PRESS RELEASE:
ESPN’s Creative Content Unit Scores With CFP National Championship Open, Collaboration With Legendary Composer John Williams
Co-director and producer Martin Khodabakhshian says of the 52-time Oscar-nominated musical wizard: “John Williams doesn’t miss.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Tonight’s College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T (7:30 ET, ESPN) represents the pinnacle of the season.
A game of this magnitude requires an opening for the ages, and ESPN’s Creative Content Unit has delivered just that with an original score from celebrated composer John Williams.
Titled “Of Grit And Glory,” the anthem is “magical, hopeful and powerful,” according to co-director and producer Martin Khodabakhshian.
“‘Star Wars,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Indiana Jones’ . . . John Williams is a genius,” Khodabakhshian said. “On the cusp of the release of ‘Indiana Jones 5,’ he wrote us an original composition, and it’s a big score. It’s like he took the best pieces of all his scores and did something special for ESPN.
“We’re going to try to make some people cry at the end of this thing. I can’t oversell it. It’s beautiful. It’s amazing. [This process] was one of the most extraordinary experiences I’ve ever had and a highlight of my career.”
VARIETY ARTICLE:
Legendary composer John Williams has written an original theme for ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Championship, airing at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Monday night prior to the TCU-Georgia game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
Titled “Of Grit and Glory,” it runs three and a half minutes and will score a specially created series of visuals that convey “the feeling behind the night, fear and anticipation, triumph and failure,” ESPN co-director and producer Martin Khodabakhshian tells Variety.
Williams’ new music – previewed for Variety late Thursday – plays like a joyful overture, opening with fanfares and shifting seamlessly from martial urgency to anthemic splendor, all richly orchestrated and instantly memorable.