Timed to the opening of the new movie starring Robert De Niro and Paul Dano, Lakeshore Records will release Being Flynn – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The soundtrack features original music from Badly Drawn Boy.
Badly Drawn Boy is the stage name of British singer/songwriter Damon Gough. He previously teamed with Being Flynn writer/director Paul Weitz on About a Boy, for which Mr. Gough was a Satellite Award nominee. The About a Boy score was the follow-up album to Badly Drawn Boy's debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast, which was released in 2000. This debut album made Mr. Gough one of Britain's rising music stars and earned him the Mercury Music Prize; today, tracks from it can still be heard across BBC daytime programming.
"It's thrilling to sit in an editing room with Damon," said Weitz. "As he sits, he plays his guitar to picture. Scoring a movie with an orchestra is magical, but knowing that one of your favorite songwriters has written songs inspired by work that you've done is uniquely meaningful."
Being Flynn is the new dramatic feature from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy). Adapted from Nick Flynn's 2004 memoir Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City, the movie explores bonds both unbreakable and fragile between parent and child.
Nick Flynn (portrayed in the film by Paul Dano of Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood) is a young writer seeking to define himself. He misses his late mother, Jody (four-time Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore), and her loving nature. But his father, Jonathan, is not even a memory, as Nick has not seen the man in 18 years.
Jonathan Flynn (two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) has long defined himself as a great writer, "a master storyteller." After abandoning his wife and child, Jonathan scrapes through life on his own terms. Despite the occasional grandiose letter to his son, he has remained absent from Nick's life. Suddenly facing eviction from his apartment, Jonathan impulsively reaches out to Nick and the two come face-to-face.
Evocatively told, ruefully funny, and moving in its depiction of the ties that bind, Being Flynn tells a story that reveals universal truths.
Weitz immediately knew he wanted to work with Gough again on Being Flynn. He temped the film using some of Damon's older songs for Paul Dano and Bach cello pieces for Robert De Niro. Weitz described, it as both nice, "but felt a bit schizoid." He continued, "Damon and producer Steve McLaughlin [who also worked on About A Boy] had the idea of taking melodies of Damon's and do Bach-esque versions of them, which worked brilliantly. For me, this helps the movie feel of a piece."
Said Gough, "Having to replace some of my own songs was a new experience for me, and felt quite weird initially, but I'm really happy with the result. It works well in the film, and as a cohesive album in its own right."
Focus Features will release Being Flynn in New York and Los Angeles on March 2nd, 2012; in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and Washington, DC on March 9th; and in additional cities in March. Being Flynn – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be available from Lakeshore Records digitally on February 28th, 2012 and in stores on March 20th.