Searchlight Pictures will officially submit “Your God Is Sleeping” from “Behemoth!,” a new drama film by Tony Gilroy, for consideration in the original song category at the Oscars, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film stars Pedro Pascal as Alex Serian, a gifted musician and cellist who returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road.
“Your God Is Sleeping” is written by singer and songwriter Lukas Frank who is also one of the film’s nine composers known as the Behemoth! Collective.
Speaking about the song, Frank told Variety, “Tony told me he needed a song for a superhuman child prodigy—‘like Björk meets Beethoven … except cooler.’ Something like that … very easy, right? I ended up just trying to channel the music I loved when I was a young music nerd, building the song around the title, which was in Tony’s script.”
Gilroy, who wrote and directed the film, which will premiere this Friday at the New York Film Festival, told Variety he had known Frank for almost a decade. “My correspondence with Lukas goes back to 2018, when he started sending me his early demos, and I was really into him because he was a studio drummer,” Gilroy said. He added, “I’ve had a ringside seat for the evolution of Storefront Church (Frank’s band) and became a really big believer in it and what he’s doing. Lukas’ music always just grabs me — it’s so unique.”
When it came to writing the song, Gilroy offered Frank a chance to take a shot at it. “He just killed it,” Gilroy said of the final song.
He also noted that while there’s a version of the song that appears in the film, another special mix is being put together for the film’s soundtrack. “There’s the version of ‘Your God Is Sleeping,’ which is in the film, mixed in a certain way. But then we did another mix for it for the soundtrack version — we did a radio mix. They brought in (producer) Dave Sardy and just pumped it, and man, it really pops.”
“Behemoth!” will be released in theaters on Dec. 4.