The producers of this year's Academy Awards show will likely find it hard to resist including best original song in their telecast with the star power of Adele, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman at their disposal.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voted for five original songs featuring some considerable cache.
Self-taught musician J. Ralph was nominated for his song "Before My Time" from the documentary "Chasing Ice." The song is sung by Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell during the closing credits of the glacier documentary made by National Geographic photographer James Balog.
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"Balog has created the ultimate security camera for planet Earth. The footage is the robbery of the Earth’s resources," said Ralph, while walking home from a yoga class in New York City. "When you see it, it's arrestingly stunning, both visually and you're almost dumbfounded in slow motion. I wanted to create this warm bath at the end to allow people to absorb what they’ve seen and how they felt."
"That's cool. I get to go to the Oscars," said MacFarlane, who will host this year's show and announced the nominations Thursday morning along with actress Emma Stone. The song "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from his feature directorial debut "Ted" landed a nomination with lyrics written by MacFarlane and music by Walter Murphy.
Also nominated was "Pi's Lullaby" with music by Mychael Danna and lyrics by Bombay Jayashri from Ang Lee's drama "Life of Pi." Danna, who spent an entire year working on both the score and the song, found collaborating with Lee thrilling.
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"I’m really proud of how well it all works in concert with itself," said Danna, from his hotel room that coincidentally overlooks the Fox lot where he spent four months of his time composing with Lee.
Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth received a nod for "Skyfall" from the latest James Bond flick of the same name."
Thursday's nominees also included "Suddenly" with music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil.
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