Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Discuss Scoring Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’ in Featurette: ‘It’s About the Excitement’ (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comSteven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” is sweaty, sexy and full of angst. The film, which hits theaters April 26, centers on a love triangle between three tennis players with deeply competitive spirits both in the game and off the court.
In it, former doubles partners Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) face off in a challengers match years after they fell out over their pursuit of a promising young star named Tashi Duncan (Zendaya).
Tensions mount as they play each other in a finals game with a weight much heavier than a grand prize trophy, and as the film cuts between time periods, the importance of the win becomes vastly heavier.
A pivotal device in the film is the score itself, composed by two-time Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Inspired by Berlin techno and ‘90s rave music, the score amplifies the stress and strain of the scenes at hand, lending an urgency to the film that already teeters on the precipice of anxiety. “‘Challengers’ had two elements that were very powerful in terms of sound,” says Guadanigno in a clip premiering exclusively on Variety. “One was the erotic crunchy pulse of tennis.
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