we cried when (*spoiler!*) Optimus Prime died in the original animated movie (yes, it ruled), we were incredulous when the dumbass Dinobot screamed, "shiiiiiiit!," and we laughed hard to hear Orson Welles' voice in the movie (his last ever credited film appearance before he died; Leonard Nimoy and Judd Nelson also did animated celebrity cameos and launched this trend and extra cash-cow padding for actors the world round). And yes, we owned a bunch of these toys.

Download: Stan Bush - "The Touch"
Download: Lion - "The Transformers Theme"
Download: Weird Al - "Dare To Be Stupid"
Download: Vince DiCola - "Death Of Optimus Prime"
Download: Vince DiCola/Stan Bush - "Transformers Theme (Alternate)"

I'm Not There - Unofficial-Like Dylan

The Weinstein Company has apparently put an unofficial trailer for the upcoming Todd Haynes, Bob Dylan biopic, "I'm Not There" on YouTube. We say apparently because while it does look semi-pro, but it could ostensibly have been created by a fan (who just pinched the opening). Either way, it contains the song, "I'm Not There," which is a semi-obscure Dylan outtake not available on most of his commerical releases (it appears on the bootlegged version of The Basement Tapes disc that Dylan recorded with the Band). It's essentially just a music video, but it's something if you're anticipating this movie as much as we are.



Download: Bob Dylan - "I'm Not There"

Will Shia LeBouf Think Harrison Ford Is An Asshole?

Pint-sized It-Boy, Shia LeBouf will do almost anything for a role. Apparently on the first day of "Transformers," the diminutive actor was almost killed.

We had these police guard dogs," director Michael Bay, told the L.A. Times. "I didn't know how dangerous they could be."

Apparently they were very dangerous and LeBouf had to haul ass. Thank God I'm really fast," LaBeouf said. "He's telling me, 'Don't worry. It's safe.' Action gets called. Attack dogs run, run, run, run! First take goes great. Second take goes great." The third take didn't go so well.

"[The dog] ran past the [trainer] with the arm brace and chased me around the set," LaBeouf remembered. "They had to attack the dogs. They had to tackle them. The dog was 200 pounds. They would've killed me. It would have been somebody else in the part. Yeah. Welcome to 'Transformers.' "

But will this be anything compared to working with Harrison Ford on the set of the now-shooting, "Indiana Jones 4?" LeBouf might have tons of admiration for Ford, but another young actor, Josh Hartnett, hated him.

Harnett worked with the sneering, sarcastic and grumpy old Ford on the very forgettable, "Hollywood Homicide," and didn't enjoy the experience one bit.

Harrison Ford, Old Macho Asshole?
So gung-ho was Ford to prove that he could hang with the young kids, he insisted on doing all his stunts and in one auto stunt gone awry, he caused Hartnett a concussion and himself a groin injury. Ford of course, blamed Harnett for the fuck-up (classy, elder statesman), but Harnett said the accident was due to Ford's constant macho testing, "like taking elbows in a basketball game."

"This stunt driver did something just totally dangerous and wrong.... I couldn't stop in time and Harrison was so pissed off at me. If we were going any faster, I'd be in a lot worse shape. I hit the top of the windshield with my face, and Harrison is like, 'Goddammit! I knew it!' He got up my nose so bad, I really thought it was my fault [at first]," Harnett said of Ford's wind beneath my wings approach to helping out his younger, less-experienced co-star.

"Harrison was an idol of mine, but we had kind of a tumultuous working experience," Hartnett told Jam Showbiz in 2003.. "He's only worked with one other young actor. (Brad Pitt, with whom Ford famously did not get along in "The Devil's Own").

Best of luck Shia!

Morning Dailies: Brian Eno Has More Paintings Than You Do

"I was flirting with ideas of making a kind of endless music -- not like a record that you'd put on and which would play for a while and finish. I like the idea of a kind of eternal music, but I didn't want it to be eternally repetitive, either. I wanted it to be eternally changing" - Eggheaded musician/artistan Brian Eno is much more conceptual than you will ever be. His latest art installation is a "generative" series called 77 Million Paintings. [Wired]

"We were barefoot, there's no chairs, there's no trailers. There's no M&Ms, which creates a certain atmosphere. Because you don't have those comfortable places to hang out and chill, you don't have this passive high-school grab-ass happening." - No M&Ms??? Steve Zahn proves that working on the set of Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" may have been the most difficult acting gig anyone has ever done. [A/V Club]

- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (say that three times in a row) has rejected a proposal from Oliver Stone to make a movie about him because the Oscar-winning director is part of the "Great Satan" cultural establishment. Gee, that makes us feel better. [AP]

Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Dunn and Chris Messina have joined Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in Woody Allen's new film, "Midnight In Barcelona." Variety says the title is shrouded in secrecy, but uh, we just said it. [Variety]

Download: Brian Eno - "Northern Lights"
Download: Brian En0 - "Melancholy Waltz"

There's Not A Lot More Than Meets The Eye To This Soundtrack

People were lined around the block in my neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. last night, what?

So wait, the Smashing Pumpkins reunited simply so they could make more music that essentially sounds exactly like their last four records or so? As if they hadn't already overstayed their welcome as it was.

Not surprisingly, the "Transformers" soundtrack is fueled by extreme sports bombastic rockers like the aforementioned Pumpkins (their last two records were essentially alternative metal, let's face it) Disturbed, Linkin Park and similar puffy-chest screamo complainers. Directed by adrenaline junkie douchebag Michael Bay, we assume he listens to music like this cranked up to eleven both when relaxing at home and practicing karate at his dojo with his Sensei.

The Goo Goo Dolls ballad is painfully beautiful and will make you weep. The MuteMath take on the "Transformers Theme" is also rather ridiculously heinous/awesome. We're sure the movie is also a winner.

Download: Smashing Pumpkins - "Doomsday Clock"
Download: Goo Goo Dolls - "Before It's Too Late (Same And Mikaela's Theme)"
Download: MuteMath - "Transformers Theme"

Byrne Gives 'Love' To HBO

Former Talking Head, David Byrne will score the second season of HBO's polygamy Mormon drama, "Big Love," according to the L.A. Times.

The gray-haired, skittish singer and composer follows Mark Mothersbaugh (ex Devo founder/Wes Anderson musical co-hort) as the show's house composer. "I have friends who are lapsed Mormons," he said. "The Mormon mythology — to say nothing of the polygamy — is wild and fascinating."

"I suggested that all the music should evoke Mormon hymns," Byrne said. "Just slightly, but I imagined that the 'spiritual' underpinning might be evoked using the music. I wrote and recorded a bunch of these, but only a few were used. Ah, well, they'll turn up somewhere."

"In some of the later episodes I'm working on things that get pretty weird, borderline David Lynch territory, so we'll see how that goes over."

Lil' Wayne: Sexual Multi-Tasker

"I wake up, smoke weed, fuck bitches, get my dick sucked - a lot - drink my drink and come [into my studio] and do this shit." - While you're hitting the snooze button twice over at 8 a.m., all-growed-up Lil' Wayne is taking the 'early bird gets the worm' axiom to glorious new heights. [Fader]

"What it should do to me is remind me every single day that I have an even greater responsibility to do good with the success that I have been blessed with." - With an unprecedented profits deal in place for "Sicko," Michael Moore cautiously prepares to become insanely rich. [L.A. Times]

"Alien Vs. Predator" Changes the name of its sequel to the imaginatively titled "Aliens Vs. Predator." Pluralism, oooh. [Coming Soon]

"The real reason he is on the show is that he has lost contact with the girl he loves. All he knows is that she watches this show religiously, so he decides to go on the show and try and get [her] back." - Danny Boyle explains that his upcoming, "Slum Dog Millionaire" film is actually about l'amour. He also notes that he would love to work with the White Stripes on the score. [Cinematical]

Shaft (Richard Roundtree) will cuddle up next to Emile Hirsch in the upcoming "Speed Racer" Wachowski brothers' film. [Hollywood Reporter]

Is Timbaland Not Tough Enough For The Game?

"Music is boring right now. I’m too innovative for the world. I’ve been doing it so long, I’m about to throw in the towel." - Projecting the frustration of his near commercial failure,Timbaland Presents Shock Value, once haughty producer Timbaland's braggadocio begins to wane (and he contemplates an early retirement). [Gigwise]

"Spend a night with an owl and you'll see more blood than sleep." - Perennially taciturn and impenetrable mysterion Bill Callahan (formerly Smog) breaks down the walls of oblique communication and open up with some straightforward, candid talk.
[Pitchfork]

“I have a weird lifestyle, but I think I like the lifestyle because I romanticized it as a kid. I don’t want a normal life. It bores me. [I am fortunate to be dating someone] very understanding.” - Actor Sam Rockwell gently tiptoes around the fact that he is fucking fellow actress Piper Perabo.

Download: Timbaland - "Bounce" (featuring Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott and Dr. Dre)
Download: Bill Callahan - "Footprints"

Danny Boyle Will Helm A "Slum Dog Millionaire"

Danny Boyle's next film after this summer's "Sunshine," will be "Slum Dog Millionaire,"a story that unfolds in Mumbai around the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." [L.A. Times]
The Soundtrack (which features a score by John Murhpy and tracks by Underworld I Am Kloot) and will be available before the film's July 20th opening in North America. [Sunshine Blog]
- Boyle told TONY, "It's based on a true story, and it's about a kid from the slums of Mumbai, who has nothing – he's ill educated, he's illiterate – and he goes on the Hindi version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and wins it. And they can't believe that he's done it. They think he's cheated. They think he's getting signals from embedded chips in his body, or that there are people coughing in the audience, but he won it." [TONY]

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead Trailer

The R-rated French trailer for the new film, "Sidney LumetBefore The Devil Knows You're Dead," is gripping, intriguing and a little risqué. It also proves that octegenarians can still have it (Lumet) and so can 40-something women (more on that later).

The film stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a coke-addled loser and Ethan Hawke as his impressionable, credible little brother and the two of them try and shave off their amounting debts. What do these geniuses do to solve their financial woes? They knock off their parent's jewel store cause no one's going to get hurt, right? Right?

From there the story unfolds painfully out of control.
And oh yeah, uum...Marisa Tomei is also wonderfully, umm revealing in it.

Rilo Kiley Video: Short Form Porno?

Rilo Kiley are back with their new porno, err, long form video that purports to use real porn star actors. The funky and libidinous sound of the band is rather new itself. It is exploitative? Not really. Is it attempting to be controversial? We suppose. It's ok and kind of long and tedious (the song doesn't start until about 12 minutes in), but it is what is it. Enjoy, or not... (click on the image to see the clip).

Exclusive: Eddie Vedder Scores Penn's 'Wild' With Near Solo Album

A little bee has given us a tip.

Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder has written an entire album's worth of original songs for Sean Penn's new directorial effort, "Into The Wild," that stars Emile Hirsch. The soundtrack CD featuring music in the film and inspired by the movie will essentially be the closest thing Vedder has ever come to releasing a solo album and is due September 18. According to the often unreliable IMDB, the film is scheduled for a September 21 release and Academy Award winner composer Gustavo Santaolalla ("Babel," Brokeback Mountain") has also contributed original instrumental score for the film. But Micheal Brook and Kaki King are credited in the trailer with composing the score.

Based on the John Krakauer novel about the mysterious Alaskan adventure of wanderer Christopher McCandless, Vedder is no stranger to songs written for film, or working with Sean Penn. The throaty tenored grunge singer wrote two songs for Tim Robbins' "Dead Man Walking" directorial effort (which starred Penn) that featured the late Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Vedder covered the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" for the Sean Penn film, "I Am Sam," among lots of other small contributions to film, but this is his first real solo effort).

The trailer confirms the PJ's singer participation and says "original songs by Eddie Vedder" (and it also appears that Vedder has a small role in the film as he is in the cast credits as well).

Parts of the film were shot in Seattle (update: and Alaska and parts of the Pacific North West) which explains some if not all of the Vedder connection (though aforementioned 'Dead Man' does too). The trailer also features "He Lays in the Reigns," a track from the recent Iron & Wine and Calexico collaborative album.

The fim's shoot was apparently pretty physical and intense. Emile Hirsch told EW, "The first day of shooting, I was supposed to climb over this hill in the snow and walk down this big slope. I was up to my waist in snow and I was trying to climb back up the hill at the end of a take, and the prop guy throws down this rope so I can pull myself up. I can't even see anybody. I'm literally on my own with a 30-pound backpack on. And I hear Sean go, ''No way, don't help him!'' I had to climb up this snow hill and we did, like, 12 takes of that scene. My muscles were so sore."

Download: Eddie Vedder - "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"
Download: Iron & Wine w/Calexio - "He Lays in The Reigns"
Watch: "Into The Wild" trailer

Werner Herzog On "Rescue Dawn"

The New York Times spoke to our dearly beloved nutcase Werner Herzog about his upcoming film "Rescue Dawn," which ironically opens up on July 4 (it's about capture POW's essentially and stars Christian Bale). The German director was basically regurgitating his whole "ecstatic truth" campaign and "accountant's truth" rhetoric he loves to retell ad nauseum, but it's Herzog, so at least something fascinating or hilarious will be said.

It's admittedly also a good primer piece on those that don't know Herzog and want to learn something about his rich history and notorious past (i.e. Actor Klaus Kinski attacked Herzog before quitting the then-unfinished "Cobra Verde," while on the set of “Fitzcarraldo” in South America, one native chief’s offer to murder Kinski was declined by Herzog.)

The Q&A excerpts after the jump.

NYTimes: You made the 1997 documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” about this subject. Why did you also want to explore the material through a feature?

Herzog: In a way “Rescue Dawn,” the feature film idea, was always first. When I met Dieter, I had the feeling this was a very big epic story with a character larger than life. But since it took quite a while to get the money together for the feature, we did the documentary first.

NYTimes: How would you compare your working relationship with Christian Bale to the one with Klaus Kinski?

Herzog: It’s hard to even try to compare. With Kinski it was always: How can I domesticate the wild beast, and how do I survive his next tantrum where he destroys the whole set? How do I make his utter madness and irresponsibility productive onscreen? This was not so with Christian. He was the most disciplined, wonderful man. And he has great emotion of depth. Christian was so dedicated to this film. He did things that an actor of his caliber normally would not do, like eating maggots or catching a live snake. You just name it. It’s unbelievable.

NYTimes: You’ve been known for improvising parts of your movies in the past. Was this done with “Rescue Dawn?”

Herzog: We need a definition of improvisation. It is not like in free jazz where some musicians meet and they start improvising in a jam session. Improvisations and modifications are possible, but always within a very clear framework of perspective regarding the content of a sequence. For example, there’s a scene with Jeremy Davies [who plays the P.O.W. Eugene DeBruin] and Christian Bale where I tell him, “You need to silence Christian down,” but I don’t give him a dialogue line of how to do it. He’s so lively because he doesn’t have the strictures of written dialogue.

The rest of the interview, including the controversy surrounding the DeBruin family and Herzog's depiction of their son (they didn't like it), is here.