Creating a parody soundtrack for film is no easy task.

Walk Hard" soundtrack ups ante for parodies

Creating a parody soundtrack for film is no easy task.

Just ask writer-director Jake Kasdan, who spent eight months with co-writer Judd Apatow and a gang of songwriters in the studio recording songs for the "biopic" comedy "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," which Columbia Pictures will release in theaters on December 21.

"It was daunting at the onset," Kasdan says. "We knew part of the appeal to this was the opportunity to go for it right away and we enlisted the help of a bunch of really talented people."

To add pressure to the process, there's the Holy Grail of parody soundtracks -- "This Is Spinal Tap" -- looming in the background. It looms over any movie creating a canon of funny songs for a fake rock star.

"'Spinal Tap' is perfect and the record is insanely great," Kasdan says. "That's the kind of gold standard you aspire to when you're entering this world."

When Kasdan and Apatow sat down to write songs for larger-than-life musician Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly), they cast a wide net to bring in songwriters and a few musical legends to help pen music that spans seven decades.

"We wanted the music to be good music, even though it's a parody, even though it's funny," says Lia Vollack, president of worldwide music for Columbia Pictures. "Bad music unfortunately in a movie isn't funny, it's just bad. It actually becomes its own joke."

By the first draft, Kasdan and Apatow, who unlike their "Spinal Tap" counterparts are not musicians, had created titles and lyric fragments suggesting the kinds of songs they wanted for each sequence of the film. From there, they collaborated with a core group of songwriters, including producer Michael Andrews, Dan Bern, Mike Viola -- who lent his vocals for 1996's "That Thing You Do!" -- and with Reilly. They also recruited several indie artists (and friends), including Antonio Ortiz, Gus Seyffert, Charlie Wadhams and Benji Hughes.

Veteran musician Marshall Crenshaw was brought in to tackle the title track, the Johnny Cash-inspired "Walk Hard."

"It was an important one," Kasdan says of the song. "He just nailed it and just found that basic thing, that riff."

To tap into Cox's political period, Bern, known for his Bob Dylan folk influences, came up with "Royal Jelly," a song Kasdan says is "marked by incomprehensible metaphors." Cox also sings a pair of politically incorrect protest songs that take up the causes of "midgets," "injuns" and others.

Composer and producer Van Dyke Parks, who collaborated with Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson for the ill-fated "Smile" album, was brought in to capture the essence of late 1960s experimental sounds. Parks penned a three-minute, 45-second acid trip titled "Black Sheep," which is highlighted in the film by Cox's in-studio drug-influenced eccentricities.

By the end of the process, hundreds of songs were in the can, and they were eventually boiled down to 15 for the soundtrack. An additional 15 songs are on iTunes.

The finished product is certainly creating a buzz in the film and music community. "Walk Hard" and "Let's Duet" made the shortlist of 59 songs in contention for an Oscar nomination.

"I think the way this particular soundtrack is structured, and based on who's writing for it, it takes the 'Spinal Tap' experience up to 12," says Downtown Records president Josh Deutsch, who worked on parody soundtracks for "Music & Lyrics" and "Borat."

But can "Walk Hard" go down the same legendary path as "Spinal Tap?"

From elaborate press kits complete with concert T-shirts and "Walk Hard" lyrics "scribbled" on a cocktail napkin to the monthlong "Cox Across America Tour," Dewey Cox seems to be walking hard in that direction.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation, in association with Relativity Media, of a Nominated Films production. Produced by Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan, Clayton Townsend. Executive producer, Lew Morton. Directed by Jake Kasdan. Screenplay, Judd Apatow, Kasdan.

Dewey Cox - John C. Reilly
Darlene Madison - Jenna Fischer
Pa Cox - Raymond J. Barry
Edith - Kristen Wiig
Sam - Tim Meadows
L'Chai'm - Harold Ramis
Ma Cox - Margo Martindale
Theo - Chris Parnell
Dave - Matt Besser

At first this "Walk the Line" sendup sounds more like a sketch than a movie, before director Jake Kasdan and co-writer/producer Judd Apatow broaden it to include every tic of the musical biopic, from "The Buddy Holly Story" through the current wave. "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" thus strums the genre for considerable laughs, with John C. Reilly playing the title balladeer from teen to senior citizen, generating enough goodwill to offset the flat sections and a decidedly juvenile streak. While unlikely to rival Apatow's recent hits, box office should sing a merry little tune as a raunchy Oscar-bait alternative.
Hewing more toward "Airplane!" territory than he has previously, Apatow incorporates members of his repertory company in what amounts to a variety of amusing cameos, such as Paul Rudd popping up as one of the Beatles. For whatever reason, this Sony release also features a vast assortment of NBC's comedy talent, starting with "The Office's" Jenna Fischer and "Saturday Night Live's" Kristen Wiig as the protagonist's overlapping wives.

Infused with a adolescent streak that revels in its R rating and never seems to tire of puns derived from Dewey's last name, pic dutifully chronicles the life of Reilly's Cox from well-telegraphed boyhood tragedy to unexpected stardom to drug abuse, despite half-hearted "You don't want to try this" warnings from band member Sam (Tim Meadows).

Along the way, Apatow and Kasdan (coming off the satirical "The TV Set") zero in on a surprising number of spoof-worthy conventions within these films: The star playing his character starting at a ridiculously young age (when Reilly takes over as Dewey, he's 14); black characters bursting into raucous dance when a budding white singer lets loose; nurturing Jewish (here, Hassidic) record executives; and the excess that invariably accompanies stardom -- in Dewey's case, not just drugs but destructive rages that consistently wreak havoc on bathroom fixtures.

Having worked out his comedy chops for Apatow in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," Reilly not only belts out the double-entendre-laden tunes -- one of which sounds impressively like Roy Orbison -- but unabashedly dives into the silliness of the role. Fischer also makes the most of her turn as the backup singer who wins Dewey's heart but, much to his chagrin, keeps withholding her body.

"Walk Hard" employs a quartet of songwriters -- among them Marshall Crenshaw -- to cleverly craft Dewey's songography, which should yield a dynamite tie-in novelty soundtrack. One suspects many a young lad will find himself humming, "In my dreams, you're blowin' me (pause) sweet kisses," perhaps even inadvertently.

By its very nature, the movie is episodic in its chronological stroll through Dewey's fictional life, and not all the bits (among them a "Yellow Submarine"-like acid trip) work equally well. Fortunately, there's a general exuberance and fondness for the musical material that eases the rough spots, down to meticulous technical touches ranging from the evolving costumes and hairdos to the conspicuous makeup as Dewey enters his "Driving Miss Daisy" years.

For Apatow, "Walk Hard" also continues to demonstrate that gleefully embracing R-rated comedy needn't be reserved for DVD extras; rather, it's possible to walk hard, laugh hard and still earn hard -- a formula that's surely music to any studio's ears.

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Uta Briesewitz; editors, Tara Timpone, Steve Welch; music, Michael Andrews; music supervisors, Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe; songs, Dan Bern, Mike Viola, Van Dyke Parks, Marshall Crenshaw, Charlie Wadhams; production designer, Jefferson D. Sage; art director, Domenic Silvestri; set decorator, Claudette Didul; costume designer, Debra McGuire; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Tateum Kohut, Greg Landaker, Bill W. Benton; supervising sound editor, Joel Shryack; sound designer, Bob Grieve; visual effects supervisor, Mark Freund; associate producers, Andrew Epstein, Melvin Mar; assistant director, Townsend; casting, Amy McIntyre Britt, Anya Colloff. Reviewed at Mann Chinese 6, Los Angeles, Nov. 30, 2007. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 96 MIN.


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