Alan Silvestri replaces John Williams for READY PLAYER ONE

[Jay 45,822]

Confirmed today via this  Variety article

 

http://variety.com/2016/film/spotlight/john-williams-afi-1201792072-1201792072/

 

Yes, I know we already have a thread to discuss the article, but I think that thread should be about the article (which covers a lot of ground!), and we need a proper thread to discuss this score specifically.

 

It's Spielberg's followup film to The BFG, his 30th feature-length film over all, and the 28th scored by JW.

 

It's an adaptation of a book, and here is how wikipedia describes the book:

 

 

Quote

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenager Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

 

Sounds like Williams will have a lot of fun stuff to write music to!

Spielberg shoots it this summer and Williams begins working on the score this November.  I imagine special effects will take a long time to render throughout 2017, and Williams might be asked to come back after his Episode 8 work is done to record some pickups, revisions, Inserts, etc.

 

The film is currently scheduled to open March 30th 2018.

[JohnnyD 1,822]

It is actually his follow-up film to The BFG.

[King Mark 3,927]

I don;t really understand what this movie is about

[Red 75]

This should make for an interesting score. 

[Jay 45,822]

9 minutes ago, king mark said:

I don;t really understand what this movie is about

 

Well we don't really know for sure, hence why I quoted what the book its based on about to start.

[crumbs 15,934]

So Indy V will mark their 30th collaboration together, in the same year he hopefully completes his 9 film, triple trilogy Star Wars opus. 2019 could be the greatest year of JW scores since 2005!

[Jay 45,822]

2 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

So Indy V will mark their 30th collaboration together

 

 

Only if that Jennifer Lawrence movie or that kidnapping movie actually gets made and comes out before Indy V, AND JW decides he wants to do it.  There's no guarantee he'll score any films after RP1 and SW8.

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

I wonder if this will be a Sci-Fi Williams score or a Sci-Fi/Fantasy one.  I'm personally hoping for a bit of both.

[Muad'Dib 2,039]

Apparently the novel has lots of references to popular 80's pop songs, so maybe Johnny will have to share some space with that.

[Cerebral Cortex 3,365]

I think it's neat this is the 6th hottest topic on Reddit's front page right now. 

EDIT:
Oops, Mr. Big beat me on this over an hour ago.

1 hour ago, Not Mr. Big said:

The announcement of Williams' involvement in Ready Player One is currently #4 on Reddit I believe.  

 

[Quintus 6,333]

2 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

Apparently the novel has lots of references to popular 80's pop songs, so maybe Johnny will have to share some space with that.

 

So, 80s pop will be the new Ben Burtt in the entitled ears of JWFan. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

I wonder how extensively Williams will utilize electronics, if at all (beyond the standard Williams enhancements).  

[Maurizio 6,913]

5 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Only if that Jennifer Lawrence movie or that kidnapping movie actually gets made and comes out before Indy V, AND JW decides he wants to do it.  There's no guarantee he'll score any films after RP1 and SW8.

 

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara is already officially announced and it'll be Spielberg's next film after Ready Player One (he also confirmed to Italian press that he will shoot in Italy sometimes next year, btw). Release date hasn't been set yet, but it's expected to come out in Fall 2017. 

 

The biopic on war photgrapher Lynsey Addario (It's What I'll Do) in which Jennifer Lawrence is attached to star is still in development, but Spielberg hasn't commited to it yet.

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

5 hours ago, Cerebral Cortex said:

I think it's neat this is the 6th hottest topic on Reddit's front page right now. 

Just don't read the comment section.  People blaspheming the sacred name of Williams by wishing for JunkieXL or Trent Reznor to be composing instead.  

[Sandor 908]

5 hours ago, Jay said:

There's no guarantee he'll score any films after RP1 and SW8.

 

Although I'm an optimist, there is no guarantee he'll score those films either. Of course, no scoring job is a certainty until it's recorded and all, but with Bridge Of Spies still so fresh in my memory -to which Willams was initially officially attached (GSA website, etc.)- I'd say a Williams score is a guarantee when he's actually busy writing the score.

[Maurizio 6,913]

John Williams himself doesn't take these things for granted. But it's surely a good sign he expects to do as many projects as possible, so I too expect he will do all the Spielberg films in the pipeline, the next two Star Wars films and whatever else he might choose to work on. He will keep the pencil going as long as he has energy and health to do it. Let's wish him at least another 20 years in full activity

[publicist 4,650]

Finally an assignment with a bit more promise beyond the grandfatherly glow made of pastoral americana and/or old Indy/SW stand by's. Call my curiosity piqued!

[Quintus 6,333]

He says...  after recommending the latest Bryan Tyler album... 

[Jay 45,822]

Tyler's Now You See Me scores are pretty different / better than the same sounding stuff he composes for most of his other projects. Give it a whirl.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

48 minutes ago, publicist said:

Finally an assignment with a bit more promise beyond the grandfatherly glow made of pastoral americana and/or old Indy/SW stand by's. Call my curiosity piqued!

 

The premise of the whole thing sounds very try-hard and dopey though.  But that never stopped, say, Jerry....

[KK 3,310]

Indeed. Sounds like the kind of thing you read in those hokey pre-teen adventure books.

 

But hey, it could give us a welcome change in sound for Williams.

[Tom 6,675]

On the some the boards, people keep talking about Williams as if he has never utilized electronics in his scores and thus might be unsuitable.  Personally, I hope he does not use them extensively for this score as I find them annoying, but clearly these people have not heard Heartbeeps, the Fury, or even tracks of ESB. 

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

I know nothing about the aesthetic of the book or what Spielberg might go for, but it's believable that ultimately a composer other than Williams would be more appropriate for it if it's truly something that cries out for a strong electronic presence.

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

1 hour ago, TheWhiteRider said:

I know nothing about the aesthetic of the book or what Spielberg might go for, but it's believable that ultimately a composer other than Williams would be more appropriate for it if it's truly something that cries out for a strong electronic presence.

Who knows, maybe Williams will write his first all-electronic score.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

That would be very interesting!  With someone like Randy Kerber filling the usual Pope role as advisor and orchestrator, or in this case synthesist. Yeah, that'd be cool actually.  

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

I'd definitely take that over another Hook-clone.

[Muad'Dib 2,039]

If only Jon would have asked him more about it

[publicist 4,650]

9 hours ago, Lonnegan said:

He says...  after recommending the latest Bryan Tyler album... 

 

 

[Quintus 6,333]

8 hours ago, TheWhiteRider said:

I know nothing about the aesthetic of the book or what Spielberg might go for, but it's believable that ultimately a composer other than Williams would be more appropriate for it if it's truly something that cries out for a strong electronic presence.

 

Hmm, I think not necessarily. If anything I'd say electronica would be comfortably predictable in this instance rather than something like say, an off-beat fully orchestral sound. Is it too late for Spielberg and Williams to try out avant-garde again? 

 

(I love electro orchestral scoring btw) 

 

13 hours ago, Jay said:

Tyler's Now You See Me scores are pretty different / better than the same sounding stuff he composes for most of his other projects. Give it a whirl.

 

I heard a medley of his stuff at few weeks ago and it was dire. But I did quite like his Black Flag score, that was nice. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,955]

Williams going the electronica route would be unpredictable for Williams at least.  

 

It would be awesome to have something relatively unique in Williams' oeuvre as opposed to another orchestral fantasy score to add to the pile (as great as that pile is)

 

[Will 2,393]

On 6/10/2016 at 10:26 PM, Muad'Dib said:

Apparently the novel has lots of references to popular 80's pop songs, so maybe Johnny will have to share some space with that.

 

Oh great... 

 

---------

 

This project sounds like it will make for some really unique stuff! 

On 6/11/2016 at 8:26 PM, Not Mr. Big said:

Who knows, maybe Williams will write his first all-electronic score.

 

On 6/11/2016 at 8:34 PM, TheWhiteRider said:

That would be very interesting!  With someone like Randy Kerber filling the usual Pope role as advisor and orchestrator, or in this case synthesist. Yeah, that'd be cool actually.  

 

Yeah, it would be cool to see Williams give himself a late-career challenge to go out of his "comfort zone." I'm not generally a fan of all-electronic music but I think John Williams could take any style and make something terrific out of it! 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,197]

Oh come on!

 

Williams has never been great when using synth.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Idiot!

[crumbs 15,934]

He usually gets other people to arrange any complicated synth stuff for him.

 

The pulsating motif in Munich, for example. Or The Biker Chase in AI which his son arranged.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,197]

20 minutes ago, TheWhiteRider said:

Idiot!

 

John Williams isn't a synth composer. You really want to disagree with me on that?

[Arpy 4,255]

Hasn't anyone listened to Presumed Innocent, there's synths in that that just meld so perfectly with Williams' writing!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,197]

Its ok. But its no Basic Instinct.

[Richard P 5,246]

On 6/10/2016 at 0:45 AM, TheWhiteRider said:

I know nothing about the aesthetic of the book or what Spielberg might go for, but it's believable that ultimately a composer other than Williams would be more appropriate for it if it's truly something that cries out for a strong electronic presence.

 

This.

 

There are several films in Spielberg's canon that I think JW was the wrong composer for (to avoid derailing the thread, I won't name them), and as soon as I heard he SS was making this film, I was a bit mystified at how JW would tackle it.

[Quintus 6,333]

Which films Richard? Genuinely interested in this. 

[Maurizio 6,913]

Spielberg loves having orchestral scores in his films, so I don't think he and JW will ever go all-electronic. It's likely there's gonna be a slightly larger electronic/synth presence than usual maybe (like in A.I. or Minority Report), but it's fairly safe to assume it's gonna be orchestral for the most part.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Too bad such things can be "safely" assumed!

[hornist 1,243]

This score is going to be amazing.

[crumbs 15,934]

RPO author Ernie Cline moments after learning Williams was confirmed to score the his film:

 

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/75445

[Thor 9,347]

I'm hoping for a score in the style of A.I., MINORITY REPORT or even WAR OF THE WORLDS here. Dark, pulsating, perhaps with some electronic ambiance. I actually prefer Williams' approach to synths over, say, Goldsmith's, because Williams at least knows his limitations. He usually uses it very discretely, as slight colorization.

[mrbellamy 8,074]

Yeah, those three scores come to mind too with this project. Could be sweet.

[Maurizio 6,913]

The book is a cross between dystopian sci-fi elements and 1980s-type adventure films (think of Wargames or The Last Starfighter and the likes), so it'll be interesting which angle Spielberg will let prevail. I guess the film will probably nod the stylings of those adventure films we all know well, so Williams' approach could also follow accordingly.

[Alex 3,060]

Any news on whether JW has made a start on this yet? 

[crumbs 15,934]

We're not sure if shooting's finished just yet, but it's been 4 months so you'd think they'll start spotting in a few weeks.

 

No word on how VIII is tracking either, which I assume will take longer to assemble a first cut.

[pete 1,322]

2 hours ago, alextrombone94 said:

Any news on whether JW has made a start on this yet? 

 

Williams previously stated he would start work on the film in November. I guess his schedule is mapped out well ahead of time, so I guess not.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

Isn't this movie still like 18 months from release?