If you hadn’t heard, the dark comedy that BRMC scored Life After Beth has been in limited release in select cities, as well as on DirecTV. Director Jeff Baena spoke to Under The Radar and mentioned BRMC’s involvement in the film:
“We’ve done plenty of features on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club over the years. Can you tell us how you snagged them compose the film’s score?
So Robert Been, who’s the singer and bassist, is a really close friend of mine. I’ve known him for 12 years or so. Back when I originally wrote this I’d talked to him about working together. At that point they hadn’t even licensed any of their songs for commercials or movies or anything, so it was all kind of new to them and all new to me. But he’s a good friend of mine, and we’d always talked about working together. When this [film] became real, of course I first went to him and Peter [Hayes] and asked if they’d be interested in doing something like this, and they were super excited by the idea. They’d never done a score before so it was a learning curve for them … but once we found our way, it was so rewarding and amazing.”
Earlier today, BRMC announced their involvement in creating the musical score for a film called ‘Life After Beth‘ premiering at Sundance Film Festival this week:
“For all you film lovers out there, BRMC have created the musical score to a new dark comedy ‘Life After Beth’. It will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Directed by Jeff Baena, the film stars Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, John C. Riley, and Dane DeHann. Unfortunately since this is the first film festival that it is being presented at, there is no trailer as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted.”
Zach is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth. When she miraculously comes back to life, Zach takes full advantage of the opportunity to experience all the things he regretted not doing when she was alive. However, the newly returned Beth isn’t quite the way he remembered her, and before long, Zach’s world takes a turn for the worse.
Imitating what Dr. Frankenstein did with his monster, writer/director Jeff Baena assembles disparate parts of his film into a new whole and jolts fresh life into it. By fusing elements of a young love story and a zombie movie, he concocts a wickedly funny and shockingly poignant film. With its killer soundtrack and all-star cast, including Aubrey Plaza, whose distinctive delivery has never been used to greater effect, and Dane DeHaan, who perfectly embodies the suffering of a young man with a broken heart and a rotting girlfriend, Life After Beth will leave you dying to see it again. – T.G.
Jeff Baena is a writer and director currently living in Los Angeles. He grew up on a cul-de-sac in Miami, Florida, and studied film production at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Baena cowrote David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees, released by Fox Searchlight. Life After Beth is his first feature film as director.
Cast and Credits
Director: Jeff Baena Screenwriter: Jeff Baena Producers: Liz Destro, Michael Zakin Executive Producers: Kim Leadford, Tim Nye, Charles Bonan Cinematographer: Jay Hunter Editor: Colin Patton Production Designer: Michael Grasley Costume Designer: Negar Ali
Principal Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser
Last month, there was some excitement because BRMC’s song “Sell It” is in a trailer for the film The Counselor, which comes out this week. Here’s the trailer and a short synopsis:
Movie: The Counselor
Genres: Crime, Drama And Thriller
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem
Writer: Cormac McCarthy,
Runtime: 111 min
Release Date: 25 October 2013.
Synopsis:
This is a David and Goliath story of one veterinarian’s battle to protect her patients (tigers, lions and even house cats) from big corporations, with their big corporate money, that will shamelessly do anything to animals to increase their bottom line. She starts a grassroots movement that is fueled by passion, but appears to be losing the battle. Then, unexpectedly, she realizes that the corporations accidentally left her a giant loophole. In a scramble to take advantage of this unforeseen gift, she leads the crusade passing legislation protecting animals from de-clawing in seven cities in just six weeks.
A little bit earlier in September, PC Gamer and Tech 2 posted about BRMC’s song “Hate The Taste” playing in Ubisoft’s trailer for multiplayer in the new Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag game (release date 10.29.2013 on XBOX 360/Ps3/Wii U and Day 1 for whenever PS4 and XBox One). Phil Savage of PC Gamer writes “This multiplayer trailer is packed full of violence. And also the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, for some inexplicable reason.” Shunal Doke of Tech 2 writes: “The trailer is comprised entirely of gameplay footage taken from cinematic angles with the song I Hate the Taste by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club playing in the background.” Well, close enough. This Assassin’s Creed game is very pirate-themed, so appropriate for BRMC’s music.
