Nitin Sawney among talent to compose scores for early Hitchcock restorations

The BFI and UK distributor Network Releasing have commissioned composer Nitin Sawney to score the BFI restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926) to be performed by Sawney with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the London 2012 Festival.

Recent Royal Academy of Music graduate Daniel Cohen will compose a new score for The Pleasure Garden (1925), Hitchcock’s first film as a director, while composer Tansy Davies has also been commissioned to score one of the director’s early works.

The BFI has been restoring the early Hitchcock silents (1925-29) as part of its programme Rescue the Hitchcock 9.

Heather Stewart, Creative Director BFI Programme said: ‘Hitchcock is one of the great artists of the 20th century. His contribution to world cinema is immense. The BFI is thrilled to be able to bring Hitchcock’s early films to the London 2012 Festival; they are the foundation of his whole body of work and new audiences will be able to enjoy them  for the first time ever in all their restored glory and with new scores from an incredible mix of British musical talent.’