Quartet has announced four new film music CDs - SHORT CUTS 2019, featuring music for short films composed by an impressive variety of composers including Joe Kraemer, Bear McCreary, Rachel Portman, Frederik Wiedmann and Christopher Young; the Chinese science-fiction film THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL CODE, scored by Thai composer Pantawit Kiangsiri; Jerry Grant's score for the 1990 action movie HIRED TO KILL, featuring Oliver Reed, George Kennedy and Jose Ferrer; and the score for the Dominican family drama MALPASO, composed by Pascal Gaigne.

IN THEATERS TODAY

Honest Thief, with Liam Neeson and a score by Mark Isham, is opening in U.S. theaters this week in cities where theaters are allowed to be open.

Varese Sarabande has announced two new two-disc Deluxe Edition expanded scores as their latest CD Club releases -- John Powell's Oscar-nominated score for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, with the full score plus bonus tracks including demo cues; and John Carpenter's 1995 remake of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, starring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley with a score composed by (of course) Carpenter himself and Dave Davies, featuring the full film score on Disc One and the original 1995 CD sequencing plus bonus cues on Disc Two.

On November 20, Varese plans to release the score for Netflix's critically acclaimed new docudrama THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7. The film is the second to be directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and reunites him with composer Daniel Pemberton, following Steve Jobs and Molly's Game. (The film is already considered to be a major Oscar contender, but in this year of films released only on streaming or in drive-ins, it's hard to know what will be a contender. Tenet could get nominated just for actually showing up in theaters).

The latest release from Music Box pairs two scores by Oscar nominee and European film music legend Philippe Sarde - UN TAXI MAUVE, and an expanded version of J'AI EPOUSE UNE OMBRE (released in the U.S. as I Married a Shadow), the 1983 version of Cornell Woolrich's classic I Married a Dead Man, which has also been filmed as the noir No Man of Her Own with Barbara Stanwyck and the romcom Mrs. Winterbourne with Ricki Lake and Brendan Fraser.

La-La Land has announced its current slate of releases for this month. Next week, they plan to release an expanded version of Bill Conti's score for THE KARATE KID PART II, Harry Manfredini and Fred Mollin's music for FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD (that's the one where Jason battles a girl with telekinetic powers), and the first release of the score for the 1990 Stephen King adaptation GRAVEYARD SHIFT (it's the one with rats), with music by Anthony Marinelli and Brian Banks (Young Guns). Three weeks later, they plan to release two separate CDs of Christopher Lennertz' music for Amazon's revisionist superhero series THE BOYS, one for each season.

Silva has two upcoming film music releases planned for October 30: Colin Towns' score for the 1986 Clive Barker adaptation RAWHEAD REX; and WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS TRIBUTE TO THE FILM COMPOSER, with Dirk Brosse conducting the Brussels Philharmonic in re-recordings of music by such top composers as Angelo Badalamenti, Nicholas Britell, Mychael Danna, Alexandre Desplat, Patrick Doyle, Michael Giacchino, Elliot Goldenthal, James Newton Howard, Alberto Iglesias and John Williams, as well as the first commercial release of music from Gabriel Yared's unused score for Troy.

Next week Intrada plans to release a new edition of the score for a blockbuster hit from cinema's most popular composing/directing team. If you want more information, go to this Message Board thread.

Varese Sarabande is expected to announce two new limited edition CD Club releases today.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced the latest Creative Arts Emmy winners, including the following music categories:

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
WATCHMEN - It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
THE MANDALORIAN - Chapter 8: Redemption - Ludwig Goransson

ORIGINAL MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC
HOLLYWOOD - Nathan Barr

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A DOCUMENTARY SERIES OR SPECIAL (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)
WHY WE HATE - Tools and Tactics - Laura Karpman*

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MUSIC AND LYRICS
EUPHORIA - And Salt the Earth Behind You - Song: “All For Us” - Music and Lyrics by Labrinth

OUTSTANDING MUSIC DIRECTION
THE KENNEDY CENTER HONORS - Rickey Minor

OUTSTANDING MUSIC SUPERVISION
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL - It’s Comedy or Cabbage - Robin Urdang, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino

*I inadvertently left this award off the originally posted version of this column. My thanks as always to Jon Burlingame for catching the omisssion.

Quartet has announced two new compilation CDs -- THE FILM MUSIC OF MARIO NASCIMBENE, featuring cues from the composer's scores to Commandos, Donne senza paradiso, La congiura de dieci and I lancieri neri; and THE FILM MUSIC OF FRANCO BIXIO, a two-disc set featuring the composer's scores for Deserti di fuoco, Istantanea per un delitto, Diario segreto da un carcere famminile and Il tuo piacere e’ il mio.

Dragon's Domain has announced three new film music CDs: HOWARD BLAKE: GHOST STORIES, featuring the composer's music for the 1986 TV version of the oft-remade THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, starring Sir John Gieulgud and Alyssa Milano, and the 1983 guilty pleasure AMITYVILLE 3D, including previously unreleased cues; THE DON DAVIS COLLECTION VOL. 1, featuring the composer's music for the BBC production SPACE ODYSSEY: VOYAGE TO THE PLANETS; and Conrad Pope's score for the teen comedy-drama LLOYD.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

The Final Countdown [reissue] - John Scott - JOS
Mulan - Harry Gregson-Williams - Disney (import)

IN THEATERS TODAY

IFC is set to open the film The Nest (score by Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire), starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, in some parts of the country where theaters are open.

Quartet has just released a two-disc edition of John Addison's light-hearted orchestral score for SWASHBUCKLER, the 1976 pirate adventure starring Robert Shaw, Genevieve Bujold, James Earl Jones, Peter Boyle, Beau Bridges, and Geoffrey Holder (yes, there is a big studio film where Robert Shaw is the romantic hero and James Earl Jones is his sidekick). Quartet's release features the full original score plus extra cues on Disc One, and the original 1976 LP sequencing on Disc Two.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Der Bestatter - Raphael Benjamin Meyer - Alhambra
Mussolini: The Untold Story [reissue] - Laurence Rosenthal - Intrada Special Collection
One Potato, Two Potato - Gerald Fried - Caldera
Outlander: Season 5 - Bear McCreary - Sony
Swashbuckler - John Addison - Quartet

The latest release from the Varese Sarabande CD Club is a Deluxe Edition of the score to WILD WILD WEST, director Barry Sonnenfeld's infamous yet lavish 1999 feature film version of the beloved 1960s Western/spy/fantasy TV series. The surprising but inspired choice to score the film was Elmer Bernstein, who wrote some of Hollywood's greatest Western scores. Varese Sarabande released a score CD featuring 30 minutes of the film's music back in 1999; the Deluxe Edition features a whopping 76 minutes of music, including cues composed by or with Elmer's son, Peter Bernstein.

Varese Sarabande is expected to announce one new limited edition CD Club release today. 

Looking over the list of new films I managed to see in theaters in 2020 in the two-and-a-half months before the shutdown, I was surprised to notice that more of their scores have received vinyl-only releases (Bacurau, Emma., The Gentlemen, The Invisible Man, The Lodge, Ordinary Love, The Photograph) than have been released on CD (Birds of Prey, Color Out of Space, Gretel & Hansel, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Way Back).

Some of the latest scores to have vinyl releases announced include Terence Blanchard's score for Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, Nathan Halpern's score for Swallow, and of course the 8-LP set of Ludwig Goransson's The Mandalorian, due in November from Mondo.