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John Williams to Score Kobe Bryant short film "Dear Basketball"


pete

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Link to "Dear Basketball" poem.

 

Quote from Bryant on the project:

 

Quote

“’Dear Basketball’ is the perfect tribute to something I’ve loved for so long. Glen and John are two legends in their industries, so to partner with them on the creative process is a dream come true."

 

Funny how Johnny had never scored a Disney film before, now in the space of a year he'll have had two back-to-back plus this cartoon by a high-profile Disney animator :P

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This is awesome and so very random! I love how random Kobe Bryant being a Williams fanboy is! :D

 

To think Williams is collaborating with him on an animation about his retirement is about as unexpected as news gets on JWFan.

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2 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

Funny how Johnny had never scored a Disney film before, now in the space of a year he'll have had two back-to-back plus this cartoon by a high-profile Disney animator :P

 

The Mouse always wins in the end.

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7 hours ago, Thor said:

While not exactly a feature film surprise a la THE BOOK THIEF to look forward to, this certainly came out of nowhere.

 

Williams is good with these little "sports ditties" (be it the Sunday Night Football theme or the Olympic themes), so it should be good.

 

Yeah, I'm getting Olympics/American Journey vibes from the poem. Sentimental Americana bookending a rousing middle section probably. The countdown ending could be neat if he goes big with that.

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This is the weirdest JW project ever but I'm really excited for it. JW scoring a short, animated film-thing with some poetry about basketball is just crazy interesting to me. I would never have imagined that JW would be writing music/a motif for Kobe Bryant. Kobe's gonna have his own JW theme!

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21 hours ago, pete said:

I thought this might have been fake it's just such an unexpected collaboration^

 

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/kobe-bryant-animated-film-dear-basketball-john-williams-050516

 

 

 

I'm more curious about why Kobe Bryant has a office?

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This is so cool! For anyone interested, Glen Keane was the main animator of the titular character in Disney's Tarzan, where they incorporated lots of basketball moves into the son of man, as well as some skateboarder moves, so this should be a piece of cake fror Glen. He also directed this little gem recently, so at least visually it should be quite inspiring for our Johnny:

 

 

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On 5/5/2016 at 11:15 AM, pete said:

Williams to Score Kobe Bryant Basketball Animation...

 

Anybody else think this is just about the strangest piece of Williams-related news to happen in the history of this site?

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33 minutes ago, E.T. and Elliot said:

I'm Kobe.

 

Nice!  What did you listen to before your last game where you put down 60!!

 

Also, thoughts on the Desert Truck Chase concord edit?????

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3 hours ago, Jay said:

Anybody else think this is just about the strangest piece of Williams-related news to happen in the history of this site?

I still think that The Book Thief scoring assignment was more strange.  It just kind of came out of nowhere at a time when it seemed that Williams only worked with Spielberg (and whoever directs a Star Wars movie).  Given Kobe Bryant's known Williams fandom and Williams' appreciation for sports in general (Fenfare for Fenway, the Olympic pieces, Sunday Night Football) it doesn't really surprise me.  

 

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THE BOOK THIEF was bigger because it was a FULL feature film score. This is a short film score, and in most likelihood a fanfaric piece, slightly developped for onscreen action (like THE UNFINISHED JOURNEY).

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John please don't work with the rapist. 

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And the movie never made. Now he only needs to write for Tiger Woods and Bill Cosby to complete his trilogy of dubious black celebs graced by the papal Williams blessing.

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On 5/6/2016 at 8:43 AM, Bellosh said:

 

Nice!  What did you listen to before your last game where you put down 60!!

 

Also, thoughts on the Desert Truck Chase concord edit?????

 

I mostly prefer OST albums to expanded or complete/chronological scores, you know what I'm saying? I love me some clunky analog edits such as the OST version of Desert Chase. Before my last game, I listened to the ROTJ OST. It's a definitive soundtrack album. John brutally edited a 2 hour score down to a furious 42 minute program, retaining every major musical idea. You can't say it isn't a perfect representation of the score. I think I'll go listen to it right now on the way to the golf course with Bill Murray.

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:joy:

 

This news certainly brightened my Thursday. So awesome to have something totally out-of-the-blue like this. Sure, it's only a short film, but I feel that if Williams takes a non-Spielberg or Star Wars project at this point, he must be really inspired by it. And sports have produced some of his best pieces ever (including the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, which was actually the first Williams piece I ever heard, my introduction to the man would become my favorite composer). Can't wait for this.... and in the meantime we'll have The BFG to enjoy and dissect. 

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On 5/5/2016 at 5:47 PM, aviazn said:

Wow, Google shows Kobe's never been shy about his JW fandom. The real question is IS HE ON JWFAN??

I thought mhhhh maybe this guy...

On 6/5/2016 at 6:59 AM, Bryant Burnette said:

I've given neither a shit nor a fuck about Kobe Bryant until now.  I still mostly don't.

But it seems not... :P

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On Saturday, May 07, 2016 at 2:10 AM, Stefancos said:

 

Unofficially, that was never confirmed!

It was not prosecuted because he paid her 4 + millions of dollars and she refused to testify. He's slime.

He paid his wife more to forgive him.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Entering Hollywood, Kobe Bryant gets advice from Spielberg

 

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) Kobe Bryant is getting advice from Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Jerry Bruckheimer as he redirects his competitive drive from professional basketball to his publishing and production company.

 

One month after retiring from the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers star has a new daily routine. ''I get up early and I train and I work out. Then I go to the office,'' Bryant said in an interview.

 

He spends much of his day ''kicking around ideas'' with his staff of 10 full-time employees at Newport Beach, California-based Kobe Inc. - and calls up those Hollywood heavyweights for guidance.

 

''I mean those are like unfair advantages,'' Bryant said, laughing. ''I can pick up the phone and speak to them and ask them questions: `What do you think about the story? What is this missing?' And they'll nitpick every single detail and I love it.''

 

''They respect and appreciate what I've done for 20 years as I respect and appreciate what they've done over the years. And we understand that there is a unifying force between those two things,'' Bryant said. ''Even though the disciplines are different, the commitment, attention to detail is absolutely the same. So even though Steven Spielberg can start speaking in film language and I won't understand a damn thing, I understand the core, the essence of what he's saying.''

 

Bryant said his Kobe Studios also includes seven more people who have been working on a project for the past two years, and another team of five writers starting a new project shortly.

 

The company is now making a three-to-five minute film based on the ''Dear Basketball'' poem that Bryant used to announce his retirement, led by longtime Disney animator Glen Keane and featuring music from John Williams.

 

''You have to be true to who you are,'' Bryant said while making an appearance Wednesday for a watch.

 

''Throughout my career, I've been able to take dark times and dark emotions and channel those feelings to create something better,'' he said. ''It's not something that I shy away from. We all have things that motivate us. Sometimes you can push those things to the side, make it fester within you. Or you can choose to use them to create something better.''

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/story/entering-hollywood-kobe-bryant-gets-advice-from-spielberg-052016

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  • 2 months later...

Randomly got excited about this and went looking around to see if a release date had been announced, since it should be coming up soon. Couldn't find anything, but I did see that the original Sports Illustrated announcement mentioned this, which I don't think any of us caught at the time?

 

Quote

Several exclusive SI Films mini documentaries will also accompany the film, showing viewers the behind-the-scenes process of producing the project.

 

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/05/05/kobe-bryant-sports-illustrated-partnership-dear-basketball-film-project

 

So hopefully that means a score featurette! :D

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A score featurette would be really nice! I cannot get enough of Williams talking about his methods and inspirations for each project, and footage from the recording sessions. Long live the maestro!

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12 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

Randomly got excited about this and went looking around to see if a release date had been announced, since it should be coming up soon. Couldn't find anything, but I did see that the original Sports Illustrated announcement mentioned this, which I don't think any of us caught at the time?

 

 

http://www.si.com/nba/2016/05/05/kobe-bryant-sports-illustrated-partnership-dear-basketball-film-project

 

So hopefully that means a score featurette! :D

 

Cool!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...
Quote

In May, Sports Illustrated announced that Bryant's "Dear Basketball" poem would be made into an animated short film. On Friday, ESPN announced that the first of six short "video presentations" from Bryant would air on Christmas Day during the 2 p.m. ET edition of NBA Countdown on ABC.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kobe-bryant-shows-his-creative-side-by-writing-creating-and-directing-video-series/

 

No mention of Williams though

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The 'six shorts' thing is something entirely different to the "Dear Basketball" poem that Williams scored/will score. I don't believe we have any release date yet of the Williams-scored short. This hasn't really been talked about since May.

 

Here are some guys making fun of the 'long production schedule' for this project:

 

 

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