Lakeshore Records will release The Words - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on September 4th, 2012, and in stores on September 18, 2012. The soundtrack features original music composed by Marcelo Zarvos (The Good Shepherd, Beastly).
Brazilian-born Marcelo Zarvos burst onto the independent film landscape in the early 2000s with his scores featured in films such as Kissing Jessica Stein and The Door in the Floor. His trademark is a seamless blend of classical, orchestral, rock, electronic and various ethnic and folk elements, which together create a uniquely affecting and emotionally charged music. Zarvos, who earned his BFA from Cal Arts, was named one of the 25 New Faces of Indie Film in 2004 by FilmMaker Magazine.
Zarvos began studying classical music in his teens and later delved into jazz. In addition to his film work, Zarvos released three critically acclaimed albums for MA Recordings: Dualism, Music Journal and Labyrinths, which mix various world music styles with modern classical and jazz instruments. Likewise, his film scores incorporate these musical elements.
His film credits include: The Good Shepherd, Brooklyn's Finest, Sin Nombre, Remember Me, The Door in the Floor and Hollywoodland. Zarvos has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards (for You Don't Know Jack and Taking Chance) and an HMMA Award for Brooklyn's Finest. His television work includes the hit HBO series The Big C. Zarvos' upcoming film scores include Barry Levinson's The Bay, Daniel Barnz's Won't Back Down and David Mamet's Phil Spector.
A layered romantic drama, The Words stars Bradley Cooper, Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, Olivia Wilde and Zoë Saldana. After years of struggling, ambitious writer Rory Jansen (Cooper) finally achieves literary prominence when his first published novel becomes a smashing critical and commercial success. There's only one catch—he didn't write it. As his star continues to rise, Rory is suddenly confronted by the novel's true author who is about to teach Jansen that there are consequences for stealing another man's words.
Zarvos had to score multiple storylines, timelines and settings for this story-within-a-story-within-a-story. "Music was expected to do a lot and really lead us through the maze of our three unfolding stories," said Zarvos. "At first we talked about assigning a different sound to each of the main characters and/or time periods, but that idea quickly proved to be distracting, so the approach became more organic and guided by drama and emotions instead."
"There are several recurring themes, but rather than identifying them with specific characters we assigned them to different emotions and/or dramatic situations," he explained. "For instance the life affirming theme we hear when Rory's story begins is also used for the Young Man's arrivals in Paris. The very first theme we hear in the movie (as Dennis Quaid's character is going to the book reading), is also used for Rory finding the manuscript, and again later in the film when Quaid and Olivia Wilde are at the apartment."