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Any genre that JW didn't score a film in?


karelm

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6 minutes ago, Jay said:

Hmm, what would be the list of John Williams scores for films that take place in contemporary time (meaning the main part of the film is contemporary, not bookends like Schindler and Ryan), that have no fantasy/sci-fi elements?

You mean contemporary time when the films were actually made? Is Earthquake or Black Sunday therefore a movie that would fit that?

Just now, filmmusic said:

The life of Christ in a musical traditional animation film would be glorious! How come noone has thought of it?

A film like The Prince of Egypt.

Probably because Andrew Lloyd Webber already wrote a famous musical about the life of Christ.

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5 hours ago, SteveMc said:

Man, that would be interesting.

I'd wager TLW is the closest we have to that.

Silvestri's Predator is very close as well, with its nods to Jaws, Return of the Jedi...

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1 hour ago, gkgyver said:

 

Daisy would never let him come home again. 

 

Oh Daisy would be IN it. They would make such glorious music together and even improvise with each other's instruments. Daisy would play his flute and he would play her banjo.

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22 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

I'd like to see him do porn.

 

He leaves that to his son.

8 hours ago, Jay said:

Hmm, what would be the list of John Williams scores for films that take place in contemporary time (meaning the main part of the film is contemporary, not bookends like Schindler and Ryan), that have no fantasy/sci-fi elements?

 

8 hours ago, SteveMc said:

The Terminal 

The Accidental Tourist 

Black Sunday

Cinderella Liberty (?)

The Eiger Sanction

The Home Alones, but they are somewhat fantastical

Stepmom

Sabrina

Presumed Innocent

Pete N' Tillie

 

Plenty more. Sleepers, for one. And even though it's a genre film, even Jaws fits the bill.

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1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

He leaves that to his son.

 

 

Plenty more. Sleepers, for one. And even though it's a genre film, even Jaws fits the bill.

Much of his 60's comedy output as well.  

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4 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

Oh Daisy would be IN it. They would make such glorious music together and even improvise with each other's instruments. Daisy would play his flute and he would play her banjo.

 

I hear old Johnny is a big fan of 3rd position fingering and fluttertongue.

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21 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Musical.

 

And a sword and sandal movie.

 

And cartoon movie.

 

So, maybe he could cover it by scoring an upcoming cartoon sword and sandal musical.

 

Well, Tintin has swords, a desert scene, and a singing lady, not to mention all the songs by JW.

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4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Well, Tintin has swords, a desert scene, and a singing lady, not to mention all the songs by JW.

Yeah, maybe Tintin would have been more successful if they had advertised it for what it actually is: A cartoon sword and sandal musical. So, noone except you was aware of it.

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7 hours ago, Luke Skywalker said:

A pirate movie.

 

Though he has composed like-cues from that genre (Jaws, Tintin)

 

Why not Hook?

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On 4/22/2021 at 8:32 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

Sleepers, for one

Most of the first part of Sleepers is set on the 60s. IIRC, the second part is in the 80s. The film was released in 1996. So it wasn't much contemporary. 

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7 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Most of the first part of Sleepers is set on the 60s. IIRC, the second part is in the 80s. The film was released in 1996. So it wasn't much contemporary. 

 

It's been years since I saw it. I thought only the beginning was set in the (film's) past, but the bulk of it in the (film's) present. I would argue that an offset of just a few years still qualifies as contemporary - at least I don't think Williams would score a drama set 10 years ago differently than one set in the present.

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The most memorable part of SLEEPERS is the first part set in the 60s. It has a very ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA-style aestetic going on.

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On 4/22/2021 at 12:34 PM, Thor said:

 

 As you know, two of the songs from the aborted PETER PAN musical ended up in HOOK.


That’s not entirely correct. Williams wrote an unknown quantity of material for the musical project Steven Spielberg was planning in 1984-1985, but apparently most of that was discarded when they started working on Hook, with JW and Bricusse starting anew and composing new songs and even recording demos specifically for this new project. Of course it’s entirely possible that Williams repurposed some of the material he originally wrote in 1984-5, but nobody really listened to any of that, nor saw any score. Btw, the original plan for Hook was to have I think 6 songs in the film (We Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Childhood, Believe, Low Below, Stick With Me, When You’re Alone), but the concept was largely abandoned before shooting started, mostly because the cast wasn’t truly a singing one. They tried to keep a couple of numbers in the film, but one was discarded (Low Below) and the other was drastically cut down in editing (When You’re Alone).

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Interesting, I always thought they were repurposed for HOOK, and I remember reading about this several years ago. Of course, new information may have surfaced since then that counters this. By the way, there's a full overview of the HOOK songs (7 in total) - and other JW-penned songs - in this thread of mine:

 

 

 

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On 4/24/2021 at 10:47 AM, TownerFan said:


 but the concept was largely abandoned before shooting started

 

They decided to make it a musical just before the shooting and abandoned the idea during the middle of the shooting. "Low below" was shot in the middle of june, one month and half before the end of the filming.
Only "Believe" and "Stick With Me" seems not to have been filmed or only partially.

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The mind boggles at what this musical would have been like. Michael Jackson was supposed to star in it at one point (perfect casting at the time).

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3 hours ago, Thor said:

The mind boggles at what this musical would have been like. Michael Jackson was supposed to star in it at one point (perfect casting at the time).

 

Wrong. In an interview during the promo of Hook. Spielberg explains where this "Jackson involment" rumor comes from. This rumor was born from a misunderstanding during a press conference for Indiana Jones. Spielberg denied immediately during this conference but the other journalists kept only the question.
He admits that he discussed a musical project with him but that it had nothing to do with movie, more like a musical stage play project. And that it was nothing more than discussions.

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Here is the scan of that part of the interview where Spielberg talk about it. It is in french magazine Ciné-news (march-april 1992) (Hook was only released in April in France).

 

cinenewsinterview.jpg

 

Translated version

 

Quote

Cine-news: It's been a long time waiting for a Peter Pan from Steven Spielberg...
Steven Spielberg: I know. And some people were talking about Michael Jackson in the title role, which was completely wrong.
When I announced in 1985 that I was making a Peter Pan, it was supposed to be a very faithful version of the J.M. Barrie novel. I had a script in development. And I remember at a press conference for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in England, a journalist said in front of a couple of hundred other journalists, "I hear Michael Jackson is going to play Peter Pan." And, immediately, it became a worldwide rumor. For years, people thought I was doing a Peter Pan with Michael Jackson. Years later, I actually met Michael and we talked about doing a Peter Pan musical together one of these days. That was it: a conversation. It never went any further.

 

The false rumor of Captain Hook played by David Bowie is more tantalizing to me, as I am a fan of Labyrinth. He may have been considered for another project before (Spielberg or Halstrom) but never for Hook. Dustin Hoffman was one of the first to sign for Hook. Long before Spielberg.

 

It is not a genre of film but a style of music. In Hook, there is a little bit of rap in "Low below". I'm not sure if John Williams did rap in anything else.

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Actually, that corresponds very well with the Entertainment Weekly quotes and the Joseph McBride book (as well as the Douglas Brode book). Jackson was a candidate for Spielberg, they talked about it, and it turned out Jackson didn't like the vision of the Peter Pan story he was going for. So it was left there.

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18 hours ago, Goldfingers said:

The false rumor of Captain Hook played by David Bowie is more tantalizing to me, as I am a fan of Labyrinth.

 

David Bowie and Phil Collins in the same film!?

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