Hard rock legends and Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have two new film soundtracks set to be unveiled this weekend. Their score for Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal love story Bones and All will bow at the Venice Film Festival September 2nd, while Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light will premiere at Telluride Film Festival on Saturday, September 3rd.
Bones and All stars 26-year-old Timothée Chalamet and 28-year-old Taylor Russell as a pair of teenage cannibals in the 1980s. According to an official description, “Despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.”
In an interview with The Independent, Guadagnino said he asked Reznor and Ross to “find the sound of a road trip” and “the sound of the American landscape.” The film also reportedly features tracks from Kiss, Joy Division, and more.
Empire of Light is also set in the 1980s. Mendes’ “love letter to cinema” stars Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth. The trailer goes on about how filme creates “the illusion of movement, the illusion of live,” in a tone that suggests a capital-M Metaphor. Mendes won a Best Director Oscar for American Beauty, and his films including Skyfall and 1917 have been nominated for a total of 33 Academy Awards, nabbing 12. Don’t be surprised if Empire of Light gets some trophy buzz, too.
Reznor and Ross are no strangers to the award season grind. In 2021 they took home the Oscar for Best Original Score for their work with Jon Batiste on Pixar’s Soul. That recognition came over a decade after they won the same award for The Social Network. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are currently touring with Nine Inch Nails, and you can book your seats here.