Mr. K

Or you could be like me and just ghost for years...

I don't think this is some random comment from JW to appease concert-goers. This isn't the offhand "I'll try" remark. Do you really think nobody has already approached JW about this project? He was GL's most important collaborator, certainly something LFL head Kathy Kennedy understands with all her years producing for Spielberg. I think the odds that JW name is on the contracts is far more likely than Giacchino's. One of the first things they do is assemble their production team- JW would be on the priority list. The job is his, the only factor making the suits at Disney nervous is his age. Unless he is unable to continue due to health or passing, Giacchino is stuck waiting in the wings, at the most will be involved in a "William Ross" capacity. As for JW, the comment sounds like he's very excited to get back in the game and has already talked to GL. Why GL & not JJ? Established personal & professional relationship. As powerful as JJ is, GL is far better choice to reel JW in. Mr. K

I was also born in 1977 and was weaned on a steady diet of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Ghostbusters. John Williams is an inescapable part of being an 80's kid. It's part of the soundtrack of our youth. I suppose that makes one slightly biased by the joy of hearing hints of that glorious era in film scoring (not just from JW, but from Goldsmith & Horner too) in film scores today. When JW does a great action piece like the warehouse chase in KOTCS or the opening scene from ROTS, I'm a kid again. Mr. K

I guess that's what happens when the sound designer is also the film editor- Ken Wannberg had to raise billy hell to get Ben Burtt to give JW's score any notice over Burtt's sound fx.

Dammit, Mark. You made me LOL so hard Pepsi went up my nose! ONDES MARTENOT makes a very weird sound. Elmer Bernstein would use it in some of his latter scores- brilliantly in Ghostbusters. That movie would not have had nearly as creepy a score without that instrument. Mr. K

I still have mine! I love this topic- I'm a kid again! It appears giant space genies are impervious to Imperial attack. The Rebels must find the lamp! Who's gotta Death Star now, bitch? This scene will be included in ESB Extra-Special-Ultimate edition after Kathy Kennedy fjucks up Ep. 7-9.

Jerry Goldsmith did this very frequently. It only bothered me on occassion, like his Supergirl score. If done appropriately and conservatively, it does augment- but it sure stands out when handled poorly. The first Zimmer score that caught my ear was for Backdraft. Great score, until the studio marketing depts. got ahold of it and used it in every action trailer for a time. For me, I think he's very talented but his sound has become oversaturated over the years. He needs to mix it up. It's a trap a lot of composers- good ones- can fall into. Look at James Horner, for instance- what happened there?! Mr. K

The love scene (with the weird bats & red laser fx) from Dracula was damn cheesy to look at, but had one of the maestro's most beautiful pieces. The ballroom scene from Witches of Eastwick was another good one. "Among the Clouds" from Always is also one of his best. So many to choose from! Mr. K

I like Insurrection more than First Contact, but it's not up there with Goldsmith's great scores. However, late Goldsmith had The Mummy and Hollow Man, and those I rank among his first rate scores. Mummy was pretty good. I can't remember Hollow Man though....Kevin Bacon movie, wasn't it? I'll have to give it a listen. Mr. K

the Shat makes everything better.

Now that you mentioned Goldsmith, there is a parallel. Listen to the majestic beauty of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and compare that to the more matured, technically adept- but underwhelmingly less robust scores for his last two Star Trek efforts, Insurrection & Nemesis (which I consider his last complete effort). What we see in current JW is strikingly similar. Both composing titans had a sweeping, flourishing sound some 25-35 years ago- but their latter works just didn't energize with the same bombast like it used to. It seems JW is almost afraid to use crescendo anymore when it was a trademark sound for many of his most successful scores in the years after SW/Jaws. I don't think he ever recovered that same sound since Jurassic. It's like Schindler was a turning point in his scoring style that evoked more in style than substance where technical accuism become a more dominant feature than flair & bombast. The last Indiana Jones and SW prequels could have been a return to his old style, but they just weren't. He's matured past the kind of writing I heard growing up in the '80s. It's okay. I'm still a fan. It's too bad that he doesn't write things like "TIE Fighter Attack (SW:ANH)" "Parade of the Slave Children (IJ:TOD)" "Asteroid Field(SW:ESB)" "Bicycle Chase (ET)" anymore. His writing has evolved beyond that and has become something more than the films they are typically written for. As an artist, I can appreciate that and heartily respect the growth he has achieved...would be artistic stagnation if he hadn't. But as a fan of those great '80s scores- it's kind of disappointing knowing those days are indeed long gone. Mr. K

Should have replied, "No! Try not! Do or do not. There is no try."

Awesome! Can Gertie come out and play?

seriously, though, how many of those black turtlenecks does he have? It is always the same one- a "lucky shirt"? Is it laundered or smell of the sweat of years- indeed decades- of toiled cinematic nectar- like the soft suckle on the bosom of symphonic verisimilitude. Does his wife go to wash it and he yells, "Nooooo! These woven threads mean more to me than your eternal soul, woman!" It belongs in the Smithsonian alongside the original studio model of the Starship Enterprise and Lincoln's Top Hat...or in my house- that would be sweeeeeeeeeeeet. Hans Zimmer doesn't have a lucky black turtleneck, I guaran-damn-tee you. Mr. K

Didn't JW play around with that idea? I don't think this idea even made it to the writing stage, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that he tinkered around with the idea, but GL talked him out of it due to continuity with the other SW movies. Probably read it here WAY BACK when Ricard called the site "starwarsmusic.com"! The scores for the Original Trilogy are so different in tone and style than the prequels. I don't know if it's the maturity in JW's writing or a deliberate pastoral & operatic approach (maybe both), but both trilogies have a significantly different flavor from each other. If he DOES tackle Ep. VII-IX (which not only are we cautiously optimistic, but apparently he is as well), it will be interesting to see if he continues the "prequel" approach or goes back to the more romantic, sweeping style of the OT. Either way, it's some relief that he's at least considering it. Mr. K (Filmmaker) Mr. K -- now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time, a long time. Welcome back, sir. Your insight has been missed. 'Sup, Hlao! I've been ghosting the boards for years, but when this announcement was made I HAD to jump back in. What a shock! I nearly fell out of my seat when I read the news; thought at first it was some sort of prank.

Didn't JW play around with that idea? I don't think this idea even made it to the writing stage, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that he tinkered around with the idea, but GL talked him out of it due to continuity with the other SW movies. Probably read it here WAY BACK when Ricard called the site "starwarsmusic.com"! The scores for the Original Trilogy are so different in tone and style than the prequels. I don't know if it's the maturity in JW's writing or a deliberate pastoral & operatic approach (maybe both), but both trilogies have a significantly different flavor from each other. If he DOES tackle Ep. VII-IX (which not only are we cautiously optimistic, but apparently he is as well), it will be interesting to see if he continues the "prequel" approach or goes back to the more romantic, sweeping style of the OT. Either way, it's some relief that he's at least considering it. Mr. K

The actual production of the "sequel trilogy" will be under the management of Kathleen Kennedy. Hopefully she can fend off any unwanted directions that the studio sends out. She's no lightweight in this industry, I think she can hold them off should their greed take the franchise to a nasty place. I sincerely hope 20th Century Fox can still be retained for distribution, but I doubt it...hard to imagine a SW movie without the Fox Fanfare. The first time I heard Giacchino's work was for the video game "Lost World: Jurassic Park" for Playstation. I still have the soundtrack. It was pretty good and the liner notes talk about his attempt to recreate a John Williams' like sound for the game. It was a good effort. In the short list of composers that are suitable to take the baton from JW, he should be considered. It still pains me to think of a SW movie without JW...just doesn't feel right. If JW takes the assignment and has the energy to complete them, I'd feel a helluva lot better about this new SW thing. Right now, it just makes me nervous. Mr. K

Certainly the idea of the "sequel trilogy" is not new. Some of us old school fans remember an interview Lucas made shortly before ESB was released back in 1980 (in Starlog magazine, I believe) where he announced his intent to film a saga of nine films- three trilogies that span different eras. Of the little things he did say about Ep. 7-9 was that a character that appears in the prequels thought long dead will make a reappearance. There was no other clue as to who he was referring. Although the original story draft of "The Star Wars" said the whole saga was about friggin' Mace Windu...so who knows??? Seems to me George has all of his affairs settled. He's handed leadership of Lucasfilm over to longtime Spielberg #2 Kathleen Kennedy, sold the company to Disney, and has given quite a bit of already worked-out material about what Ep. 7-9 should be to Kennedy & Disney chief Bob Iger to make happen. This could all be very good given the best LFL movies are the ones where George gives a basic storyline and stays out of the way to let others do the work. As a lifelong fan of SW this should make me very excited, but this makes me very nervous. John Williams- how can this francise continue without him? Will he do the sequel trilogy? Does he even want to? The elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about- will he live long enough & have enough energy to do it if he takes it on? There was some trepidation from some film music afficianados that Williams might not be up to the task last year leading up to his score's to Tintin and Warhorse- the excellence of which put most of those worries at ease...but it feels like each of his scores in the last few years burdens the question- has he lost any of his magic? Fortunately, not yet...hopefully never. I for one cannot imagine a Star Wars movie without a JW score. He is as much a required collaborator as Ben Burtt, ILM, or Lucas himself. Still, I cannot imagine a Steven Spielberg movie without JW either. Nothing lasts forever and change sucks. If the "Fountain of Youth" is ever discovered, someone let John Williams have a good long sip. He is simply irreplaceable. Mr. K