The Dark Knight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack — the haunting score to the hotly anticipated feature film The Dark Knight — will be released by Warner Bros. Records on July 15, 2008, three days before the movie opens nationwide on July 18th. Composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, who collaborated on the score for the 2005 blockbuster Batman Begins, were asked by director Christopher Nolan to work together again, scoring its follow-up, The Dark Knight. The duo recorded the orchestral soundtrack for the film in London this April. Zimmer and Howard are among the film industry’s most respected and sought-after composers. Each has a career encompassing well over 100 film and television scores. Zimmer won an Academy Award for his score for The Lion King, and has earned six additional Oscar nominations for his work on Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, Rain Man, As Good as It Gets, The Preacher’s Wife and The Prince of Egypt. He includes among his more recent film credits Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The Simpsons Movie, and the Spanish-language Casi Divas. Howard has been honored with seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Score nods for the films The Prince of Tides, The Fugitive, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Village and, most recently, Michael Clayton. Howard’s other film credits include I Am Legend, Charlie Wilson’s War, King Kong, Collateral and The Sixth Sense. Warner Bros. Records will release four different configurations of The Dark Knight soundtrack: a standard jewel case CD, a 2 LP set of heavy-weight 180 gram vinyl version, a special edition digipack, and a collector’s edition with special artwork to come after release. The follow-up to the action hit “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. The film also stars Michael Caine as Alfred; Heath Ledger as arch-villain The Joker; Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon; Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent; Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes; and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a Christopher Nolan film, “The Dark Knight.” Nolan directed the film from a screenplay written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. Charles Roven, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan are the producers, with Kevin De La Noy, Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan serving as executive producers. The Dark Knight is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.