Muad'Dib

it's quite long, but if you really want a COMPLETE answer to your question, its there.

FUCK YOU, TOLKIEN!

Embed for ya'll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4xYgWKTEg

This is something that happens virtually in every message board after a long time, mainly because the people who post more frequently start to get used to each other and to the respective POVs about most of the topics in discussion, especially in cases of very specific, niche-like subjects like film scores. It's part of the game, I guess, and the reason why many people in the end feel more comfortable in some boards than others.
However, that's also a sign that more often than not the subject of the discussions themselves probably arrived at a dead point. I mean, how long we can discuss perspectives, ideas and point of views about a certain topic, especially a very specific one (like, say, the aesthetic of Hans Zimmer's music or Williams' current style or complete & chronological release vs. album presentation, etc.) after years and years of debate and confrontation? The repetition of the very same concepts and threads is certainly something that speaks more about people's passion for a certain argument than the validity of the argument itself. I mean, we're not UN ambassadors talking about how keeping peace between countries (it's a stretch, I know, but take it as the ultimate example). Certain topics have only a delimited area of discussion that, after a certain amount of time, arrive at its natural end.
That's not to say people cannot nor shouldn't discuss any of those topics--this is a message board after all! But the insistence on certain arguments and the fact that, like you pointed, the subject changes rapidly from "what we're discussing" to "how we're discussing it" is likely a sign that we maybe prefer contributing because we want mainly our voice to be heard, we want to see our opinion valued and appreciated by other fellow members so that we can feel more at ease with our own point of view on certain things. At the very end, we will have always the evergreen "It's all personal taste, you know!" argument on our side, which is usually the killer of any good exchange of POVs. Because let's be frank: what we probably care the most is our own personal opinion about certain things.
I know, this very post is an example of what I just said, but actually this is the reason why I don't post much here nor any other board. I still prefer the "what" than the "how", in this very case. And that's usually much easier and funnier to do in real life conversation than in virtual places. I'd love to see more people getting engaged into speaking WHY they LOVE something instead of getting into pointless bickering about the same old things all the time and getting defensive about certain things or offensive about others. I'm not talking about personal attacks of course, those are simply a sign of disrespect and incivility.

Agreed, very fine
Yet here you are on a film music message board! Music should be all kinds of things, not just calm and noble. Bach recognized that.

I made a mockup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ezZ791ExZI
Beautiful!

It took me almost two years to get this out of my head an into my computer, but I've finally managed to assemble a little concert arrangement based on Tintin's theme:
http://soundcloud.com/chrisafonso/tintins-theme-arrangement
It mostly consists of Williams' original theme and secondary "sneaking" theme, which I extended a bit. And to make King Mark happy, I applied a bit of a Raiders March feel to the beginning.
It's relatively short, unlike the more fleshed out suites Homeboy and especially Skystalker already created, but I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless

Randy Kerber, piano soloist on The Book Thief at Fox in LA
pic.twitter.com/EkmcXScKzf

Another comment, not much but still nice:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/the-book-thief-review-roundup

That would be fantastic! A deserved nom and win, in my opinion.

Does Enders Game have a wooden chair.

I'm so sorry, I just couldn't resist...

I may be lagging way behind here, but here's an on-camera interview with Steven Spielberg and John Williams that I'd not seen before. Scroll through to about 1 hour and 13 minutes to see them chatting together. However, the whole programme is really worth watching.

JC

I don't know how you guys keep complaining about the length... I just watched it for a second time and the time flew by as the first time. It felt more like an hour and a half than three hours.

The White Ribbon (2009)
What an absolutely fascinating film. I was enthralled by the very first shots all the way to the end, I don't think my attention dropped even for one second. I was really fascinated by how real it could become, how sincere it felt. My favorite moment probably was when the kid is talking to her sister about death, damn, this film in general made me think so much of when I was younger, my views of the adult world. Not that I experienced any abuse nearly as terrible as the kids on the movie -and at the time- had to go through, but how adults seemed to be so hypocrital. Of course, as you grow up you learn that nothing is black and white as you thought when you were a kid...
But back to the movie, I felt it was everything Days of Heaven should have been. Whereas Malick treated some of the same subjects in his more uninvolved way, here the film takes responsibilty for its topics. The cinematography was gorgeous -although some of the CGI generated stuff could put me off at times-, the acting was tremendous (those kids, damn!) and the lack of score gave the movie an eerie feeling, almost surreal. It's not a film for everyone, but if you go with an open mind you're in for a wonderful surprise. Can't wait to explore more of Haneke's philmography.
9/10

Well, I finally watched it yesterday and I can honestly say -as expected- that I loved this film. It felt like I was watching a more modern version of fantasy classics like Willow, The Dark Crystal or even The Secret of NIMH.... It kept me smiling during the whole thing, and the three hours just flew away, except during an instance during the middle of the film, don't remember where exactly, that I felt it was a little longer than it should, but it was for a couple of seconds, then I got submersed into the Middle Earth world again, and gave me a sense of childlike wonder that I haven't felt in modern cinema in a very long time.
Having said that, the film has its flaws. Mostly in terms of editing. The LOTR trilogy has the exact same problem, being that none of the shots last for even a couple of seconds before cutting away to the next shot, and the next and so on.... There were some gorgeous shots in this film, but they never lasted enough! I don't know why so many films have this problem, so to speak, of having so many shots and different angles instead of longer and more interesting takes, like Tarkovsky would have done for example. Buy maybe I'm sounding like a hipster, so I'll shut up
There was one particular sequence, when Gandalf first appears in the Goblin lands, there was one shot that literally lasted one second! It just felt like amateur editing, and it really surprised me... Something similar happened during the scene where the gang climbed on the trees to escape from the Orcs, but I can't remember exactly.... I'll definetly watch it again to revise. (There were some sped-up scenes that bothered me too)
As everyone said, the Gollum scene was absolutely brilliant! The definite highlight of the film, and it's interesting how they brought the "cutesy" side of him, as I remember that in the book it was more of a creepy scene and here it's both creepy and kinda funny...
Funny. There's another word for this film. It was definetly funny. I wasn't expecting on laughing and just enoying it so much, but it really worked, but that's just me, I'm a sucker for lighthearted adventure.
The prologue was absolutely jaw-dropping. I don't know if working with Spielberg was any influence, but the way Smaug was presented and the continuous shot until the camera captures his eye reminded me a lot of something between Jaws and Jurassic Park, specially for having that final scene unscored. Come on, that's totally JP.
I'm really glad they kept him this way, and I hope they do it as long as possible. I was really surprised by the colour of his skin, I felt that was something very original, and from what we saw from his face I think he will look very much like the John Howe version.
It was great to have a villain in a film like this that has a lot of build up before actually appearing. It makes it much more frightening, and reminded me of Shere Khan.
I didn't like the Stone Giants much, but I did love the Trolls. At times, they seemed like a homage to The Three Stooges
Martin Freeman was absolutely BRILLIANT in this. Seriously, he was a much more interesting lead than Elijah Wood as Frodo, and I think that he is a much better actor than Wood. I hope he gets some award attention, he definetly deserves it.
Some people raised the question that he's not the main character, and it definetly feels so. I didn't feel much for Thorin, in fact I was expecting him to die, but I do think that Bilbo will be become more important as the films progress.
Also, Silvester McCoy as Radagast was phenomenal. I don't know if I liked his character or not because he had very little screentime, but the performance McCoy put was an absolute wonder to look at. The voices he could pull off, the expressions, the work with the body and the hands. That was some seriously perfect acting on his part. He must have had a blast while doing this.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and I will be definetly watching it again, but have in mind that I probably liked it because while I like the original trilogy, it's not a holy grail for me, so take my opinion as you will.
8/10
PS: There's a funny story as why I watched it particularly yesterday. I was planning on seeing in a couple of days with some friends, but all of the sudden my brother kicked me out of the house because he was bringing a girl over, so as I had no idea what to do or where to go, I decided "Ah, what the hell! I'll go watch The Hobbit. My brother fucks, I watch a good movie. Everybody wins". And so I did. It was kinda like Thorin and company arriving at Bilbo's house

A recent Variety article states that Jurassic Park 4, as several big tentpole franchises from Universal, is being given the greenlight to shoot next year. Additionally, former WB co-financer Legendary Pictures is eyeing this film as one of its first co-productions with the studio.
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/dracula-legendary-universal-pictures-1200589201/

Starting at 12:11
Here's the actual cameo, for those who haven't seen it:

From the BSO Facebook page:

I just saw this on the Facebook page of JoAnn Kane Musice Service.

Proofing John Williams' sketches for his latest movie project, "The Book Thief".


There's little doubt that's his handwriting.

what a pathetic waste of life.