We’re all waiting to hear when The Road, John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, will hit theatres. If Miramax decides that it has Oscar potential after all, that may not be until the end of this year.

I’m also waiting to hear all of the score, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I liked their work for Hillcoat’s The Proposition quite a bit, and absolutely adore their score for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. So it’s wonderful that the BBC presents a little clip of the score at about the 3:30 mark of the audio piece at this location.

What’s surprising there is that, while there are plaintive, melancholy strains in this snippet, the overall tone sounds dreamlike and hopeful, almost optimistic. For all we know that could be one of the last themes heard in the film, or it could accompany the flashbacks detailing Viggo Mortensen’s marriage to Charlize Theron. But if those tones are heard throughout the film, it would make for a great counterpoint to the depressing subject matter. Is it possible that Cave’s score could have changed in the past couple months since The Road‘s future was re-evaluated?