Bear McCreary Writes Soundtrack to New Kevin Smith Film THE 4:30 MOVIE Out Now

This week, writer-director Kevin Smith’s new film, The 4:30 Movie, premieres with an original soundtrack by award-winning composer Bear McCreary. The two-time GRAMMY®-nominated, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning composer’s original soundtrack is available now on all DSPs via Sparks & Shadows Records.

Set in the pre-cell phone, social media-free era of the ’80s, The 4:30 Movie is a coming-of-age story about three sixteen-year-old friends (played by Austin Zajur, Nicholas Cirillo, and Reed Northrup) who spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies at the local multiplex. But when one of the guys also invites the girl of his dreams (Siena Agudong) to see the latest comedy, each teen will learn something serious about life and love before the credits roll.

Smith shot the film at his Smodcastle Cinemas in New Jersey—the same movie theater he haunted every weekend when he was a teenager. The trailer and more info about the film are available here.

The film marks the third collaboration between Smith and McCreary, who teamed up previously on Smith’s star-studded animated series for Netflix and Mattel, Masters of the Universe: Revelation and Masters of the Universe: Revolution.

“Bear McCreary made magic with The 4:30 Movie, composing a sonic salute to the ’80s era that’s as much a time tunnel to 1986 as it is a joyful movie score,” says Smith. “The closing banger he and his brother, Brendan, wrote and recorded for the end credits, “24 Karat Case of Love,” is the greatest ’80s radio hit that never happened!”

Adds McCreary, “I was thrilled to join Kevin Smith to score The 4:30 Movie, his nostalgic odyssey back to the 1980s. Inspired by his sweet-natured story, I had a blast writing a synth-soaked score oozing with arpeggios, drum machines, and hair-metal riffs, backed with classic symphonic orchestration. A highlight was collaborating with my brother, Brendan McCreary, on the film’s two original songs, “Astroblaster and the Beaver Men,” which evokes that ’80s futuristic-rock aesthetic, and the film’s end title song, “24 Karat Case of Love,” which feels like a lost synth-pop gem from the neon-tinged, balmy summer of 1986.”

ABOUT BEAR McCREARY

Two-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning composer Bear McCreary began his career as a protégé of legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein, before bursting onto the scene scoring the influential and revered series Battlestar Galactica in 2004. Since then, McCreary has been a four-time Emmy Award nominee and Emmy winner for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme for Da Vinci’s Demons, a musical palindrome that sounds the same forwards and backwards, and has won multiple International Film Music Critics Association Awards. He has been named the 23rd Most Definitive Bear in Popular Culture by the Ringer and has also been the subject of a clue on Jeopardy! 

Recent projects include the Amazon Original hit series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Foundation for Apple TV+; the beloved Starz series Outlander; Netflix’s Academy Award-nominated documentary Crip Camp (produced by Barack and Michelle Obama); Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters; Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Films’ 10 Cloverfield Lane; AMC’s global phenomenon The Walking Dead; Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; and the video game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge for Disney. McCreary’s acclaimed scores to Sony PlayStation’s blockbusters God of War and God of War Ragnarök have earned him honors including a GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and awards from the Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, the International Film Music Critics Association, the ASCAP Composers Choice Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards.

In 2024, McCreary released The Singularity, an epic hard-rock concept album and accompanying graphic novel. The album, which he first began writing as a teenager, features a legendary lineup of rock talent, including Slash, Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Rufus Wainwright, and many more. The Singularity was co-written and co-produced by McCreary’s brother, Brendan McCreary, who is also the album’s primary vocalist. The accompanying story is revealed on the album in three spoken-word monologues lifted directly from the graphic novel, performed by celebrated actors Lee Pace (Foundation, The Hobbit), Danai Gurira (Black Panther, The Walking Dead), and Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, God of War Ragnarök).

McCreary has long enjoyed collaborating with artists from across the musical spectrum, including Hozier, Fiona Apple, Shirley Manson (Garbage), and the late Sinéad O’Connor. He has composed concert commissions for the Calder Quartet and Getty Center, the Hagen Philharmonic and Ballet in Germany, the Television Academy, the Seattle Symphony, and the Golden State Pops Orchestra. In July 2014, Maestro Gustavo Dudamel conducted a suite of McCreary’s music with the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Master Chorale at the Hollywood Bowl.

To post a comment, you must register and login.