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The Chicago Symphony just posted 4 videos from this concert. This was also the concert where Williams premiered Of Grit and Glory, so here's hoping they upload that as well.

Yes. I think this is something I'm really appreciating in this score. Even in the original JP score, Williams only rolls out the BIG tunes in full (main theme & adventure theme) 2-4ish times. It's one of Williams' more sonically diverse scores, taking you on a journey through horrific, wonderful, mysterious, light-hearted, techno-thriller, and pensive moments.* It's a miracle and testament to Williams' skill that all those disparate elements tied together so beautifully. Gia tried to adhere to that model for the first World score, and I think Desplat wisely followed suit. Rebirth is a great score for me. And I'm loving it more and more. *And then along comes Williams with The Lost World - a snarling/gritty/mean/jungle-drummy blast that blows away his own template. "Out of the way, 'My Friend The Brachiosaurus!' Here comes 'The Hunt'!" Man, what a score!

If 15 years ago someone had told me that: 1) I'd be longing for the Tyler Bates/James Gunn collaboration to continue, and 2) the Williams Superman theme would be used in a new Superman movie, but I would be longing for the days of John Ottman's (less) dumbing down of it... Yavar

What makes you think it was different in the past ? Imagine Disney going to Poledouris end of the year 1990 (White Fang), with his whole score completed, and be like "well, it's not working", then hiring Hans and giving him 10 days to rewrite an entire score... Only to tell him that it's not exactly working either and "well screw it, we'll use both..." It's work for hire, it's always been like that (Hollywood was just much less open to let the info out in the past). You'll give me examples of some strong "composer/director" relationships that can make studios & producers look small, (Williams / Spielberg... Zimmer / Villeneuve... Elfman / Burton) but that's never been the norm and probably never will be. You're Dave Fleming, when a studio calls you like "the previous composer's score isn't entirely working, we need something else. Are you in ? PS : we're recording in 3 weeks", well, you try your best to deliver to the client.

I don't know, I still find this reasoning borderline fallacious, especially the comparisons you made in the first paragraph. Some film composers were extremely lucky to write music for films that defined the zeitgeist and they were certainly able to come up with memorable themes, but that's more a lucky accident than something that relies on talent or skill to composer beautiful melodies and powerful themes. I very much believe Desplat has showed a rare skill as a writer of beautiful themes time and again. Anyone who is capable to compose stirring melodies like "Griet's Theme" from The Girl with the Pearl Earring, "Benjamin and Daisy" from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, "Wong Chia Chi's Theme" from Lust, Caution, "Kitty's Theme" from The Painted Veil, or "You'll Never Know" from The Shape of Water is truly someone who has a rare gift for melodic writing. Even if none of these are huge box office hits, but more like renowned arthouse dramas, Desplat can be proud of having a good track record of themes that cannot be easily dismissed. Perhaps the occasions where he wrote something that went close to zeitgeist-level were "Lily's Theme" from Harry Potter and "The Meadow" for Twilight: New Moon, at least judging by the covers made by amateur musicians on YouTube, but these are two huge franchises of course. Why Hollywood doesn't look for him to do more blockbuster assignments? Who knows? Some producers may prefer the traditional Zimmer blockbuster sound that still predominates many of the tentpoles. Others may just have prejudices based on typecasting very much similarly to what you're positing ("Oh, he's the guy who wrote music for those artsy fartsy Oscar baiting dramas, who needs him?"), but more than anything else it's all related to ongoing relationships and how loyal people are to each other, as Gareth Edwards has been in this Jurassic World circumstance. Why Desplat didn't write his own big zeitgeist tune for this occasion then? Well, I guess it's very hard to come up with something bold when one of the key points of the brief is "use the iconic John Williams themes that everyone knows and love." I think Desplat did a fairly good job theme-wise, despite none of the motifs for this film will be something that people will whistle 20 years from now when taking a shower.

I can assure you that once you watch the film, you will realize that there is no plot.

Alexandre Desplat discusses composer hero John Williams ahead of Hollywood Bowl show

I have no medical training, but I have to repeat others: eyes don't lie. I mean, look closely at this eyes... And did anyone take the trouble to take a close look at his hand and mouth? I'm deeply concerned, but wish him all the best of course. On the other hand, Jennifer, Joseph, and John himself look just fantastic.

The credits go like this : 01 - Home David Fleming (John Williams) 02 - Last Son David Fleming (John Williams) 03 - Hammer Of Boravia David Fleming, Andrew Kawczynski, Forest Christenson 04 - LuthorCorp John Murphy, Molly Murphy 05 - The Daily Planet David Fleming 06 - Lois & Clark John Murphy 07 - Eyes Up Here David Fleming (John Williams) 08 - Justice Gang vs. Kaiju David Fleming (John Williams) 09 - Intruders John Murphy, David Fleming, Andrew Kawczynski, Halli Cauthery, Forest Christenson 10 - The Message John Murphy, David Fleming, Halli Cauthery, Jake Boring 11 - Secret Harem John Murphy, David Fleming, Tyler Barton, Andrew Kawczynski 12 - The Real Punk Rock John Murphy 13 - Pocket Universe David Fleming 15 - Something Like A Sun John Murphy, David Fleming, Jake Boring (John Williams) 16 - Jailbreak John Murphy, David Fleming (John Williams) 17 - The River Of Pi David Fleming, Forest Christenson (John Williams) 18 - Take The T-Craft John Murphy, David Fleming, Halli Cauthery 19 - Your Choices, You Actions David Fleming (John Williams) 20 - Raising The Flag John Murphy (John Williams) 21 - The Rift John Murphy, David Fleming, Forest Christenson, Jake Boring (John Williams) 22 - Bases Loaded John Murphy, David Fleming, Andrew Kawczynski 23 - Speeding Bullet David Fleming, Forest Christenson 24 - Remote Control John Murphy, David Fleming, Andrew Kawczynski, Forest Christenson (John Williams) 25 - Upgrade John Murphy, David Fleming, Andrew Kawczynski 26 - Driven By Envy John Murphy, David Fleming 27 - Look Up David Fleming (John Williams) 28 - Being Human David Fleming, Halli Cauthery (John Williams) 29 - Luthor The Traitor John Murphy 30 - Metropolis John Murphy, David Fleming 31 - Walking On Air John Murphy

Do you guys think YouTube guys have a gallery of preexisting stupid fucking faces that they select from for these things, or do they do a new, custom stupid fucking face for every video?

I still think Zimmer's theme for Superman was actually quite good and very effective. And he gets extra props from steering away from Williams' approach. The themes written for Lois & Clark and The Animated Series, as good as they are, are clearly cast from the same mold and inspired by Williams' theme. Zimmer really did his own thing. And I find his theme particularly good in light of the huge musical shadow cast by Williams, which is as a definitive musical depiction of an icon as they come. It's my favorite element from Man of Steel, actually.

TWICE THE PRIDE, DOUBLE THE FALL!

The entire process of scoring modern films is such a sad, pathetic joke.

I've listened to parts of the album and the main thing going through my head now is: It all sounds like the music for the trailers and the way Williams' theme is used just doesn't feel right. On the one hand it's cool that a film in 2025 uses a theme that was created over 40 years ago. But it's the way it's used. None of the heroism or same feelings of Williams' theme are present. It more feels like they thought "heeey, here is this theme let's just use it" without ever thinking about why Williams' theme is so iconic. And how to properly use it in a way that retains the things the music says about the character. To me, it just feels like very little thought went into it to be honest.

Thanks for considering this! When I asked OUP about it, though, they said it doesn't make a difference.

While the names you mention are more talented than most, I am pretty sure most composers in Hollywood can finish a score solo. Some might struggle with a certain music style, but I am pretty sure they are very capable. Marco Beltrami has had multiple assistant composers working for him through decades. Is he not capable of writing an entire score? The guy went to Yale School of Music and USC Thornton and studied under Jerry Goldsmith. I am pretty sure he can. Bear McCreary studied under Elmer Bernstein and worked with multiple assistant composers. What are the odds he can't write his own score? At this level, you are talking about potentially millions of dollars in salary. Most likely if you are composing for a mainstream film, you already demonstrated your expertise. Pinar Toprak said she had to spent thousands of dollars of her own savings to hire an orchestra for a demo just to prove to Marvel she can command an orchestra of the size. Also, we know time constraints is an issue. This has been reported before by film industry insiders, so it is not like we are speculating. Lastly, no composer just walks into the room with assistants handed to them. People have to want to work for you. Junkie XL had the fame, the money, and the Zimmer connection, and he lost his entire team due to disputes. Is it that much of a mystery why film music production team exists? Beyond the time constraints, reshoots, tackling different music styles, there is also market domination. If you are tackling your projects solo, and the guy next door has a army, who do you think could produce more scores? It is not rocket science. I don't think Zimmer would be going on a 3 months long concert tour with six BBC documentaries in the pipeline, along with 3 TV shows, and 4 movies if he was writing by himself. No matter how much or lack of talent he has.

To be fair, Jerry Goldsmith also asked his son to write some cues for First Contact.

Not to spoil anything, but here’s what some other A-holes think about this movie.

Well, yes... and also no. It's true that film scoring has always been a collaborative artform that only rarely stands on the shoulders of one single individual, but the current methodologies haven't always been the norm. Not every single blockbuster score coming from Hollywood in the past needed 15 composers in order to be delivered, nor did every composer had to demo every single cue beforehand and rework it and reconform it constantly because the film kept changing. Some have compared the Media Ventures/Remote Control approach to what was done by Music Departments of the studios in the heydays, but I don't think it's an accurate or fair comparison. It's really another world today. Digital filmmaking overhauled the scoring process from the ground up. I know we tend to romanticize the past and look at it with rose-colored glasses, but there was a time when it was possible to write music for big tentpole films with integrity and it also used to be a platform that allowed composers use their full creativity and imagination. I don't think the same can be said about today. Mind you, I'm specifically talking about big studio films made in Hollywood. I'm very well aware there are other outlets that still allow for creativity. That being said, one perhaps should not worry too much about how the sausage is made and just eat the sausage. If this new Superman sausage tastes good or not, I'll let others comment on it.

What a mess!

For some reason the algorithm people love that pulling funny faces thing. It's some sort of YouTube humiliation ritual.

A lot of the score sounds like Non Copyrighted trailer Music. I really enjoyed Murphy's Guardians 3 score (especially the emotional/tender cues). Hopefully the score works better in the film

Just wait until they pull out the guitar albums!

I just hope Taylor White isn’t the publisher for this book….

Saw Elio in theater this past weekend (a bit of a double-bill as it followed the new Jurassic World) and thought it was an absolutely fantastic and wonderful film with a perfect accompanying score, the first time in a while I can remember tearing up in theater! What I would liken it to most is sort of a spiritual successor to the original Lilo & Stitch. This is my favorite Pixar film (and Pixar score) in many years and it's a real shame it hasn't been doing well at the box office because I guess people don't know what it is. Lots of great 80s Goldsmith touches I heard throughout the score. Yavar

Can we stop with the silly name calling? It was almost funny once but now it’s just pathetic.

I met William Shatner over the weekend, who's 94. The man is a force who just keeps going, and was the last guest to leave the convention, after the others had retired to their comfy hotel rooms. He's also sharp as a tack... He added to my autograph: "Boldly go!" And because the convention was ending, quipped: "You can boldly go out the front door. Thank you for coming." The difference between him and Williams may just be that he hasn't gone through an acute and lengthy illness recently. More than his age, I think that's to blame for the Maestro's current appearance.

"The Williams Family" https://www.instagram.com/p/DLye6CrRrYa/

I just watched the film and was reserving my full judgement of the score until I had watched it. The sound mix in my theatre was fine, so I was able to hear most of the score pretty well, but where it really shines is in the big Williams quotes at the end of Natural History Museum, Dino Spectacle and Sailing Away, and of course Boat Chase and Crossing the River/T-Rex. These two set pieces were the standouts, and particularly the boat chase is so well scored and the music plays at the forefront allowing Desplat to shine. It's true that his themes are a bit obscure, and it takes several listens to properly grasp them all. Also, it doesn't help that some of them are very sparsely used, like the cute Dolores theme. There's also supposed to be a theme for Jonathan Bailey's character, Loomis, which he played himself on the oboe in the teack Dino Lovers if I'm correct, but I haven't been able to pick anything that resembles a theme for the character, and I think the Expedition Theme as @hp_gof called it, also acts as a theme for Loomis on a few occasions in the film. After several listens prior to watching the film I was able to appreciate it more in context, and I think it's a solid score, and Desplat has the chance to build and develop all his themes and motifs in the inevitable sequels, which could actually clarify their meaning and make for a more rounded narrative. It's not a perfect score and I personally enjoy Giacchino's efforts a bit more because I really like his themes, bit Desplat did a great job of bringing his own style into the franchise.

Yavar

Are those movies where you get free rum drinks at the door?

Cool, we get a kinda variation on the "all-dead" narrative: AD: To me, he’s [JW] always been the maestro. The only other maestro that I cherished was Nino Rota, I mean, at that level, and my two French predecessors, Maurice Jarre and George Delerue. So he’s in that league, except that he is still alive and all the other ones are gone.

Was reminded of this... (That crooked contact lens still makes my OCD itch...)

Premieres October 8th at the London Film Festival https://deadline.com/2025/07/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery-open-london-festival-1236452831/

I agree with you on most points, @Maurizio. I argue, however, that although composing is a collaborative art form, it invariably does rest on one pair of shoulders: the credited composer. Vary rarely did JW, or Barry, or Morricone, or Jerry (FIRST CONTACT being a notable exception) share composer credit. Why? They didn't need to. They were talented enough to compose all the music heard in a film. Perhaps this "composing by committee" is not so much due to time constraints, and reshoots, but because the hired composers are not up to the job.

To be fair, there is this one:

Yeah, I don't know if it's the change in composers, or Gunn's musical preference, but after a full listen, I only found myself interested in some of Williams' interpolations and even then, not all of them work. I like some of the heroic arrangements like in the first two tracks and I like the fact that Fleming takes different parts of the original theme, but as @tomsmoviemadness they all sound like the trailerized versions, being EPIC but not much more. It also doesn't help the fact that none pf the secondary themes were particularly memorable or original either. Clark & Lois' theme sounds like Zimmer's Man of Steel as mentioned above, and Luthor' theme constantly reminded me of a lesser version of McCreary' theme for the Aesir Gods from GoE Ragnarok. I'm not trying to be completely negative, and I did enjoy some of the arrangements and variations on the themes, like the rendition of the love theme in Walking in the Air, but overall it's a bit of a disappointment, and I think Zimmer and co in MoS, BvS and Snyder's Justice League at least were able to do something that stands out a bit, and resonated with me. There is not one track in this score that's as exciting as Flight from Man of Steel.

Gareth says in the interview that at first they used "too much" Williams as a temp track, then added more Herrmann to make it scarier. And you can tell he's happy with the variety in the score, that it’s not just one main theme repeated a million times. https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0FYT7JF9n/

There was rumors (around December/January) that John Murphy was struggling with the action set pieces, but Gunn shot those rumors down and said that he already wrote 90% of the score before the movie was shot. Then Fleming(and his team) was hired in February (announced around april) to write "Additional Music Only" at first then his role grew bigger because of the "reshoots" (even though they only had reshoots for like 2 weeks)

I mean, it's not that I have a rule "no floating heads in the poster." But there's just a way of rendering that which is more artistic and less run-of-the-mill. As I said before these are very good: One of the better things to come out of the new 4K remaster is the new covers for each film, as well:

Quality post right here. 👆

Superman 2025

Amazon UK/France/Italy/Germany and JPC still list 2025-07-18 as the release date, so maybe it's just the US release that's been delayed (or they're just slow to update). Meanwhile Sony Masterworks seems to think Born on the Fourth of July and Always are the selling point for this set, based on their most recent Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/SonyMasterworks/posts/pfbid02D82oeoMe1r8DDMvB95f4jAwZRBgifgzpkgRZYGBpn9AXUDVsHUTHsiREiXcpzyHol

We worked on a massive Steiner score but the book is part of a larger project that has been in limbo. We wanted to publish some Alfred Newman scores, but Newman repertoire is on hold at the moment for reasons we hope to clarify in the near future. In time, Neumation will cover a lot of ground with the Golden Age.

Fixed!

Ok, once again: And let's repeat, this time in French:

I listened to samples of John Murphy's new Superman score. It does what it needs to. And if I end up liking the film, I'm sure I'll want to come around on that score too. But, it was just a stark reminder to me how much of a dying art (mostly) acoustic orchestral film scoring is in Hollywood. What a tiny miracle Desplat didn't get replaced by more "studio friendly" RCP-type music. I've had to work at appreciating this one. But you know what? It's becoming my surprise score of the summer. Kind of my "Rosetta Stone" for deciphering Desplat's other music. I'm appreciating his musical personality a bit more. I think I'll can go back and revisit his Godzilla and Golden Compass scores ... again. They might take the same amount of work. But I'd rather like things than not like things.

Probably explains the lack of glasses too. He did not have surgery or anything. He could just no longer bear to look.

#2.25 ESB (1980) - 7m2 Attack Position (Wook link)

Another picture from Mark Williams' Facebook: