Yavar Moradi

I mean, I love lightsabers and Jedi too! I just don't need *all* Star Wars stories to feature lightsabers and Jedi. There are *many different things* which make Star Wars wonderful! Han Solo is many people's favorite character from the original films. Not a Jedi at any point; he's essentially a space cowboy smuggler. (There's also the buddy dynamic with him and Chewbacca.) Of the three main original trilogy characters, only one is (well, becomes) a Jedi. Leia is introduced as a freedom fighter from the beginning and yes we eventually find out she has the Force too (not originally planned, of course), but that's not a defining element of her character as it is for Luke. In many ways Andor seems to be taking up the Leia-in-Episode 4 side of things, with all of the politics included in that too. ("The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this!") I think it's very interesting if some Star Wars stuff is Jedi-free (after all, weren't they supposed to be rare, if not merely legends, at this point?) Maybe this comes from devouring a bunch of extended universe Star Wars books back when I was a teen, but I just loved further explorations into this universe, whether it be Force-related, WAR-related, bounty hunter/smuggler/crime underbelly-related, or what have you. Yavar

It certainly is, but Intrada has also been trying to put out Conan the Destroyer for the past *decade* (or longer...it was shockingly a decade ago that they put out the complete Conan the Barbarian, and before it came out Roger had shared that they had licensed both titles). Of course they could have more than one Poledouris in the works, just like they had more than one Safan (and more than three Horners, lol...) Yavar

That seems very likely. The ~20 minutes previously released hardly felt like it could sustain its own album. Let's wait for a tracklist but I think we should all be prepared for some level of surprise, here. Yavar

Of course, this is all a matter of opinion and you're welcome to yours... but I think that's nonsense. To me all of the prequel films are far more unrecognizable (than the sequel trilogy) as "Star Wars" compared to the original trilogy. In fact, I don't see how they followed at all, from the bits Alec Guinness relayed about the Clone Wars in the original Star Wars. It felt like a completely different universe, to me, and I didn't like it at all. It's funny because, to me, most of the problems with the sequel trilogy actually came from them (really the two Abrams films) trying to be TOO MUCH like the original trilogy, rather than something new (my eyes rolling at the even bigger Death Star in TFA, but also of course the return of Palpatine in TROS). Which is why TLJ is easily, EASILY my favorite of those three. Because it did try to do something new, while still having a lot of the familiar. I don't follow your reasoning on this at all. It was a new trilogy. Each of the three trilogies is pretty independent from the others, IMO, in large part stemming from how they are separated by so much time (both in-story and when they were made). It made sense for the *first* film of the sequel trilogy to be an homage to the original trilogy (though again I think they took it too far). So much time had passed and audiences needed to know "Star Wars is back!" The bad taste of the miserable prequel films needed to be washed away, by a return to the familiar. But the second film of a trilogy is ABSOLUTELY the best, maybe the ONLY time, to do a "shake up" film! (It's not as if it would make sense for the very last film, right?) In fact that's what the original Star Wars trilogy did to great success, with The Empire Strikes Back! If it was going to happen AT ALL, this was the only time it made sense to "kill the past" to some degree. I don't agree that it should have been relegated to a spinoff or TV series; that would have entirely defeated the point and made no sense. Happy to do this exercise with you if you like, but believe me based on MY Star Wars criteria, The Last Jedi wins out and the horrible prequels (and I include Revenge of the Sith in that assessment, absolutely) do not. One of my criteria is having likeable characters I give a damn about. Got that in the sequel trilogy, don't in the prequels... not even for a moment. Actually, taking away the gadgets, women, larger than life villains, martinis, luxury whatever, and seemingly limitless budget... and it can still be fuckin' awesome. Allow me to introduce you to... YMMV, but for me more consistently strong than the Bond series in every way. Most of your list I'd consider liabilities in my enjoying Bond, rather than features. But for the record my favorite Bond film is easily Casino Royale (2006) and before that my favorite was The Living Daylights (1987) so I assume we are coming at this from very different tastes. Your need for the Star Wars universe to be so limited is what would inevitably doom it. Look at the MCU, continually managing to avoid superhero fatigue by giving us *different* approaches with each new project, and making some attempt to keep it fresh (even when it misfires). Jedi/lightsabers were but a small part of the *original* titular Star Wars. Luke didn't even fight with a lightsaber until the very end of the sequel film (and that was just Vader toying with him after he'd had only a little bit of training!) One lightsaber duel per movie is not a war. The original trilogy opening crawls were never about lightsaber duels, but the larger war and political situation in the galaxy! That IS a central part of Star Wars you cannot deny! In the original film Luke was just a decent pilot, who in the very end was able to "let go" and use the force, yes, but he didn't blow up the Death Star with a lightsaber; he used a ship, in an attack run with a bunch of other fighters! That and the earlier key sequence of TIE fighters attacking the Millennium Falcon were obviously inspired by 20th century world war footage. There are *multiple* different components of the universe of Star Wars, and that's great! It doesn't always have to be Jedi and lightsabers; and refusing to explore other nooks and crannies of this cool universe is incredibly short-sighted and would doom the franchise. So yeah, even if the execution isn't always great I'm glad to have something like Andor being introduced to this world... as happy as I was to get an expansion on the world of bounty hunters on the fringe in The Mandalorian (clearly the most successful and widely-beloved piece of live action Disney Star Wars... and the beloved first season didn't have a single Jedi). Maybe it won't be for you, but it will be for many of us. For me it looks like what the horrible prequel films SHOULD have been, if they were going to go for the political intrigue angle (which they tried and failed at miserably). Maybe I'll hate it but I'm going to be cautiously optimistic for now. It certainly LOOKS and FEELS like Star Wars, to me. Yavar

True, but I also prefer A Close Shave over Were-Rabbit. Yavar

Nott wrote and recorded a score for Chicken Run??? I had no idea, if so. Yavar

No way. Curse of the Were-Rabbit is good, but it's not even the best Wallace & Gromit thing. Also it doesn't have John Powell. I'll take the wonderful Chicken Run ANY day, and Mel Gibson for all his faults is WONDERFUL in it. Yavar

I’ll take it. Everybody watch on Hulu (and soon on Disney+)! Let’s make this happen! Don’t let the current best sci-fi show on TV die after only three seasons! Yavar

Yavar

Whoa, nice work! If you ever feel like identifying the missing score cues (where/what they are, how many, or even the length if you're willing) I'd be very interested! Yavar

The opening cue in the movie itself was very horror-sounding, so I doubt it. But if you're referring to what I think you may be referring to, you should know that a previous concert piece by Abels was part of the inspiration for the more "cowboy" aspects of this score... and it's actually apparently the piece by which Jordan Peele discovered Abels in the first place! Pretty badass piece IMO. Yavar

Despite a few minor issues... probably my favorite film (and feature film score) of the year so far. Both are SUPER eclectic... I would describe them as "genre-fluid" (it's a sci-fi/western/horror commentary on Hollywood? but that doesn't even quite cover it...) But wonderful. The finale features the best Morricone western pastiche I've heard since Kundo: Age of the Rampant: I'd be curious which cues Cameron Moody did. Yavar

I noticed Moody’s name as one of three “additional music” composers at the end of Nope when I saw it last night (primary composer: Michael Abels) Yavar

At most, Shore recorded an hour or so of score. No way it would require more than one CD. And why would Intrada only reissue the existing JNH album? Yavar

That's honestly a pretty neat guess. Intrada put out the CD of the original Avengers score (I think with a little bit more music than the digital download version?) And I could well imagine Brian Tyler's work being given 2CDs and Danny Elfman's being given its own due on a single CD. Which one and how would it fit the "two composers" clue? It wasn't; Prometheus had already released the score in the 90s... but the cover looked like this, lol (I'm sure glad Intrada didn't stick this on one side): But Jay's point is well taken: sometimes Intrada will do a flipper cover to include the original album cover as an alternate, but sometimes it's just because there's more than one piece of good art made for the film and they want to feature both options. They've been doing that for years (didn't Flesh + Blood by Poledouris have two cover options?) Yavar

Or it's a case of different scores being used in different territories, like on SPYS/Legend/The Big Blue/bunch of Italian things from the 60s... or it's a case like Last of the Mohicans (or White Fang, right?) where both composers had music used in the film, but they didn't work together in any way so it would make decent sense for their work to be separated into different albums... Yavar

I agree, the score kinda drops off a bit after that sequence (and honestly it's not my favorite music sequence because it's just remixing Williams for the most part). Might be a 4.5/5 score for me due to that, but it's still amazing. Yavar

That's my favorite moment in the entire score too! I wish there were more of it! Yavar

I'm pretty sure An American Pickle (the Seth Rogan movie) was more of a collaboration between the two of them. For Medal of Honor Giacchino contributed just four compositions, some more fleshed out than others (his Juliette's Theme is the best thing he's done in YEARS IMO!) and then Melumad did the entire rest of that incredible score. Yavar

I don't know why people keep going on about "Disney Star Wars". It's not a monolith. Rian Johnson is different from JJ Abrams, and they're both different from the creative team behind The Mandalorian. This is being made by Tony Gilroy, who did Michael Clayton. I guarantee you he's going to handle the political aspect of Star Wars better than ANYONE has ever done before...particularly George Lucas, lol. I agree the First Order/Resistance stuff in the sequel trilogy was a dumb setup and absolutely the wrong approach (blame JJ), but there's no reason to think the politics will be handled as clumsily in Andor, which has a completely different vision and creative team. Yavar

He's quite good! Sometimes B5 ends up with terrible guest actors, but other times they really score. This guy should be familiar to sci-fi fans... he was in Doctor Who... he was the Vulcan Science Minister, a small role in Star Trek (2009). He was memorable in an episode each of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: The Next Generation... and most significantly, I suppose, he was the Klingon commander of the Rura Penthe prison camp in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I occasionally see him on an episode of TV and he always commands the screen even in a small guest role. He passed away in 2019 though. Oh she's gonna grow on you a LOT more, believe me. I think she may be my favorite character on the series... human character, at least. Dunno if I'd go THAT far... there's some much better J. Michael Straczynski writing as the series goes on. So if you're thinking it's "next-level" already, buckle your seatbelt. This is truly a writer's show. Yeah, there's an orchestra but I think it only numbered in the 20s or so, and was substantially augmented with synths to say the least. You'll notice more of an acoustic sound emerging from time to time as the series goes on. I'll be surprised if you don't detect an orchestra by the end of season 3. I love all of the Babylon 5 openings... particularly Ivanova's opening monologue for season 3. (But don't go and watch that in advance! It contains spoilers!) I'd probably rank them: 3, 5, 4, 1, 2. Really cool how each season gets a different opening sequence and monologue. Yavar

SEE THE FIRST MOVIE! It's quite arguably the best DCEU movie. It's wonderful. Yavar

Just over half the score is unreleased. (I have a film rip which runs under 62 minutes, while the original album's score portion runs under 30.) That said, I can honestly tell you as a huge Poledouris fan: the unreleased music is nothing to write home about. Practically every highlight is on the original album, and the unreleased stuff, although there are a few nice bits, is mostly not of great interest (most isn't orchestral, but is slight variations on the dated synthy friendship material). This is a rare Poledouris score that to me would not play stronger in complete form, even if I'd certainly buy an expansion and there might be a few more cues I'd add in to my playlist. Now... I *also* have a complete film rip of the Poledouris score for Free Willy 2...it runs almost 65 minutes. And every note of it is fantastic. It takes the themes of the original score and builds on them with interesting new developments. It introduces a few new themes and integrates and develops them perfectly with the older material. It is sweeping, epic orchestral ocean-y music, with some neat new organic elements like acoustic guitar and less of a synthy feel. Seriously, every cue is wonderful and all that's been released of this amazing score is a paltry 10.5 minutes (three cues) on the original soundtrack album. The Free Willy scores on either side of it have had almost 3x as much music released, but this is the best of the three scores hands down! So that's what you should be pining after, trust me. If it ever comes out people will be blown away. IMO it's the most important Poledouris, expansion or premiere, that could be released at this point. Yavar

Thanks so much @lairdo for the positive feedback – I passed it on to Leigh! It certainly looks like it will be the first of (hopefully) many, assuming the continue to be as successful as the first campaign was. For anyone interested, this has also been getting a lot of positive feedback on the FSM board thread... https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=147544&forumID=1&archive=0&pageID=3&r=978#bottom Martin B.: chriss: SchiffyM (x3): Joe Sikoryak: Basil Wrathbone: Saul Pincus: simon377: moolik: mark.bagby.19 So if you aren't sure about these admittedly-obscure Goldsmith works, check out that podcast episode linked above and give the samples a shot. You’ll likely feel renewed impetus to pick these up when they're given wide download release in a few weeks... Yavar

No need to trash one good show to prop up the other. Yavar