Composer Cliff Martinez Says Nicolas Winding Refn’s Series ‘Too Old To Die Young’ Will Be Ten 90-Minute Episodes

It’s been about two years since we’ve known that Miles Teller was going to team up with filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn for a new Amazon series “Too Old to Die Young.” And it’s been almost a full year since we got our first teaser for the series, which follows Teller’s character, a grieving police officer who finds himself caught up in a criminal underground that features Yakuza, Russian mafia, the Mexican cartels, and various other nefarious types. But since then, it’s been very, very quiet. Well, according to the show’s composer, it appears there’s a good reason this series is taking so damn long.

Speaking to ScreenDaily, while at the Rotterdam Film Festival, composer Cliff Martinez was asked about working on “Too Old to Die Young.” The musician, who has worked on Refn’s “Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” and most recently, “The Neon Demon,” is currently working on the series, which apparently, isn’t going to be the fastest bingewatch ever.

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“For me the biggest change is just the endurance to do what I think of as a ten-hour movie – or a 16-hour movie in the case of ‘Too Old To Die Young,’” explains Martinez, when describing the difference with working on a streaming series versus film. “It’s ten episodes that are around 90 minutes a piece. I warned Nic Winding Refn, you better drink a lot of coffee and get a lot of sleep when you can.”

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He added, “‘Too Old To Die Young’ has gone on for a year; for me the challenge has been to not get burned out and jaded and complacent, but to try to stay engaged and focused for that much time.”

You read that right. “Too Old to Die Young” is going to clock in at 10 episodes of about 90-minutes each. Basically, Refn is creating 10 film-length episodes for his upcoming Amazon series. For the casual TV viewer, this might be seen as a fairly insurmountable task. However, for film fans, particular Refn fans, this is nothing short of a joyous announcement.

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Still, we don’t have a release date for the series. But considering the amount of work going into it, that’s understandable. At this point, the filmmaker should just take his time and make sure it’s as good as it can be.