Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross explain that they prefer movie soundtracks because of their disdain for current music culture

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have successfully transitioned from the music world to the movie world thanks to their collaborations with David Fincher and other notable filmmakers. With Ross, Reznor first won the Best Original Score Oscar for The Social Network, next nabbing it for Soul (alongside Jon Baptiste). However, they would lose out on their Mank nomination. In addition to other works for David Fincher, like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl, Reznor and Ross also recently did the music for Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, Challengers and, more recently, Queer. 

The Nine Inch Nails members are also tapped to score the upcoming Tron: Ares, and The Hollywood Reporter is revealing that the duo is quite comfortable staying in the film game in lieu of returning to purely music. Reznor would tell IndieWire, “What we’re looking for [from film] is the collaborative experience with interesting people. We haven’t gotten that from the music world necessarily, for our own choice.” Reznor went on to say,

The culture of the music world sucks.”

He would then elaborate, “That’s another conversation, but what technology has done to disrupt the music business in terms of not only how people listen to music but the value they place on it is defeating. I’m not saying that as an old man yelling at clouds, but as a music lover who grew up where music was the main thing. Music [now] feels largely relegated to something that happens in the background or while you’re doing something else. That’s a long, bitter story.”

The former Nine Inch Nails artist would explain that he and Ross found success in film soundtracks because they are “working in service to something, where we’re not in control of the whole thing, and we’re working intimately with a director or small team to try and help realize a collective vision, solving that riddle without the burden of ‘how’s it going to be marketed?’ and all the things.”

Samples of the upcoming Nine Inch Nails score for Tron: Ares were featured at this year’s D23 event, which our own Alex Maidy was in attendance for and has been giving us all the updates you need.

As for Tron: Ares itself — which wrapped filming in May — we know that it “follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.” It is currently slated for release on October 10th, 2025.