The Playlist

With eight Academy award nominations leading to one win for "The Lion King," composer Hans Zimmer certainly doesn't have anything to prove. Prolific and inventive, he's one of the best in the business, and even with nearly three decades of work tuning up movies, his works remain continually fresh and creative. This year alone has the fifty-four year-old composer taking some fascinating strides, teaming with the Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela for both "Rango" and “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Of course, we don't have to tell you that the man behind the excellent scores for (the Oscar nominated) "Inception" and "The Dark Knight" is preparing "The Dark Knight Rises," and he's already given a peek behind the curtain, saying that influences as disparate as Verdi and Alison Goldfrapp are playing a role in the composition. But this year, he won't be making his way to the Kodak Theater.

'Contagion' & 'Drive' Composer Talks Working With Soderbergh, Nicolas Winding Refn & Possibly Working On 'Only God Forgives'When we last sat down with composer Cliff Martinez, the Matthew McConaughey-starring "Lincoln Lawyer" was his last work, and the film, and score, were both warmly received. Mr. Martinez, familiar to fans of Steven Soderbergh for scoring several outstanding films in the director's filmography, including his standout score for "Solaris", was generous enough to sit down with us again - with two very well received films now in theaters (Soderbergh's "Contagion" and Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive"), we talked about his first foray into composing, meeting Soderbergh, and just what is going with Refn's project "Only God Forgives."1. His first composing gig was doing music for "Pee Wee's Playhouse", the TV show.Already fascinated with music technology in the early 80s, former Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Martinez's brush with what would become a cornerstone of his composing career was seemingly fated. "I was recording the first Chili Peppers album and the producer, Andy Gill, walked into the room with a Lynn drum machine and he said 'Cliff, why don’t you check this out, maybe you’d like to program a few beats,'" says Martinez. "And I felt like I was holding in my hands the device that was going to replace me and all drummers, and from that moment I was turning into a dinosaur and I had to evolve or die."

Signs Soundtrack Deal With Movie Score MediaU.K.
 composer James
 Edward 
Barker 
has
 signed
 on to
 score 
the 
SKY
 3D
 and 
IMAX
 release
 of "The 
Bachelor 
King 3D." 
The 
film
, a documentary about penguins in South Georgia, will 
be
 narrated 
by 
Sir 
David 
Attenborough
 and 
is 
produced
 by
 Anthony 
Geffen’s
 Atlantic 
Pictures,
 the
 same
 team
 behind
 the
 BAFTA
 award
 winning 
"Flying
 With
 Monsters." The 
film
 will 
premiere
 on 
SKY 
3D at
 the
 end
 of
 the
 year
 and
 is
 then
 due
 for
 release
 in
 IMAX
 cinemas
 and
 a
 subsequent 
national
 theatrical
 release 
in 
the
 U.K. 
in 
early 
2012.

The rock 'em, sock 'em futuristic fighting robot movie "Real Steel" swings into theaters this weekend, and tomorrow the soundtrack will drop with some tunes to get you pumped for the pugilistic pic.