'You think I'm tryin' to compete with that?' - Alec Baldwin, as Shelly Kaplow in The Cooler Diana Krall, N'Sync's Joey Fatone, Bobby Caldwell and more headline the Commotion Records soundtrack to The Cooler with extended selections from the score by composer and trumpeter Mark Isham. NEW YORK, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Shangri-La is the last of the old-school Las Vegas casinos, where hopes and dreams ride on a roll of the dice, and love is the only saving grace for desperate people who've been dealt a hand from the bottom of the deck... (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020312/KOCHLOGO ) Wayne Kramer's directorial debut The Cooler, due out on November 19th in New York and Los Angeles (and on December 19th nationwide) through Lions Gate Films, stars William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin. The Cooler is a cool, gritty, tense and at times even hilarious drama set against the backdrop of Sin City and the Shangri-La. The film's soundtrack will be the rollout release for Commotion Records, a brand new label co-founded by legendary music industry veteran Walter Yetnikoff and music supervisor and powerhouse label executive Tracy McKnight. "I saw this film at the Sundance Producers Conference in August," McKnight recalls, "and I loved the movie. I mean, from the opening cue, I thought, this music is spot on -- it's smart, it's well placed, and Mark Isham's score is fantastic. It's the perfect soundtrack to launch our label, and I'm really proud to be associated with it." "I am very excited to be working with Tracy and Commotion Records," says Joel C. High, Vice President of Music for Lions Gate. "Their enthusiasm and experience in the film music world make them a great home for this soundtrack." Mark Isham is the Academy Award(R)-nominated and Grammy Award(R)-winning composer behind the music of such acclaimed films as A River Runs Through It; Romeo Is Bleeding, Quiz Show and Moonlight Mile. One of the first pictures for which he wrote and performed the score was The Times of Harvey Milk, winner of the 1984 Academy Award(R) for Best Feature Documentary. For The Cooler, Isham had several distinctively romantic moods in mind for the music. "This is a score that embraces the classic sound of swing that personified old world Vegas," he says, "and I wanted to mix that with musical themes that reflect the warm and intimate relationship between the main characters." An intimate, Vegas-style lounge feel courses through the vocal performances on the soundtrack, mirroring the classy sophistication and style of the film. Diana Krall renders a steamy rendition of the jazz standard "I'll String Along With You," while Bobby Caldwell channels the spirit of Frank Sinatra on the casino classic "Luck Be A Lady." Actor Paul Sorvino hits an ironic vein, so to speak, in "Getting To Be A Habit With Me"-in the film, he plays Buddy Stafford, a strung-out lounge singer whose addiction to heroin puts him at Shelly's mercy. Joey Fatone (from 'N Sync) plays Johnny Capella, the young upstart who steals Buddy's gig with his performance of "Can I Steal A Little Love." And no story of the Vegas nightclub and casino scene would be complete without "My Funny Valentine," delivered with smoldering cool by up- and-coming jazz siren Tierney Sutton. The Cooler soundtrack CD will be released on November 11, 2003 on Commotion Records in partnership with KOCH Entertainment. What's all the Commotion? Walter Yetnikoff spent twenty-five years of his long and illustrious career in the music business with CBS/Sony Records-many of those as the company's president. During his tenure at CBS, he helped guide the careers of The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, The Clash and countless others. His book, written with David Ritz: Howling at the Moon: The Confessions of a Music Mogul in an Age of Excess, will be published by Random House/Broadway Books in March 2004. Tracy McKnight is one of today's premiere talents in music supervision for feature films and television, and has more than ten years of experience in the record and film industries. She has overseen the musical direction for over 50 features and has produced or assisted in the production of over 200 recordings. Her latest film collaborations include Undefeated (directed by John Leguizamo), Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch), A Dirty Shame (John Waters), Brooklyn (Jim McKay) and The United States of Leland (Matthew Ryan Hoge), as well as the long-awaited documentary The Ramones: End of the Century. KOCH Entertainment is the leading and fastest-growing independent music company in the U.S. KOCH's overall operations encompass record and video labels, music publishing, as well as distribution companies in the U.S. and Canada. KOCH Entertainment is the market leader among independent labels and distributors in both the U.S. and Canada and its record labels had the largest number of Billboard charting albums among independents in 2002/2003. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020312/KOCHLOGODATASOURCE: KOCH Entertainment CONTACT: Dave Cirilli, Big Hassle Media, +1-212-619-1360, or Fax, +1-212-619-1669, ; Tracy McKnight, Commotion Records, +1-212-243-2100, or Fax, +1-212-243-2329, Web site: http://www.arecordcommotion.com/ http://www.bighassle.com/

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