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Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021)


mrbellamy

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently found an article that details more about Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation.

 

Here are all the official articles, in chronological publication:

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/10/west-side-story-remake-spielberg-tony-kushner

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/news/steven-spielberg-met-puerto-rican-activists-west-side-story-concerns-1176285

 

https://deadline.com/2019/01/steven-spielberg-west-side-story-cast-ariana-debose-david-alvarez-josh-andres-rivera-rachel-zegler-1202535002/

 

Looking forward to more updates, and really looking forward to this film next year.

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10 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156891886195692&id=616645691

 

David Newman to conduct and arrange the score.

 

 

Screenshot_20190206-182221.jpeg

 

Hmm. 

 

CC seems to like him!

 

http://www.filmtracks.com/composers/newmand.shtml

 

 

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23 minutes ago, mrbellamy said:

So what are the odds at this point that The Post was the last Spielberg/Williams collab?

 

I certainly hope not, but it looks to be headed that way :(

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6 hours ago, Stefancos said:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156891886195692&id=616645691

 

David Newman to conduct and arrange the score.

 

 

Screenshot_20190206-182221.jpeg

 

Oh, man! I'm disappointed. Not to say that I'm no longer interested in seeing this upcoming adaptation, but this has lessened my excitement for it quite a bit. I thought for certain that John Williams would be attached to this. Now that I think about it, though, it most likely has to do with a conflict in scheduling. Filming on West Side Story is scheduled to commence this summer; there would need to be prerecorded music for the actors on the set; at the same time that Steven Spielberg will be filming, the Maestro will be working on Star Wars, Episode IX. That makes sense.

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Ready Player One didn't really seem like a film for the maestro, in my opinion. Although it would've benefited from his music.

 

Newman's Bridge of Spies is actually very good. It often sounds very Williams. But JW himself, yes, would've been a lovely asset.

 

EDIT: Just saw the announcement. Interesting choice, but boy was that ever anti-climactic.

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What the...? Immeasurably disappointing. 

 

Get your shit together Spielberg. Williams was the only person who should've arranged and conducted your first (and probably only) musical after decades of procrastination.

 

And stop having long breaks between films at the same time as Williams, then ramping up your schedule again at the same time Williams is busy with Star Wars!

 

At this rate, Randy Newman will score Indiana Jones 5. 

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19 minutes ago, crumbs said:

At this rate, Randy Newman will score Indiana Jones 5. 

 

I know that was a joke, but just for reassurance, it has been known for a while that Indiana Jones 5 is set.

 

https://twitter.com/MovieMantz/status/741091519180869632/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^741091519180869632&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashfilm.com%2Fstar-wars-episode-viii-score%2F

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20 minutes ago, JohnnyD said:

I know that was a joke, but just for reassurance, it has been known for a while that Indiana Jones 5 is set.

 

He was also slated for Ready Player One before dropping out... These days nothing is etched in stone until he puts pencil to paper. 

 

13 minutes ago, Alex said:

Obviously, I would have loved JW to do this, but maybe it is a bit too much. Interested to see what David Newman does.

 

David strikes me as a Williams recommendation anyway, so presumably he was asked and declined for whatever reason (and there's several possibilities). Just so disappointing, if not entirely unexpected.

 

If the project had happened a year earlier, I'd guess Williams would have done it. 

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I don't think people are disappointed in Newman. I think that Williams was the only person keeping interest alive, so when he isn't involved the JW Fan community is taken aback and a certain degree of interest is lost in the project altogether.

 

Personally, I think this is terrible idea for Spielberg to undertake at this point. I am not at all interested in the film. But interestingly enough I'm excited to hear what Newman does. I haven't heard too much from him since Ice Age.

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I'm not at all disappointed by this news. It isn't a project that interests me, either as a movie or as a score. Being realistic, there is probably only a small number of future movies for which JW will compose and arranging someone else's music seems like a waste of that time. I'd rather he spends his energy focusing on Ep9. That is the biggest priority for me.

 

Had Spielberg decided to do Robopocalypse, I definitely would have wanted JW to score that. 

 

After Ep9, who knows. It wouldn't surprise me if he retires from scoring, and I wouldn't be too disappointed with that, but then it would be really nice if his last movie is for Spielberg, perhaps Indy 5.

 

But I don't think I'll be able to fully relax until JW has finished his final recording session for Ep9. Nothing can get in the way of that.

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37 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

If I was John Williams right now, I would've called Steven the minute I heard about the film to tell him that I wouldn't want to do it.

 

Maybe Williams said, "Steven, you're really wasting my twilight years as a film composer directing stuff like this. How about doing something challenging and original for me to score?"

 

 

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3 hours ago, Damien F said:

I'm not at all disappointed by this news. It isn't a project that interests me, either as a movie or as a score. Being realistic, there is probably only a small number of future movies for which JW will compose and arranging someone else's music seems like a waste of that time. I'd rather he spends his energy focusing on Ep9. That is the biggest priority for me.

 

Had Spielberg decided to do Robopocalypse, I definitely would have wanted JW to score that. 

 

 

Robopocalypse - one of the great unmade film's!

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On February 6, 2019 at 12:31 PM, mrbellamy said:

So what are the odds at this point that The Post was the last Spielberg/Williams collab?

You know, I keep saying that I want him to at least hold out for Indy 5, and at best another unannounced Spielberg flick and a second Tintin. Now I realize that Episode IX may very well be, however sad, a perfect Exsultate for the maestro: with the close of the saga comes the close of his magnum opus. It's quite beautiful. Indy 5 seems to always have a later expected release date every time I check. And for Tintin I was thinking the other day that Desplat could probably write a very good sequel score if he had to. 

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4 hours ago, dougie said:

I doubt Indy 5 will ever happen. And if it does, Williams will think twice, Spielberg will move on, and Ford will go "fuck it". They'll probably get the Solo guy Alden Emmerich to play him.

 

Pretty much this. When they threw Koepp's script in the bin (geez, didn't see that coming) and Kasdan's son started from scratch, I knew the project was basically dead in the water. The same thing happened a few years before Indy 4 started shooting when Darabont's script was tossed, except this time I doubt it'll reach fruition.

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The first time I saw Steven Spielberg was in The Blues Brothers. So when I saw the introductory video for the E.T. ride, I was like, "Hey, it's that guy from the end of The Blues Brothers!"

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  • 1 month later...

I just worry that taking a great film musical like this is beyond his ability to make it better

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To cite Pauline Kael's review back from 1961 which seems prophetic in foretelling the problems of adapting that thing for a 2019 audience:

 

Quote

The irony of this hyped-up, slam-bang production is that those involved apparently don't really believe that beauty and romance can be expressed in modern rhythms, because whenever their Romeo and Juliet enter the scene, the dialogue becomes painfully old-fashioned and mawkish, the dancing turns to simpering, sickly romantic ballet, and sugary old stars hover in the sky. When true love enters the film, Bernstein abandons Gershwin and begins to echo Richard Rodgers, Rudolf Friml, and Victor Herbert. There's even a heavenly choir. When Romeo-Tony meets his Juliet- Maria, everything becomes gauzy and dreamy and he murmurs, "Have we met before?" When Tony, floating on the clouds of romance, is asked, "What have you been taking tonight?" he answers, "A trip to the moon." Match that for lyric eloquence!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 2/7/2019 at 5:55 AM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

If I was John Williams right now, I would've called Steven the minute I heard about the film to tell him that I wouldn't want to do it.

 

 

I think Danny Elfman expressed something similar when Tim Burton did Sweeney Todd.

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