Just one more Williams score per studio, which would you pick?

[Jay 37,346]

Let's play the hypothetical situation game, where the major film studios open their vaults for just one more Williams license before closing forever.  Which would you pick from each studio listed in the poll?

 

I purposely left Star Wars and Indiana Jones out of the Disney section because they would easily win, and Hook off the Sony section because it would easily win (and it's already been expanded once anyway)

 

MGM is not on the list because The Fiddler on the Roof is the only score he has left to expand from their vaults.

 

And I know Disney owns Fox now, but I decided leaving it separated made for a better poll :p

 

 

 

Vote away, and talk about what you voted for!

 

Oh, and you can visit here to see which scores from these studios have already been expanded and when:

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/24564-john-williams-scores-by-film-studio/

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Let's play the hypothetical situation game, where the major film studios open their vaults for just one more Williams expansion before closing forever.  Which would you pick from each studio listed in the poll?

 

I purposely left Star Wars and Indiana Jones out of the Disney section because they would easily win, and Hook off the Sony section because it would easily win (and it's already been expanded once anyway)

 

MGM is not on the list because The Fiddler on the Roof is the only score he has left to expand from their vaults.

 

Vote away, and talk about what you voted for!

 

Fiddler also already has an expansion! But I'd welcome a release with improved sound and more of JW's additional music.

[Jay 37,346]

Nowhere in my post did I say it didn't

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

Nowhere in my post did I say it didn't

 

I didn't say that you said so either. However, you did say Hook already has had an expansion, so I found it relevant to mention that Fiddler also has had one.

[Jay 37,346]

My picks

 

DISNEY - hard to choose between Lincoln and BFG.  Ultimately went with Lincoln because I find the score more rewarding, and suspect there are cool things recorded that haven't been released yet.  The BFG seems to have all its major ideas covered pretty well by the OST

 

DREAMWORKS - Memoirs of a Geisha is a really cool score, and a sheet music leak a long time ago now revealed boatloads of cues we don't have at all.  I've love a longer dive into this world, and with everything in a chronological order to really go on the journey.  Lots of good choices from this studio though; I'd LOVE more Catch me If You Can and The Terminal music!

 

FOX - I cannot say I'm particularly craving any of these very highly, and a lot of them have very little music left that wasn't included on the OST.  I went with The Book Thief

 

PARAMOUNT - I had a very tough time deciding between The Rievers and Tintin.  I've only been familiar with The Reivers OST for a little while, but loved it right away; I still haven't ever seen the film, but I really enjoyed the narrated suite which I've seen live and saw again on TV Friday night.  However, I REALLY love the Tintin score and again, the sheet music leak has revealed tons of interesting music we just don't have, so I chose that.

 

SONY - The Patriot easily wins, certainly the longest score left at that studio.  However, I recently listened to the Seven Years in Tibet OST for the first time and loved it.  I have no idea how much more music there is that wasn't on it though.

 

UNIVERSAL - I picked The Eiger Sanction selfishly, because it's the only Williams score that's been released officially I don't own.  It's also a really good score I'd love to hear more of, and it seems that the album was a re-recording so it will be neat to get the film recording for the first time.  I also really want  Sugarland Express, July, and Always though, so this wasn't super cut and dry.

 

WARNER BROTHERS - JFK is a cool score that I never listen to because I don't really like the OST configuration, and again sheet music has revealed lots of material that should be in the vaults.  Witches of Eastwick at least has the isolated score, and I don't really listen to Tourist, Innocent, or Sleepers much

[Bayesian 1,363]

Some difficult choices to make here. I cast my vote for two-thirds of the Oliver Stone trilogy because all three of these OSTs would appear to have much left to expand on (only on BOTFOJ did I sidestep it for Sugarland, since it hasn't had an official release yet.) For sure, JFK is high on my wish list from any studio.

 

All of Dreamworks' remaining OSTs would be amazing to have as expansions. I chose WOTW but it could just as easily have been Amistad, which I recall reading on these pages recently has plenty of material left to release. There's hardly a "right" or "wrong" pick from that studio. Regarding Paramount, it seems there's a clear consensus for Tintin, even though of course that would involve much higher licensing fees.

 

So far, I see a lack of interest in most of JW's earliest scores, but that's surely attributable to the highly straitened selection parameters in the poll.

[Jay 37,346]

Another factor when it comes to Williams' older scores is the average age of the daily posters on this forum skews towards the younger side.  Most people who read and post to this forum didn't grow up with any of those films and have no attachment to them or their scores; For many of us our introductory point for Williams was one of his scores from the late 70s, the 80s, the 90s, or the 2000s.  His 60s, and pre-Jaws 70s scores, are often seen as curiosities at best and something they'd never listen to at worst for a lot of members here.

[Jay 37,346]

End of day 1 update

 

Nixon has come from behind to currently be winning Disney, after War Horse initially took an early lead

 

Geisha is running away with Dreamworks

 

The Fox votes are pretty evenly split!

 

Tintin is still way in the lead at Paramount, but Reivers has had a late surge to secure a strong 2nd place

 

Sony now has Tibet and Patriot tied with each other!

 

JFK is the clear winner from the WB catalog

[Bellosh 3,416]

DISNEY: War Horse

It's one of my favorite scores of all time, and deserves the MM/C&C treatment with a cherry on top.

 

DREAMWORKS: Amistad

This was the toughest choice out of them all.  Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, WOTW, Memoirs of a Geisha, all amazing. But a complete Amistad would be most welcome.

 

FOX: The Book Thief

Again, one of my favorite scores from the past decade of JW.  I only really care about The Post with the other scores, so ultimately if it's The Post vs. The Book Thief, I'm going with The Book Thief.

 

PARAMOUNT: The Adventures of TinTin

A score overshadowed by War Horse for me, a score I've barely ever listened to, and still have not seen the movie.  A C&C release might make me appreciate it and give it a go.

 

SONY: The Patriot.

Although Seven Years in Tibet complete would be nice.

 

UNIVERSAL: Born on the Fourth of July.

Easy pick for me.

 

WARNER BROTHERS: JFK

My favorite of the Oliver Stone 'trilogy'

[crumbs 14,306]

Does anyone know how much is missing from Seven Years in Tibet? I revisited that OST recently and thought it was a fantastic experience. The film itself is on Netflix, I've been meaning to watch it and note down all the cues.

[Remco 685]

Wow, this thread makes me realize how much Williams scores outside of the Spielberg/Lucas world I don’t even know...

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

This was a difficult pool... Even in the groups where I have a clear favorite, that even came as a difficult pick. I wish we could have expansions on all Dreamworks titles and while Geisha is probably my favorite and got my pick I've been dying to listen to an expanded Catch Me If You Can...

[Jay 37,346]

2 hours ago, Remco said:

Wow, this thread makes me realize how much Williams scores outside of the Spielberg/Lucas world I don’t even know...

 

Excellent!

Many of these OST albums are streaming on all the subscription music streaming services

[Edmilson 7,434]

I'd love an expanded The Patriot. One of my favorite Williams scores, and there's a lot of good material missing from the OST. JFK and Tintin would be interesting as well.

[Jay 37,346]

The only post-Jaws score nobody has voted for at all is Stepmom!

 

The other post-Jaws scores with less than 5 votes are

 

Munich with 1 vote

 

The Accidental Tourist, Presumed Innocent, The Terminal and The BFG with 2 votes

 

Sabrina, Lincoln, and The Post with 3 votes

 

Always and Sleepers with 4 votes

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

My votes:

 

Disney:  No-brainer, War Horse is the clear favorite for me.  Beautiful score as well as fantastic movie.  The recent sessions leak increased my love of the score even more!

Dreamworks:  This category was definitely a tougher choice, but I ended up going with Amistad due to the amount of possible music out there.  I have yet to see Geisha so that affects my vote choice.  I love both scores for CMIYC and Terminal however, tough to choose!

 

Fox:  SpaceCamp was my choice in this category, don't really care for the earlier scores.  Book Thief is a decent score and movie but the music doesn't move me.  The Post is an enjoyable score and movie but ultimately went with the nostalgic route

 

Paramount:  Tintin wins hands-down, excellent movie and score!  2nd choice would be Angela's Ashes, absolutely beautiful score and great (although depressing and sad) movie.

 

Sony:  The Patriot wins this category going away, could definitely fill a 2-disc expanded set with all the music!  So many great themes that are easily hum-able.  SYIT would be my 2nd choice of these films, the rest?  Meh!

 

Universal:  Not too many standout choices here, so I went with Sugarland Express for historical significance.  I've never seen the film or heard much of the score.  BOTFOJ is a good score and movie but it's just too repetitive...

 

Warner Bros:  My vote went to Witches of Eastwick, fun music and movie!  2nd place would be JFK, would like to hear a c&c presentation of this w/out all the songs throughout. 

 

Actually I'd like to hear Always, CMIYC, BOTFOJ, and JFK in order without pop songs included.  I can't stand these OSTs for this very reason.  If you want to release the pop songs from a movie, do like they did for Guardians of the Galaxy movies and have them separate from the score.  

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

6 minutes ago, ATXHusker said:

The Post is an enjoyable score and movie but ultimately went with the nostalgic route

 

I'm not sure what you mean with the last part of your sentence, but if davaluating scores based on their amount of nostalgia feeling, War Horse is far worse than The Post.

[mstrox 6,651]

My real answer would be "whatever has the most unreleased music," but since I have no gauge for that, I just picked my favorite scores in each category...

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

11 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I'm not sure what you mean with the last part of your sentence, but if davaluating scores based on their amount of nostalgia feeling, War Horse is far worse than The Post.

 

My vote was for SpaceCamp, I was 12 when it came out and I often dreamed about going into space.  I wasn't "devaluating" any score, just giving my opinion.  

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

You were just not being very consistent.

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

I'm sorry, I didn't know there were rules associated with my voting choices...  how was i being inconsistent and why do you care?

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

You hold it against The Post for pushing the nostalgic buttons (in your opinion), but you don't for War Horse. That's all.

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

I hold nothing against The Post.  I thoroughly enjoyed both the movie and the score, I just wish there was more music from it. that was available (other than the OST and FYC).  I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.  

 

I enjoy both scores but SpaceCamp won the tie-breaker due to my nostalgia factor

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

3 minutes ago, ATXHusker said:

I just wish there was more music from it.

 

I can agree about that!

[Jay 37,346]

7 hours ago, mstrox said:

My real answer would be "whatever has the most unreleased music," but since I have no gauge for that, I just picked my favorite scores in each category...

 

In terms of scores that had an OST, the only ones on the poll with a large amount of unreleased music are Amistad, Patriot, Geisha and Tintin. A lot of the rest have like 5-15 minutes unreleased.

 

In terms of scores that never had an OST and are completely unreleased, I'm not sure which is the longest. They're all pretty short. 

[Brundlefly 2,385]

I don't want anything from Fox and Paramount. Can't I get two from each DreamWorks and Warner Brothers instead?

[Jay 37,346]

Aw man, what's not to like about the Tintin score?

[Brundlefly 2,385]

I do like it, but I don't need it expanded for the moment. I'd rather not have to chose between Amistad and War of the Worlds as well as The Witches of Eastwick and JFK.

[Thor 7,493]

Alas, I cannot vote in this poll as I need to fill in all categories. And I have zero interest in new releases (expanded or otherwise) of existing soundtracks from several of the labels. The only labels I would be interested in are those that have completely unreleased scores: Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. And within those, I'll pick GIDGET GOES TO ROME, STORY OF A WOMAN and DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING, respectively.

 

Is there any way to see the poll results without voting? Or perhaps add a "None" option to the categories?

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

Geez, Thor, don't be so difficult!

[Thor 7,493]

Not being difficult; just don't want to be disingenous and vote for something I have no interest in.

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

23 minutes ago, Thor said:

Is there any way to see the poll results without voting?

 

Just push Show Results.

[Thor 7,493]

24 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Just push Show Results.

 

Ah, of course. Don't know how I missed that button! Thanks.

 

Sad (but not surprised) to see my own picks fare relatively low; I assume it has a lot to do with the fact that few have heard them. Of the unreleased scores, SUGARLAND EXPRESS is the biggest winner in this poll so far, it seems. While I agree it's an important, historical score to get out there, and the main theme is great, the rest of the score isn't that good. It's certainly WAY less interesting than something as gorgeous as STORY OF A WOMAN, for example.

 

Did we already do a poll about what completely unreleased JW scores we'd like to get released?

[Richard Penna 3,684]

I didn't vote, because I'm not that interested in expansions of most of his remaining unexpanded scores. However, I'd love to see The Terminal out in proper definitive form.

 

The only other one would be War of the Worlds, but beyond being a legit release, I'm not sure there's a lot to gain over the existing session leaks. I'm not the type to get too excited about official releases that more or less duplicate what was already out there.

[Jay 37,346]

You can definitely still vote even if you would not buy an expansion coming out of a certain film studio; The poll doesn't say to pick a title you're most likely to buy, it just says to pick one.  You could pick one you absolutely don't want to buy, so you will have more money saved to buy the ones you would

[Jurassic Shark 12,055]

Weird poll.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

What are the current chances for each studio to give out licenses? Can someone give me an update?

[Jay 37,346]

Disney = only works with Intrada, but they have been releasing titles from their vaults on a fairly regular basis for almost 20 years.  However, Disney saves their biggest titles for their own Disney Records labels, such as everything that came out on the Disney Legacy Collection line, and anything Star Wars or Indy will come from Disney Records as well.

 

Dreamworks = LLL seems to be the only one with access, and they have released The Peacemaker, Galaxy Quest, Saving Private Ryan, AI, and Minority Report.  We can probably expect more to come from this collaboration

 

Fox = Before being bought by Disney, they were easily the most open studio, with any title from their vaults available to any specialty label pretty much.  Now that Disney owns them, only Intrada can work with them.  Intrada hasn't announced any post-merger Fox titles yet, however titles that were licensed from Fox before the merger was finalized could still be forthcoming from any label

 

Paramount = Since they finally opened their doors in 2009 starting with LLL's Airplane, we've gotten a ton of stuff from their vaults, spread out over all the specialty labels - they even let the specialty labels tackle all the Star Trek films.  Additionally, they also started a line of digital releases of these catalog titles with help from LLL, something most other film studios don't allow at all, although there haven't been any new digital releases in a while now

 

Sony = We get Sony titles from LLL, Varese, and Intrada, they seem to be pretty agreeable to any expansions

 

Universal = Mike Matessino was specifically hired to mine their vaults and release stuff, and so far he's tackled 22 titles in the past 26 months, with plenty more titles being done by other producers as well.  So they are great, with La-La Land, Intrada, Varese, and Quartet all getting pieces of the pie.

 

Warner Brothers = have been very open in the past, but are notoriously slow - especially recently - and since the pandemic are essentially closed.  So who knows what the future will bring.

[12-Mile Reef 123]

Intrada seem to be in with Sony too, they did 'Legends of the Fall' recently but I think there have been others as well.

[Jay 37,346]

Yes like Varese who gave us Absense of Malice and Murder by Death

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Amistad is the one I want the most out of all them.

[Jay 37,346]

After a week of voting,

 

Stepmom remains the ONLY post-Jaws score to get zero votes.  Poor Stepmom.

 

The other post-Jaws scores with less than 5 votes are The Accidental Tourist, Presumed Innocent, Munich, and The BFG with 2 votes and Sabrina and The Terminal with 3 votes

 

 

Current winners

 

Disney = it's a tight race between 1995's Nixon and 2011's War Horse, with Lincoln and BFG in DISTANT last place.  I found this to be the most interesting out of all the studios.  How much music was even recorded for Nixon that wasn't on the OST?  How many War Horse voters have or don't have the complete session leak?

 

Dreamworks = Memoirs of a Geisha is easily winning, with Amistad and War of the World tied for second place.  Since Geisha was released after the licensing fee change, that means Amistad and WOTW are winning from what's actually possible to expand in the current situation.

 

Fox = SpaceCamp is easily winning, which is kinda funny.  I think there's either 2 or 3 unreleased cues, which combine to be under 5 minutes of unreleased music.  Maybe this says more about what from Fox hasn't been expanded yet over an actual strong desire for those 5 minutes.

 

Paramount = Tintin is easily winning, which is to be expected, and well deserved.  The Reivers has the most votes of any pre-Jaws scores, however - Even more votes than Sugarland.

 

Sony = The Patriot is easily winning, which isn't shocking.

 

Universal = Born on the Fourth of July is easily winning.  I would have expected Sugarland to win I think.

 

Warner Brothers = JFK is easily winning, not really a surprise there.

[BrotherSound 2,242]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

How much music was even recorded for Nixon that wasn't on the OST?

You can definitely add Nixon to the “a lot of unreleased music” category:

 

1M6 They Want To Believe the President

1M7 It’s The Lie

3M1 Did I Approve

3M3 T.V. Debate

3M4 Election Results

3M5 I Hate Losing

4M1 Mother’s Faithful Dog

4M2 Sound Like Mother

4M4 Football In Whittier

4M4R Football To Campaigning

4M7ABC Early Days (Pat And Dick Theme) Alternate Version

4M8 I Want A Divorce

5M3/6M1 Camelot Overture [source, composed by Frederick Loewe]

8M7 Talking With Lincoln

9M1 Harold’s Death

10M3 Meeting On The Potomac

12M2 Family Chat

12M5+6 It’s The Lie

13M4 Hoover’s Death And The Jones Ranch

17M4 Back To Life

21M1 Praying

Funeral Cortège Drums [source]

Tape Machine Motif

 

And that’s just the completely unreleased cues. There’s also cues present on the OST that have unreleased sections.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

@Jay, wow, that's a pretty delightful outlook there. No studio-related obstacles for my most-wanted titles to get expanded treatments: Nixon, Amistad, War of the Worlds, The Patriot, Born on the Fourth of July, The Witches of Eastwick and JFK. Man, they should finally bring one of the Oliver Stone collaborations out!

[Jay 37,346]

I wouldn't include JFK in that list of yours; As I said in the post you're talking about, WB is practically closed now since the pandemic, and were already slow before.  For example, the LLL guys put The Adventures of Batman and Robin on their 2019 poster of all titles released that year but it never came out, and the most recent update posted by MV says he HOPES it will be out in 2021.

 

He also just recently (July 19th) posted this:

 

Quote

All planned WB titles are currently in limbo.
MV

 

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

Makes one wonder how many scores have already been mixed with finished artwork, just waiting on the green light to release?  Must be frustrating for the labels.

[Jay 37,346]

Probably a dozen or more

[Thor 7,493]

On 7/27/2020 at 6:16 PM, Jay said:

Stepmom remains the ONLY post-Jaws score to get zero votes.  Poor Stepmom.

 

I think it's an absolutely gorgeous score, but as with the other titles that already have soundtracks, the OST presents the perfect amount of music. Just wanted to get that in there, in case the impression is that there is no love for STEPMOM. There is.

[Jay 37,346]

That might be the only post-Jaws score I've only listened to one time.

[BrotherSound 2,242]

On 7/20/2020 at 12:57 PM, Jay said:

DISNEY - hard to choose between Lincoln and BFG.  Ultimately went with Lincoln because I find the score more rewarding, and suspect there are cool things recorded that haven't been released yet.

I just posted the Lincoln cue list and breakdowns elsewhere, but here are the cues that don’t appear anywhere on the OST or FYC:

 

1M4 Ver 2 “Battle Cry of Freedom”

1M5 “Mary’s First Scene”

1M10 “The People”

1M14 Ver 2 “Sleeping Tad”

2M12 “Talk With Tad”

2M14 “Tad Asleep”

2M14 Rev “Tad Asleep”

3M16 “Country Sweetener”

4M24 “More Bad News”

4M28 “Message from Grant and Decisions”

4M28 Alt “Lincoln and Seward”

4M29 “No Sixteen Year Olds Left”

6M42 Ver 2 “Welcome To This House”

6M44 “Delivering The Message”

6M46 “The American Process”

7M52 Ver 1 “Prayer”…At City Point

7M52 Ver 2 “Lincoln’s Battlefield Visit”

7M54 “To Ford’s Theatre”

7M54 Rev “To Ford’s Theatre”

7M54 Rev New Ending

7M58 “Now He Belongs To The Ages”

“Prayer” (Brass)

 

Some of these cues are quite brief, or only slightly different from versions we’ve heard, and some early versions may never have been recorded at all, but there should be a decent amount of additional material for any potential Lincoln expansion.