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Found this interesting minor tidbit from a USA Today writer's twitter.

Still nuts to think that we waited 10 years (8 of which we didn't even know we were waiting) for a new Star Wars score by John Williams, now it's been barely a year since we had TFA and he's already composing another one. By April he'll have apparently recorded most of it and before we know it we'll have the CD in our grubby mitts...

I would immediately fire any Star Wars director who didn't consider JW the highlight of the whole experience!

I've probably said this before, but I still can't quite get over the fact that Williams is scoring a Rian Johnson film. Now that it's actually happening it's even more surreal.

Might be the highlight of the highlights?? I'm not so sure about this Rian guy...

I have to say the difference between these two scores is quite something. Jurassic Park is quintessential Williams. With its big, brassy fanfares, upbeat tone and romantic themes it plays almost like a greatest hits compilation. And yet the sequel score is something wholly unique in Williams' oeuvre, thanks in large part to his extensive use of percussion and textures. Pretty interesting for an original and a sequel score written by the same composer.

Agreed!

Star Trek Nemesis

It is notably the second half that misses all dialogues between father and daughter, Sarah and Ian as well as any ambitious concerns that were implied or introduced in the first half. From the moment when Eddie died, one action or killer scene follows after another, and the film seems to degenerate to a technically perfectly made popcorn flick. To include the San Diego part without becoming stocky, the second half would have required half an hour more. But the original ambition becomes visible when you listen to the complete score. That LLL set set of the desire of an extended movie version - at least in my case.

Just to clarify, my post about the synth choir was a snapshot of my stream of consciousness on my last listen to the score. I was being slightly facetious, but I also genuinely do think that the choice to use synth choir was very deliberate and was chosen to compliment the rest of the score's sonorities. It's easy to get caught up and start finding genius that isn't really there, but that's half the fun of reading art. I do also think that JW had a very intellectual approach to this film. The emotions he highlights in some scenes are deliberately subversive of what you'd expect from both him and Spielberg. Unfortunately most of those moments were replaced in the final film. The biggest one for me is the final moments of "Tranquilizer Dart" - it's basically the ending to a different movie, one we didn't quite get to see, but which there are glimpses of throughout the film. Another is the repeated use of ethereal textures for the infant dinosaurs. It suggests a really unique and pensive emotion.

Just noticed this Burlingame article about temp tracks, time spent composing, and recording orchestra sections separately. Contains a Williams quote, plus quotes from other composers including Silvestri and JNH: Composers Compete for Oscar With Fresh Tunes, New Technology http://variety.com/2016/artisans/awards/composers-compete-for-oscar-with-fresh-tunes-new-technology-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-1201940274/ Has this been posted? It's been out for a while, so I wouldn't be surprised...

What is your top ten favorite themes from Lord of the Rings and what is your top ten favorite themes from The Hobbit?

Well, the hashtag is "OneOfTheseDays"... Also, note Jim Ware's tweet:

La La Land

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Thomas Newman)

Eye see...

That is a defining moment in New Who. It's on a par with Eccleston's "you were great, and you know what...so was I", and Tennant's "I don't want to go", both of which reduce me to to a large pool of salt water!

LOL!!!!! I'm not sure if that is actually funnier than Derek Smalls getting stuck inside the pod, or not, but it's funny as.

That episode was pretty random. I'm not sure I like the "established event" stories in SF; its not really possible to "save anyone" - if that's the intention... The best story of that kind, in recent times, is VINCENT AND THE DOCTOR, still a beautiful story, told very, very well. The best Titanic story is definitely TIME BANDITS "Waiter! More ice!".

Spielberg has final cut rights on all his films.

OMG, Since Sony has put up the OT OSTs on google play I've been listening to them for the first time and its such a strange experience. I grew up listening to the expanded special edition scores. Hearing stuff like "Rebel Briefing" in ROTJ actually be music from 2 other scenes (with the big rendition of the Force theme not actually being in the film) is throwing me for a loop. And the track titled "The Emperor" is actually the music from his death scene. JW is crazy with his album presentations.

The Romulans fought with honor.

Normally I'd agree with you, but we're talking about a film and score by two of the most gifted storytellers in cinematic history who have a proven track record of making entertaining films with a bit of insight. I don't think it's that unlikely that they may have been attempting to say something interesting while still making a movie about dinosaurs. But go ahead and derail the discussion if you want. Well your mileage may vary, and at the end of the day it comes down to what kind of emotions the music implies for you as a viewer and listener. It's obvious that both versions imply very different emotions, and I very much enjoy discussing exactly what they are for me. I can't tell you what emotions either piece give you personally Josh, only you can decide that. I'm only interested in deconstructing why those emotional beats in particular were chosen, and how they fit into a film as a whole. That's fair enough, I have nothing to back up that statement and it's pure speculation, but even Spielberg has to answer to studio executives when making a film.

Now, with this I don't agree. The Island Theme isn't a mindless popcorn movie theme which represents just fun and excitement. I think this theme represents "the force and beauty of nature"... It's proclaiming loud and clear, "Life will find a way!" It fits, too. I doubt that. It was either Spielberg's decision, or (more likely, imo) both Spielberg's and Williams's decision.

See, this is where I think the discussion gets really interesting. To me, that final shot sums up the film's commentary on the nature of the animals and the familial instincts that they exhibit that make them more than just genetically engineered monsters. All through the first half of the film we're told that the T-Rexes are fiercely protective of their young and will go to great lengths to preserve their family unit. This is paralleled with Ian, Sarah and Kelly's story, and their final scene as they peacefully sit around the television is meant to complement the shot of the T-Rex family. Emotionally, the original music flows throughout both scenes in a thoughtful and insightful manner to further reinforce this parallel. The choice to use the Island fanfare in the final shot completely undermines that emotion in my opinion, and while it does give a more exciting and adventurous close to the film (and screams "how about another sequel?"), it ultimately changes the message that both Spielberg and Williams were initially trying to make. This to me is representative of the major flaw of the film, which is its struggle to both be an entertaining adventure film and an insightful exploration of family dynamics. The fact that family drama is Spielberg's bread and butter as a storyteller, and the fact he was able to toe that line to perfection so many times in the past, makes it even more jarring. It wouldn't surprise me if it actually turned out that the studio influenced the final decision, particularly with the sequel thing in mind.

I'm thinking of cancelling my Netflix subscription because I have so many movies and TV shows on disc, I hardly even use it.

It's my favorite part too. It was definitely a bonehead move to excise it. It's like the Cornucopia insert of Exsultate Justi. But remember, this is a guy who also composed this incredible opening for the Olympic Fanfare and then replaced it with some other guy's music. He's great at composing the stuff, but after it's done, he should not be allowed to tamper with it.

Well they did change the entire third act fairly late in the game. I guess they just ran out of time to do another couple of script passes to iron out the characters. Jurassic Park is chock-full of excellent character moments after the first T-Rex attack. Grant with the kids, Petticoat Lane, Malcolm in the bunker, etc. The Lost World after Eddie's death? Not so much.

I've elaborated on this in another thread, but I definitely prefer the music JW originally intended. The narrative that JW highlights throughout the film is slightly at odds with the final product though, so I can see why they went with the Island fanfare instead. I feel like Spielberg got halfway through producing a thoughtful and intense action-thriller with some interesting philosophical points, then went "fuck it" and pulled together a safe popcorn film with some very broad emotional beats (which he does do well). Whether that happened or not is debatable, but that's what I feel when I watch the movie and listen to the complete score.

Perhaps you're right.

Sneakers, The Rocketeer and Star Trek: Nemesis.

The big Bond boxset is a wide variety of different transfer types. Of all the pre-Craig films, the very best transfers are: The Spy Who Loved Me Tomorrow Never Dies They look so new and filmic with all their grain structure intact and scanned properly. Next down, they might be older transfers but they still hold up really well: On Her Majesty's Secret Service Diamonds Are Forever Thunderball You Only Live Twice Goldfinger From Russia With Love Dr No The World Is Not Enough Next look okay, but are a step down: Live and Let Die The Man With the Golden Gun Below looks like it would have been newish in the early 2000s: Die Another Day (it looks similar to Star Trek Nemesis) Bottom of the barrel. These look no better than the DVD: Moonraker For Your Eyes Only Octopussy A View to a Kill The Living Daylights Licence to Kill GoldenEye (absolute fucking worst)

Given how many times he has performed Tintin and HttF in concert, I doubt he has newly arranged either piece. It will be nice to have a definitive Dartmoor. MR might be a new concert piece.

My guess is that Dartmoor is the concert suite JW prepared which does indeed contain the Dartmoor material from the opening of the film and a big statement of the friendship theme from the finale/end credits. I mean this one:

Undoubtedly Williams could have used a real chorus for TLW if he would have wanted it so the synth choir was a conscious choice, another way of setting the sequel apart from the wonder of the first film, but I somewhat doubt John Williams himself made quite so deep subtextual statement with the use of the synth choir. Still this is a very interesting and good interpretation indeed.

Sigh. No one has even heard this yet and you are already whining! Can we at least wait till the darn thing is out?

Quality post!

Agreed about "Getting Out the Vote" and "Irina's Theme." I'm perfectly satisfied though with the Lost World concert version that was recorded by the Cincinnati Pops. My wish list would have also included: The Sea Battle (Tintin) Circus Train Chase (Last Crusade) Escape from the City and Epilogue (War of the Worlds) Stargazers (E.T.) Sugarland Express Theme (flute version)

Uh..... okay I'll bite. 1. An undiscovered masterwork to the masses, not to JW Fans, who always knew this was a great score desperately in need of expansion. 2. This was the first John Williams OST I ever bought as a kid, so yeah, I know the score pretty well. The point I'm making is that the score is revelatory in complete, chronological form in a way that nobody could've predicted. 3. I have posted dozens of times here about TLW being my holy grail complete score release; I've wanted this music since I was in primary school!

And that's a big ass - we're talking 20, 30,000 tons.

I self-plagarized once on an English paper. I declared it to the teacher beforehand and she was fine with it, but ultimately I learned my lesson: Self-plagarization will lead to lower quality work unless it manages to come naturally and unintentionally. If you're noticing that you wrote it before, that's probably not so good. My paper was rather clunky. It didn't end up being as good as I would have liked when I tried to integrate old material written as a newspaper article with new stuff to make a narrative essay. That taught me to always take an individual approach to everything and at least generally not try to repurpose old work in a new context (not to mention that it could be seen as lazy). This is not a judgement on film scores, but just some random general thoughts about my own experiences. I'm fine with "plagiarism" in music, really. The myriad Rogue One similarities to Williams themes or older Giacchino themes didn't bother me. Obviously, in music, there's a fine line between stylistic devices and true self-plagiarism -- it doesn't bother me every time Williams uses the "boom-tss"!

My guess is that this version will be one of the tracks, with the string version as the other. Both pieces are titles "With Malice Toward None" in the Hal Leonard Signature Edition published suite.

That would be awesome if it was the version. And Chris Martin went to record it. Great player

I was hoping the show would be better than it is. It really drags. Everything that happened in these two episodes could have easily fit into one. They were right to make the first three books into one movie it seems.

The TZ:TM OST flows a lot better than the FSM.

I'm sure the Moderating team could, if they so please, find out what country he's broadcasting from. But that would be discourteous. Everything needs a little mystery in life. Tolkien had Tom Bombadil. We have Bloodboal.

I've met a few JWFANers in real life, and they've all been fine. But I must admit there are some here I would be very trepidatious about meeting if they're anything like their online persona!

This is hardly surprising. As @Marian Schedenig pointed out, studios have been cutting corners on Bluray masters for years, often releasing ancient "HD" masters as the basis for their Bluray releases. Universal are one of the worst offenders; even their "flagship" Bluray releases like Jurassic Park and Back to the Future used dated transfers originally created for DVD releases a decade earlier. Most modern films are finished at 2K so the "4K" release is never truly 4K. It might look marginally better than the 1080p Bluray (2K is technically a higher resolution than 1080p and there'd be less image compression) but that's about it. Very few films are finished in a total 4K workflow; you'd have to render all visual effects shots at higher resolution and finish the DI at 4K, which has huge cost and time implications for very little benefit. I'd guess most digital projectors only project at 2K resolution anyway. The only true 4K films are ones that pre-date digital effects, where all the information exists on the original negative and can scanned, restored and graded at 4K (or 6K/8K). Examples of this that immediately spring to mind are Jaws, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Alien, Aliens, Lawrence of Arabia, and other classics pre-90s. The Star Wars trilogy looks garbage on Bluray because Lowry really botched the transfer with excessive noise reduction that introduced motion artifacts, then Lucasfilm made the image quality worse by slapping on a godawful, inaccurate colour grade (presumably to make the films match the visuals of the prequels, when ANH was actually quite desaturated and naturalistic originally). Those scans were done in 2003 anyway so they are fairly dated. Trust Lucas the tight-ass not to commission new scans for Bluray. Spielberg refused to let the Indy films come out on Bluray without having a modern 4K restoration (he wasn't satisfied with the 2003 scans Lowry did for Indy).