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Alan Silvestri replaces John Williams for READY PLAYER ONE


Jay

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6 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

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

I doubt they'll have any scoring sessions until February or March, which is about 12 months before release. They did the same for Tintin then had pickups closer to release.

 

He needs to be off the film and working on Star Wars by around then (unless he's writing them simultaneously?)

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The trailers need to be finalize before the final cut of Rogue One, with all the marketing execs giving their say and mangling Johnny's teaser cue, etc, so it will surely be recorded before GIa's Rogue One score, which he's probably only been writing for 2 weeks and won't be ready to record until... Thanksgiving?

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On 6/15/2016 at 7:36 AM, TownerFan said:

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.

 

I hope it goes more toward the adventure. 

 

I know some here would like a darker score but heroic action material and thematic statements are always a wonderful treat. 

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  • 7 months later...

I'm reading this book at the moment (and listening to the audio book narrated by Wesley Crusher), and it's honestly a bit of a slog to get through so far. Maybe it's the unapologetic geekiness of the whole thing, which I can usually get around but only in smaller doses.

 

What's interesting is that there's explicit mentions of both Spielberg and Williams in the story (and the cue "The Throne Room" features at a key moment), so I'm curious to see how that's incorporated in the final film.

 

I'm gonna try and finish the book but I have found myself rolling my eyes more often than not, especially when the overly-fetishised and under-written female love interest is involved.

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I wonder how (self-)referential Williams will really end up being. I assume the score will be 99% original but a few easter eggs would be fun. They've gotta do BTTF, right?

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On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 11:05 PM, crumbs said:

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.

Why would "synth stuff" be complicated for John Williams, especially in the arranging department?

"Cantina Band Theme" anyone?

 

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3 minutes ago, skyy38 said:

"Cantina Band Theme" anyone?

 

That's a 1930s-style swing piece with steel drums doubling the lead and an ARP 2600 synth on the walking bass. I wouldn't compare it to anything like the Biker Chase from A.I..

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On 6/8/2017 at 1:31 AM, mrbellamy said:

I wonder how (self-)referential Williams will really end up being. I assume the score will be 99% original but a few easter eggs would be fun. They've gotta do BTTF, right?

 


I would hope so, but with Spielberg saying he won't be making any references to any of his films in RPO, I wonder if that would include BTTF given he was executive producer on it. 

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On 6/8/2017 at 10:44 AM, Docteur Qui said:

What's interesting is that there's explicit mentions of both Spielberg and Williams in the story (and the cue "The Throne Room" features at a key moment), so I'm curious to see how that's incorporated in the final film.

 

I think Conan The Barbarian's score is also heard by the characters. It'll be certainly interesting to see if and how those scores are used.

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Oh, awesome. I'm glad to hear that. It would feel really odd to not have at least a few Spielbergian references sprinkled into a film of this nature.


Edit: Meant to be directed at Mr. Bellamy. Got ninja'd by Pete. 

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On 6/12/2016 at 7:41 AM, Stefancos said:

Oh come on!

 

Williams has never been great when using synth.

 

True. He should definitely not go mostly synth - and I am sure he won't, and that Spielberg won't ask for it. He should get another composer if that's what he wants. Synths is not Williams' force and to ask him to do a synth based score would be just stupid.

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5 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

 

Whaaaaat?

 

You think a great composer with 6 decades of experience in the industry couldn't write a great synth score if he wanted to?  Pish posh!

 

Of course he couldn't. You think he'd be able to write a great pop smash hit too, just because he has 6 decades of 99.9% symphonic writing under his belt?

 

An electronic score requires a totally different foundation based in synth programming/synth production knowledge. Unless you consider Presumed Innocent and A.I.'s use of synth good by any standard - if that is the case, by all means, Williams can pull it off. Those are not my definition of synth scores, it's more or less synths adding a little flavour of a more or less successful kind. But a modern, REALLY synth based score... No.

 

I am sure that nobody would ever tell Williams to write a synth based score.

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10 minutes ago, Tom said:

Heartbeeps begs to differ.

 

And just because someone made that mistake in 1981 doesn't mean anyone should repeat it now, 36 years later.

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1 hour ago, Simon R. said:

 

And just because someone made that mistake in 1981 doesn't mean anyone should repeat it now, 36 years later.

I am not sure you know how logic works.  You claimed no one would ever ask Williams to write a synth score.  All it takes is one counterexample to prove your claim wrong. 

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Electronic music is not a monolithic art that one either understands or doesn't. Williams has incorporated synthesizers and electronic instruments into many of his scores, so it's safe to say he's not totally ignorant of the electronic side of music. I think it's also safe to say that Williams doesn't have Hans Zimmer's fluency in modern digital audio production. There are some things he knows and there are some things he doesn't know. Yeah, he wrote Heartbeeps almost forty years ago. That doesn't mean he's fully equipped to write the kind of electronic music that's in vogue right now.

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If it weren't for Spielberg this would be a prime candidate for Jackman. The base level of the novel is not more demanding than 'Wreck it Ralph' or these Lego movies. Williams probably would have to be needled a lot in the right direction to supply not the synth work but an understanding for the winky feel and zeitgeist. On the other hand, a straight orchestral action/adventure score might be musically the best outcome.

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I just finished the book and holy moly is it garbage. The second half is somehow even more poorly written than the first, I'm amazed I made it to the end. There's a lot of things that should and could work but the execution is shocking. I hope Spielberg can make a good movie out of it.

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2 minutes ago, Docteur Qui said:

I just finished the book and holy moly is it garbage. The second half is somehow even more poorly written than the first, I'm amazed I made it to the end. There's a lot of things that should and could work but the execution is shocking. I hope Spielberg can make a good movie out of it.

 

This is how I felt. The very basic of idea was pretty decent and could have made a good book, but Cline just didn't do a good job.

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Spielberg rarely adapts source material to the letter. He seems more attracted to ideas within a book and extrapolates his own ideas from there. None of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, Artificial Intelligence or Minority Report are slavish to their source material.

 

Arguably his historical dramas more closely followed historical events by necessity; Schindler's List (Schindler's Ark), Lincoln (Team of Rivals), Munich (Vengeance), etc.

 

I've never read Tintin or the BFG so I'm not sure how closely those matched the book. From all accounts Robopocalyse had little in common with the book upon which it was based.

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1 hour ago, crumbs said:

Spielberg rarely adapts source material to the letter. He seems more attracted to ideas within a book and develops his own ideas from there. None of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, Artificial Intelligence or Minority Report are slavish to their source material.

 

And like with Jurassic Park, the author of the novel is a credited screenwriter.  I'm never going to read Ready, Player One so I'll leave it to others to tell me how faithful or unfaithful it is.

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3 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I've never read Tintin or the BFG so I'm not sure how closely those matched the book. From all accounts Robopocalyse had little in common with the book upon which it was based.

 

BFG was pretty faithful, IIRC. 

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20 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

Junkie is a synth wizard.  The suggestion of Giacchino's electronic talents, while jesting, is still... offensive.

 

Yeah, I realized that after I posted it. Luckily Disco Stu came to the rescue and replaced Giacchino with another mildly disliked composer who is actually known for synth stuff.

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9 hours ago, crumbs said:

Spielberg rarely adapts source material to the letter. He seems more attracted to ideas within a book and extrapolates his own ideas from there. None of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, War of the Worlds, Artificial Intelligence or Minority Report are slavish to their source material.

 

Arguably his historical dramas more closely followed historical events by necessity; Schindler's List (Schindler's Ark), Lincoln (Team of Rivals), Munich (Vengeance), etc.

 

I've never read Tintin or the BFG so I'm not sure how closely those matched the book. From all accounts Robopocalyse had little in common with the book upon which it was based.

 

Jaws is another one that makes significant departures from its source. Never read The Color Purple so I dunno how that compared. I've seen some heavy criticism from fans of the book, though.

 

I agree with Will that BFG is pretty close.

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