In a recent interview with Artist Direct, Todd Phillips (director of films like The Hangover, Old School and Due Date) revealed that he is in talks with Glenn Danzig to contribute a new song to The Hangover’s sequel. As unusual of a pair it may sound, Hollywood using metal or hard rock music is not unusual. This wouldn’t even be the first time Phillips used music from Danzig, as the song “Thirteen” was used in the opening credits for The Hangover.
With the possibility of Phillips and Danzig reuniting, Bram and Zach discuss in this week’s Headbangers’ Brawl about how metal music has been used (both well and poorly) in movies, as well as which metal or hard rock bands we’d like to see score a big blockbuster.
Bram: This tells me one thing: Todd Phillips has a very limited range in music. I mean, apparently, every movie he directs with Zach Galifianakis in it apparently has to have a Wolfmother song in it. It was surprisingly awesome to hear Danzig in the first Hangover, but much like any sequel, the initial surprise is gone the second time around. Good for Glenn, though. He’ll definitely be able to buy some more Fresh Step from the check he gets. I’m not sure what movie in particular, but after the disaster that was Jonah Hex, Mastodon proved that they could score a movie. It’d definitely be interesting to see them do it again, but maybe for a movie that doesn’t completely suck.
On a different note, there are definitely some great musicians/instrumentalists that I’d like to see score a film. Much in the same way Explosions in the Sky scored Friday Night Lights, it’d be interesting to hear Pelican score something, and Stephen Brodsky (Cave In) could probably score a mean movie.
Zach: Maybe it’s because of the sludge metal connection, but when you mentioned Mastodon, the idea of Baroness scoring a movie popped in my head. I don’t necessarily know what type of film it would be, but if it’s half as epic as 2009’s Blue Record, then a Baroness movie score would be awesome.
I remember that Muse was at one point rumored to be scoring the god awful Clash Of The Titans film (luckily that never came to be). But after seeing the new trailer to Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, I think that movie would be awesome for Muse to score. Not to say that the trailer looks like crap, but I think that a musical score (even an instrumental one) from Muse would’ve made the trailer even better. It helped when Watchmen (another Zack Snyder film) used “Take A Bow” in a trailer. Come to think of it, Muse scoring would’ve been better than most of the music they ended up using for the movie adaptaion of the legendary graphic novel. I know the point of using popular songs was to highlight pop culture of the time period, but the use of songs like “Sounds Of Silence” and “99 Red Ballons” made emotional scenes come off goofy. Plus, they probably would’ve done a better cover than My Chemical Romance.
B: Muse should definitely score a film at some point. It’s just pretentious enough for them to do. I also think Agalloch would be rad to score a film as well. But getting back to metal bands’ music being used in films, it’d be great to have a director or music supervisor that is a true metal fan. An action scene scored by power metal, or ambient music like Isis used for establishing shots, could make for the coolest 90 minute metal music video ever. Rob Zombie gets it, but instead of metal, he uses ‘70s rock.
Z: With that in mind then, I think the new Avengers film could benefit from using ambient or power metal. Hell, even using less ambient metal like Megadeth would be pretty sick (tell me that watching Iron Man, Hulk and Thor destroying shit to “Symphony of Destruction” or an original instrumental piece by Megadeth wouldn’t be sick!). A metal soundtrack could totally make the film bad ass.
While we’re on the subject of Marvel comic films, I would hate myself if I didn’t suggest the best metal and movie pairing ever: Thor and Amon Amarth! I know I’ve probably ranted about it before to anyone who would care to listen, but seriously, what other chance would we ever get to see Viking metal blasted in a movie theater?! That alone is enough of a selling point for me.
