It seems strange to think now, but back at the tailend of the 00s, Trent Reznor was nothing but the frontman (and official sole member) of Nine Inch Nails. A polymath, yes. Talented producer, for sure. Captivating performer? Of course. Industrial-rock don. You know it. But it was all under the banner of Nine Inch Nails. These days, of course, he’s also a multiple Oscar-winning composer but, as he revealed to Pitchfork back in 2010, it could have all been so different.
Reznor’s pathway into becoming one of the most renowned co-film scorers (he works with Atticus Ross on his soundtracks, with Ross also now a long-established second official member of NiN) has been through his work with David Fincher. The pair have soundtracked every Fincher movie since 2010’s The Social Network but, shockingly, Reznor turned down the proposal when he was first approached.
“Originally, when I heard the phrase "Facebook movie," I thought, "Is it just going to be a bunch of people on Facebook?" Facebook sucks, so it just felt like: "Ugh.",” he recalled. “But then David-- who's somebody I've always respected as a director and also as a friend-- gave me Aaron Sorkin's script, and I wasn't worried about the Facebook aspect anymore. But still, when David first approached me about doing the score last fall, I couldn't do it because I was burnt out.”
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Reznor said he’d just come off a cycle of album-tour-album-tour and was exhausted and looking forward to some downtime at home with his new wife, something working intensely on a film score for the first time might not go hand-in-hand with. “I realized doing the score could be a year-long commitment of hard work, and I was really looking forward to not knowing what I would do the next day,” Reznor explained. “So I called him back and I said, "I'm really sorry but I can't give you my best work right now. Please don't be insulted." It was just a matter of me not feeling like I had the confidence to pull it off.”
Fast-forward a few months later, though, and the thought of doing the score was still nagging Reznor. “I felt like I'd let David down, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I just felt like a fuck-up,” he stated. “So I got back in touch with him and said, "I want to reiterate how sorry I am about not doing the score, and keep me in mind if anything comes up in the future." And he was like, "I'm still waiting on you to say yes."
And so Fincher, Reznor and Ross’s partnership came to pass, a creative relationship most recently revived for Fincher’s 2023 hitman thriller The Killer. After only working on Fincher films for their first few film score excursions, Reznor and Ross expanded their portfolio – they contributed music to the soundtrack for the Pixar film Soul, and also did the score for last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. We recently rated all their soundtracks, head here and see if you agree.
