Matt Damon Talks About the Music to Cameron Crowe’s ‘We Bought A Zoo’

Writer-director Cameron Crowe (whom we all love for his classic romantic comedy Say Anything), has passed along the script for his latest film We Bought A Zoo to actor Matt Damon. Speaking with MTV, Matt Damon revealed, “When [Cameron Crowe] gave me the screenplay, it came with music.” According to Damon, the music consisted of “a lot of Eddie Vedder, a lot of Neil Young” but wouldn’t say anything more. The former Rolling Stone journalist, now writer/director is known for packing his films with carefully curated soundtracks. In fact music is so important to both Cameron Crowe and his films, that he insists on playing music on the set of his movies – before takes, during takes and after takes when the day’s wrap-up. He claims it keeps the actors in-line with the story’s feeling and boosts the morale of the crew.

Based on Benjamin Mee’s best selling memoir, in We Bought A Zoo, Matt Damon plays a widowed father who moves his family to the English countryside where they buy and begin to operate a zoo.

Eddie Vedder and Neil Young seem a perfect fit for a story about a family dealing with the aftermath of the mother’s death. Singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder has already found success in creating music for film with his solo album and soundtrack to Into The Wild, which won him a Golden Globe, and Neil Young already has a solid track record providing the main theme for Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, had said, it’s important to realise that to the final film (it’s very early days), and the songs were more likely given to Damon to suggest the tone that Cameron Crowe is aiming for. Eitherway, We Bought A Zoo is shaping up to be a very interesting release.

It is also worth noting that neither artist is confirmed to be on the soundtrack. However Cameron Crowe’s love for Pearl Jam has had him directing a documentary about the group for quite some time now so there is a good chance he will indeed include both artists in this project.

Alongside Damon, We Bought A Zoo stars Scarlett Johansson and child actress, Elle Fanning. It is currently scheduled to open on December 23rd, 2011 and will start shooting in mid January. Below you can watch the video of Matt Damon talking to MTV. Enjoy.