NEWS FROM COSTA COMMUNICATIONS

FROM COSTA COMMUNICATIONS

MARC STREITENFELD’S

BAFTA NOMINATED SCORE FOR

“AMERICAN GANGSTER”

TO BE RELEASED ON VARESE SARABANDE

“American Gangster” DVD and Varese Sarabande Score CD Release Feb. 19^th

(Hollywood, CA) German-born film composer Marc Streitenfeld’s score to director Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” will be released on Feb. 19 by Varese Sarabande. The DVD will be released simultaneously by Universal. The “American Gangster” score marks Streitenfeld’s seventh consecutive music collaboration and second film score with Scott. Recently Streitenfeld traveled to Morocco to collaborate on Ridley Scott’s post-9-11 spy thriller “Body of Lies.” “American Gangster” was the #1 drama in the theatres and received critical acclaim. Streitenfeld received a BAFTA nomination for his work on this film. A soundtrack album was previously released by Island Def Jam which contained a sample of the score.

Set in the Seventies, the crime drama follows a detective (Russell Crowe) who works to bring down the drug empire of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a Harlem kingpin who smuggles heroin into the country by hiding it in the coffins of American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War.

The dark subject matter required a score that could support the tension and add impact to the intense drama. Streitenfeld's approach was to utilize an 80-piece orchestra as well as numerous acoustic pre-records, mostly performed by Streitenfeld himself. "The orchestra is only one element of many," explained the composer at a scoring session at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City, CA.

Born in Munich, Germany, Streitenfeld relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 19, first working for composer Hans Zimmer as his assistant, then as a freelance music editor and music supervisor on high profile features. Streitenfeld was nominated for a Golden Reel Award for his work on Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven.” It was Streitenfeld’s long creative relationship with Scott that led the award-winning film maker to offer the composer his first feature score “A Good Year.” Prior to his work as a composer, Streitenfeld had collaborated with Scott as music supervisor and music editor on several projects, including “Matchstick Men,” “Black Hawk Down” and “Gladiator."