I love documentaries that can teach me something I don’t know, and do so in an entertaining fashion.  I’m incredibly ignorant when it comes to understanding music production, and two-thirds of Dave Grohl‘s documentary Sound City provides a fascinating, hilarious, and passionate look at the eponymous studio, its prominence in rock history, and the technical details behind creating some of the best music of all time.  Grohl does an amazing job at going into the nuts and bolts of music production but always keeping the lesson upbeat and inviting.  However, once Grohl has completed telling the history of Sound City, the documentary shifts into an uneasy place where Grohl’s promotion of the physical music studio over Pro Tools creates a direct analog-vs-digital exploration, and an indirect deprecation of those who share the rock star’s passion for music, but lack the resources to book studio time.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross earned Oscars for their The Social Network score.  They reunited for David Fincher‘s new film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the duo have outdone themselves.  Reznor announced on his website that he and Ross have created “a sprawling three-hour opus”, and if you want to pre-order it, you’ve got some options.  There’s the old-fashioned digital download for $12, the higher quality Apple Lossless or FLAC download for $14, the 3-disc CD for $14, or you can go nuts with a $300 limited edition on the box set.

Hit the jump to find out what’s included on the $300 edition.  After the jump, you’ll also find the 8-minute trailer that debuted to select audiences earlier this fall.  Finally, do you remember that awesome cover of “Immigrant Song” that played with the movie’s teaser trailer?  It’s on the soundtrack, and you can download it right now from iTunes.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21st.

I’m not really sure about the value of viral marketing, but I guess there’s numbers to back up why studios keep doing it.  I suppose it’s appropriate for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo since it’s in the mystery genre and now the film’s Tumblr blog, “Mouth Taped Shut“, has led to a new viral site [via /Film], “Comes Forth in the Thaw“.  All that’s on the site right now is some of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ eerie score with an occasional line of dialogue playing over a slide show of images from the movie including Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) leaving a courthouse or an image from outside the cabin where he works with Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to solve the case of a young woman who disappeared forty years ago.

Click the corresponding link above to check out the viral site.  I’m not sure if it only has new images to offer or if anything else will come forth from the thaw.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21st.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross picked up Oscars for their score for The Social Network.  The duo has re-teamed for Fincher’s new film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and some of their score is played over a new promo video for the film.  The promo video doesn’t show any footage from the film, but it does show a cool look at how a metal poster for the movie gets made.  As for the score, it sounds how you would expect a Reznor score to sound like: mechanical and ambient.  I don’t much care for it right now, but I felt the same way about the score for The Social Network before I saw the movie and now I dig what Reznor and Ross came up with.

Hit the jump to check out the video.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21st.

Last night’s advanced screening of Straw Dogs opened with a surprise trailer: eight minutes of David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I still maintain the Dragon teaser trailer (viewable here) to be the best of its kind in a good long while – well, maybe, since the teaser for that other Fincher flick last year. The eight minute extended trailer does little to dampen my enthusiasm. It’s an exceptionally cut bit of marketing – laying out all the beats for the film’s first act and teasing the rest to Trent Reznor’s bombastic score. For a breakdown of the eight-minute trailer, hit the jump.

Along with the collection of new images and character bios, Sony uploaded a snippet of Trent Reznor’s score to the official site for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  In the clip, Reznor proves he can drone with the best of them, and I’m sure it accompanies a very tense, prolonged scene in the movie.  Out of context, I just get a little creeped out.

This is the second feature collaboration between Reznor and director David Fincher after The Social Network, which earned Reznor an Oscar.  Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, and Stellan Skarsgård star in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which opens on December 21.  Listen to the new music after the jump.

Last September, we learned that Nine Inch Nails frontman and composer Trent Reznor was going to turn his lyrics and music from his band’s album Year Zero into a TV series. The album has been described as a musical chronicle that criticizes contemporary policies of the United States government by presenting a dystopian vision of the year 2022. We haven’t heard anything about the series since last year, but now THR has learned Fight Club screenwriter Jim Uhls will write the project which is now a miniseries set up at HBO and BBC Worldwide.

When the project was first announced, Carnivàle writer Daniel Knauf was said to be writing the series, but apparently the job is now Uhls to take. If it has the same grit and tone as Fight Club, then this should be a great miniseries for HBO down the road. For more background and plot description of the events that took place within the album and an alternate reality game that crafted the story and world of Year Zero before the album’s release, hit the jump.

After his fantastic (and Oscar-winning) stab at feature film composing with The Social Network, it’s understandable that Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has been fielding a few offers to score more feature films. He’s currently working on David Fincher’s next film, the American adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and was recently rumored to be scoring and possibly acting in Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Well, now it turns out that Reznor won’t be scoring the Civil War-set vampire flick after all. He explains on the official NIN message boards (via Cinema Blend) that when news broke that he’d be working on the score for the film, he still hadn’t made up his mind as to whether or not he’d be taking the job. No word on why he turned it down, but he states that there’s “no juicy story here,” so presumably he just decided he’d rather focus his talents elsewhere for the time-being. Hit the jump to read what he had to say.

Last week, we reported that Oscar-winner Trent Reznor may co-star and score Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Reznor has now taken to the official Nine Inch Nails message boards to clear up some of the confusion as well as comment on the upcoming album from his new band How to Destroy Angels, the future of Nine Inch Nails, and his work with Atticus Ross on the score for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Hit the jump for Reznor in his own words.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is due out December 21st.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is set to open in 3D on June 22, 2012.

Trent Reznor picked up an Oscar for his terrific score to The Social Network and he’s set to score David Fincher’s follow-up, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So what comes after an Oscar and providing the music to an adaptation of a best-selling novel?  Apparently for Mr. Reznor, it’s doing the music and co-starring in a 3D vampire movie.

Badass Digest reports that Reznor will not only provide the score for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he’ll also play the bloodsucker that offs Lincoln’s mother and sets the 16th president on his path of vampire destruction.  The film is based off the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, who previously wrote the mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Grahame-Smith’s novel.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter stars Benjamin Walker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anthony Mackie, and Dominic Cooper.  It opens in 3D on June 22, 2012.

I have just endured three painful hours of the Golden Globes.  Thankfully, folks who deserved awards got them (except for Community, which wasn’t even nominated, so way to screw that up, Hollywood Foreign Press Association).  You can click here to check out my live blog of the entire ceremony, but if you just want a listing of who won what, then hit the jump.  The Social Network took home four Golden Globes including Best Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), Best Director (David Fincher), and Best Motion Picture (Drama).

Tonight I’ll be live-blogging the 2011 Golden Globe Awards.  The Golden Globes continue to receive attention because they used to be seen as a reliable indicator of what films would be receiving Orscar love.  However, due to shifting deadlines, Oscar ballots are already due and there’s no way that the Globes can affect the Oscar nominees.  Also, the Globes, which are hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are known for being delightfully carefree with their integrity and will nominate you if you show them enough love.  They’re basically like the MTV Movie Awards except they serve food and there aren’t any sketches.

However, I think host Ricky Gervais will do a fine job tonight and I’m curious to see if the Globes will follow through on their clearly bought-and-paid-for-love of films like Burlesque and The Tourist.  Click here for a list of the nominees and hit the jump for my on-going live-blog and be sure to keep refreshing the page for my comments.  The 2011 Golden Globe Awards air at 8pm (EST) on NBC.

When it was announced that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame would be doing the music to David Fincher’s The Social Network, audiences began to realize that the film may a bit more than just “the facebook movie”. When the film was released, Reznor’s score was met with wild enthusiasm, and it looks like Fincher liked what he heard as well. Reznor has confirmed that he and his Social Network scoring partner Atticus Ross are doing the score for the director’s next film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which he’s currently filming in Sweden.

Reznor confirmed the news on a podcast with The New York Times’ Jon Pareles. Fincher’s adaptation of the first book in Steig Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy” stars The Social Network’s Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard, and Christopher Plummer. At the moment, Fincher’s on a break from filming in order to promote the Blu-Ray/DVD release of The Social Network (as well as get in some nice pre-Oscar facetime), which hits stores on Tuesday. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Steve’s exclusive interview with Fincher from last week. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will hit theaters on December 21^st.

David Fincher’s The Social Network claimed phenomenal critical success upon its release a mere three weeks ago, and appears to be an early frontrunner for Best Picture of the Year. Part of the film’s accomplishment must be attributed to unsung heroes Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for crafting an electronically hip, unpretentious score, one that drives the film’s narrative without overwhelming the viewer. For me it’s one of the best scores of the year, to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, however, it will be seen as an electronic nightmare, one not worthy of their standards.

Over the years the Oscars have made it perfectly clear that they prefer classical scores to the electronic works that have since taken the cinema world by storm. Michael Giacchino won last year for his inspired work for Pixar and Disney’s Up, a fine score to be sure, but he beat out both Hans Zimmer and James Horner who, one could argue, crafted masterful works for Sherlock Holmes and Avatar (that Leona Lewis song notwithstanding) that were largely electronic in nature. Reznor and Ross’ score carries with it a Zimmer-ish vibe, particularly during the opening credits, but takes its tone one step further, erupting as a full-blown rock album in several instances. Such a fine, well-crafted work should not be overlooked by the Academy. Hit the jump for more.

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is in the midst of turning his lyrics and music into an epic science fiction series on HBO. Hero Complex reports the NIN album Year Zero, a musical chronicle that criticizes contemporary policies of the United States government by presenting a dystopian vision of the year 2022, is being adapted as a TV series. If you think it’s going to be difficult to adapt an album into an entire TV series, leading up to the album’s release an alternate reality game brought fans into the story and crafted an entire world that the the music of Nine Inch Nails would come to represent.  Hit the jump for  more details on Year Zero.