Hacksaw Ridge

VARÈSE SARABANDE RECORDS TO RELEASE LIONSGATE’S HACKSAW RIDGE – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK Featuring Original Music Composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams

(October 27, 2016 – Los Angeles, CA) – Varèse Sarabande will release the HACKSAW RIDGE – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack both digitally and on CD on November 4, 2016. The album features the original music composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams (HOTEL RWANDA, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN). The film will be released on Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment label on November 4, 2016.

HACKSAW RIDGE is the extraordinary true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) who, in Okinawa during one of the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun. He was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon, as he believed that while the war was justified, killing was nevertheless wrong. As an army medic, he single-handedly evacuated the wounded from behind enemy lines, braved fire while tending to soldiers and was wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers. Doss was the first conscientious objector awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The film, which also stars Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths and Vince Vaughn, was directed by Mel Gibson, with an adapted screenplay by Robert Schenkkan and Andrew Knight.

As Rupert puts it, the score is really in two parts. The film begins as, “a lovely romance that blossoms as Desmond discovers both the love of his life and his faith.” Through the progression of the story, the second half of the movie becomes more brutal. “The score reflects some of this, and also Desmond’s spiritual strength,” Gregson-Williams added. Rupert worked closely with the film’s director Mel Gibson to discuss how best to reflect Desmond’s spirituality without being pious, and his bravery without celebrating violence. With this in mind, he scored the opening sequence first. “It captures the tone of the film. The brutality of war and then the beauty of Virginia,” continues Gregson-Williams. The tonal palette of these scenes make HACKSAW RIDGE work beautifully showing the audience both the darkness and the light.

Rupert Gregson-Williams was born in England and educated at St. John’s College Choir School, Cambridge. The multi-award winning composer works from his studios in both London and Los Angeles. A truly versatile composer, Rupert has written a wide range of scores for many feature films, including the Oscar®-winning Hotel Rwanda for which he was awarded the European Film Award for Best Composer, the blockbuster DreamWorks animated films Over The Hedge and Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie, for which Rupert was nominated for an Annie Award for his original score and the independent BBC Films’ Love + Hate, for which he was awarded the Reims International Composer Award.

Most recently, Rupert scored the international hit The Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie and directed by David Yates. Other film credits include Winter’s Tale directed by Akiva Goldsman, Zookeeper starring Kevin James, Made of Honor starring Patrick Dempsey and Thunderpants starring Stephen Fry.

Gregson-Williams has had a long association with Adam Sandler and has composed the scores for many of his films over the past ten years, including Click, Bedtime Stories, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, Here Comes The Boom, The Ridiculous 6 and The Do-Over. Rupert has composed the music for various TV projects, including the Emmy®-award winning HBO series Veep, AMC’s The Prisoner, and Sky Vision’s Agatha Raisin. He received an Emmy®- nomination for the 2002 telefilm Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special.

Rupert’s commercial and film collaborations have included working with Ben Folds, Mark Knopfler, Hans Zimmer, Hadag Nahash, Lebo M., Junior Mambazo and Moya Brennan.

HACKSAW RIDGE is produced by David Permut, Bill Mechanic, Brian Oliver, William D. Johnson, Bruce Davey, Paul Currie, and Terry Benedict. Summit Entertainment and Cross Creek Pictures present, in association with Demarest Media and Argent Pictures, produced in association with IM Global and AIM Film Productions, and in association with Vendian Entertainment and Kylin Pictures, a Pandemonium Films / Permut Presentations production.

Andrew Garfield stars in this true story about an American WWII solider who refused to carry a weapon into battle, but nonetheless came out a hero. The film debuted at the Venice film Festival to a 10 min ovation and is a 2017 Oscar contender. Composer Gregson-Williams is a frequent Hans Zimmer collaborator who's most recent score before Hacksaw Ridge was Disney's Tarzan soundtrack.