About a dozen Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra musicians are going from the stage to the silver screen.

While the 50-plus-member LPO is on summer hiatus, some of its musicians landed a gig of a different kind -- collaborating with Hollywood composer George S. Clinton as he creates an original score to accompany the film Extract, a comedy set for release in September.

As Clinton led the small orchestra this week in a New Orleans recording studio, the movie starring Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis played without sound on a large flat-screen TV so editors could watch the scenes unfold as the orchestra played.

''This is so much fun,'' said Dave Anderson, the LPO's principal bassist. ``It's definitely something different.''

For Clinton, the opportunity to work in New Orleans with Louisiana musicians was ideal.

''I knew right up front that this would be the perfect movie to score down here,'' he said. ``I wanted a quirky rhythm section, so I needed people who had a really good sense of rhythm.''

For part of the score, Clinton had the percussion section make music with glass extract bottles since the movie is about someone who owns a flower-extract factory and incorporated ethnic and world instruments.

The musicians worked at the Music Shed, a studio where Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and others have recorded.

-- STACEY PLAISANCE

Associated Press

Rhianna Pratchett has a fantasy writer's genes: Her father is Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld novels. But Rhianna has pursued her muse in a different medium, as one of the most respected scriptwriters in video games.

Her credits include Mirror's Edge, Heavenly Sword and Overlord, as well as Overlord II, out this week from Codemasters Software Co. Ltd.

''Trying to construct a story around levels that have already been designed without narrative in mind, which is pretty common -- and was the case with Mirror's Edge -- is rather like trying to write a movie for sets that have already been made,'' Pratchett says. ``It can be incredibly challenging.''

The original Overlord, released in 2007, put the player in the role of an evil despot who conquers the world with the help of bloodthirsty gremlins. The adventure's warped perspective and black comedy earned it cult status among like-minded gamers.

Comedy is tough to pull off in games, though. ''What I think has really worked for the franchise is that the setup and gameplay is ripe with humor,'' Pratchett says. ``You play an evil Overlord, rampaging through a twisted fantasy world, with an ever-expanding army of sycophantic minions who loot and pillage for you. What's not to love about that?''

Still, she adds, ''Funny lines certainly help.'' And during the production, ``People on the team were still laughing at things they'd seen and heard 20 times before, so something must be working.''

-- LOU KESTEN

Paul McCartney is coming to Atlanta for a summer concert to benefit the city's historic Piedmont Park.

The Piedmont Conservancy that cares for the city park says that the 67-year-old ex-Beatle will perform there on Aug. 15.

The show is expected to dwarf the conservancy's 2007 Dave Matthews Band and The Allman Brothers Band show that attracted 50,000.

Money raised goes to maintaining and expanding the sprawling and heavily used park in the shadow of Midtown Atlanta's skyscrapers. The park dates back to a private club founded in 1887.

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