Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross added Netflix's Bird Box to their body of film score work last year, but in reflecting on their work for the Susanne Bier film, the Nine Inch Nails leader did not consider the experience to be a positive one.
In conversation with Revolver, Reznor laid out a number of reasons why he felt scoring Bird Box with Ross was ultimately "a fucking waste of time" despite the film's success:
When we got immersed in it, it felt like some people were phoning it in. And you're stuck with a film editor who had real bad taste. That's kind of our barricade to getting stuff in the film. And the final icing on the shit cake was we were on tour when they mixed it. And they mixed the music so low, you couldn't hear it anyway. So it was like, that was a … [Laughs] That was a fucking waste of time. Then we thought, no one's going to see this fucking movie. And, of course, it's the hugest movie ever in Netflix.
Reznor and Ross delivered their Bird Box score in January of this year, initially treating it to a 10-track, 66-minute release. A "more expansive" physical edition of the score saw release in November, which featured an additional hour of music.
Elsewhere, Reznor revealed that he and Ross will no longer score upcoming thriller The Woman in the Window, which they had been tied to last October. He revealed the pair opted to "bow out" after the film "underwent a transformation after some testing audiences."
"There's no animosity on our end," Reznor added. "It's frustrating when you did that much work and it's gone. And we were proud — and they were proud — of the movie that it was."
Future film work from Reznor and Ross includes another team-up with David Fincher on Mank, a forthcoming biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz.
As the film is set in 1940, Reznor revealed, "We're not gonna be using the modular synthesizer on that one... We think we're gonna be period authentic, so it just creates a new set of challenges."
Reznor also hinted at next steps for Nine Inch Nails, revealing that a follow-up to 2018's Bad Witch will be all about collaboration.
"We've got a list of people we like. And we thought, kind of playing on the newfound spirit of collaboration that scoring has forced us into, seeing what happens when we mix our DNA with some other people, with a no pressure environment," he told Revolver. "Let's see what happens. If something good happens, then maybe the world can hear it. But if it doesn't, we put it in the pile with the other..."
Reznor recently treated 2005 Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth to a vinyl reissue. He and Ross have also scored the forthcoming Pixar flick Soul, set to arrive in theatres next June, as well as recently did the soundtrack to HBO's Watchmen series.
*Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misidentified the director of Mank; Exclaim! regrets the error.
In conversation with Revolver, Reznor laid out a number of reasons why he felt scoring Bird Box with Ross was ultimately "a fucking waste of time" despite the film's success:
When we got immersed in it, it felt like some people were phoning it in. And you're stuck with a film editor who had real bad taste. That's kind of our barricade to getting stuff in the film. And the final icing on the shit cake was we were on tour when they mixed it. And they mixed the music so low, you couldn't hear it anyway. So it was like, that was a … [Laughs] That was a fucking waste of time. Then we thought, no one's going to see this fucking movie. And, of course, it's the hugest movie ever in Netflix.
Reznor and Ross delivered their Bird Box score in January of this year, initially treating it to a 10-track, 66-minute release. A "more expansive" physical edition of the score saw release in November, which featured an additional hour of music.
Elsewhere, Reznor revealed that he and Ross will no longer score upcoming thriller The Woman in the Window, which they had been tied to last October. He revealed the pair opted to "bow out" after the film "underwent a transformation after some testing audiences."
"There's no animosity on our end," Reznor added. "It's frustrating when you did that much work and it's gone. And we were proud — and they were proud — of the movie that it was."
Future film work from Reznor and Ross includes another team-up with David Fincher on Mank, a forthcoming biopic about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz.
As the film is set in 1940, Reznor revealed, "We're not gonna be using the modular synthesizer on that one... We think we're gonna be period authentic, so it just creates a new set of challenges."
Reznor also hinted at next steps for Nine Inch Nails, revealing that a follow-up to 2018's Bad Witch will be all about collaboration.
"We've got a list of people we like. And we thought, kind of playing on the newfound spirit of collaboration that scoring has forced us into, seeing what happens when we mix our DNA with some other people, with a no pressure environment," he told Revolver. "Let's see what happens. If something good happens, then maybe the world can hear it. But if it doesn't, we put it in the pile with the other..."
Reznor recently treated 2005 Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth to a vinyl reissue. He and Ross have also scored the forthcoming Pixar flick Soul, set to arrive in theatres next June, as well as recently did the soundtrack to HBO's Watchmen series.
*Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misidentified the director of Mank; Exclaim! regrets the error.
