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Steven Spielberg is Making a John Williams Documentary


Manakin Skywalker

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3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Agreed.  I understand his reliance on canned stories, assuming extemporaneous public speaking isn't his forte, but I mean.... you gotta find new bits.

 

"Maybe if I keep repeating this story over and over again...all these journalists will finally leave me in peace." - JW probably :P

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5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Agreed.  I understand his reliance on canned stories, assuming extemporaneous public speaking isn't his forte, but I mean.... you gotta find new bits.

It's so overused that it's become a reddit staple (along the likes of the Steve Buscemi firefighter story)

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4 hours ago, Andy said:

What should the title be?

 

Maestro?

 

A simple Williams will work. Or Johnny.

 

I really don't think Spielberg will go into something more over-the-top like

Williams. Raider of the Lost Art or Williams. Led by the Force. ;)

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Spielberg:

Quote

Well, my first film Duel had four letters, so I knew I had to make Jaws because like the killer truck, it had a 4 letter title.

So I'll be titling my Williams biography with 4 letters, "John".

;)

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I would love to see something like that Light & Magic documentary on Williams, hours and hours of unseen sessions footage, intermixed with interviews here and there to explain stories.

 

What would be more disappointing would be a short biography that mostly focuses on stuff we already know

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12 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

Don't mind him, he's just continuing a running joke between them on my server (he wasn't referring to the JWFan server).

 

Very coincidental timing then (plus I usually am bad at picking out "played up antagonism" humor)

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19 minutes ago, Andy said:

I don’t want to say I’ll believe it when I see it, but it is… odd the way he quickly gets away from talking about Williams. 

 

Maybe he just didn't plan to announce it or give more info, and it just slipped out?

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Biopics are by and large pretty terrible, I’m not a fan of them at all so I’m glad it won’t be one of those. Too many of them either fabricate drama that never happened or gloss over the most interesting parts of the subject’s lives. I suppose documentaries can do this as well but it’s less transparent when it happens.

 

Williams deserves an intricate, authentic and feature-length (at least) documentary about him, actually directed by Spielberg. As others have noted it better not be some short puff piece - Williams has lived an extraordinary life and it needs to be told well.

 

We know next to nothing about this project but I’d be disappointed if Spielberg was only producing it and not actually doing the work of putting it together himself; I can’t imagine anyone else who’d tell the man’s life story better.

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12 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Possibly unpopular opinion, but if it's Spielberg making it, I don't want him to do a documentary about Williams' life or entire career, I'd want it to be just a portrait of their collaboration specifically


I don’t mind that at all, I think it would be a great focal point for the story being told.

 

Holding out hope that in addition to the recording sessions Spielberg also filmed a bunch of footage of the writing process, playing the themes and ideas on the piano etc. Much like that brilliant ESB documentary by the BBC.

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Hmmm, I have to respectfully disagree with @Disco Stu and @Docteur Qui being okay if it focuses simply on the Spielberg collaboration. That’s where most of the information out there already comes from. Interviews, Spielberg written liner notes for every album, the DVD bonus from their Collaboration box set.  It’s the ground that’s been tread most heavily.  There’s so much more to his life story than that.  And more to his compositions than film music for that matter.   His personal life is rather interesting too. 
 

Maybe I’m greedy but I want it all. 

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15 hours ago, BB-8 said:

"I just want to write Johnny a theme."

"I am many things. But one thing I am not, is an easy person to say no to!"

 

12 hours ago, Andy said:

What should the title be?

 

Maestro?

Title: Many Things

 

Tagline: All the other composers were dead...

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46 minutes ago, Andy said:

His personal life is rather interesting too. 

Really? From what I know about JW, his personal life wasn't as "interesting" as the lives from rockstars and such, which usually include "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll". Sure, he became widowed and married a second time, but this is something that also happened with many people.  

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8 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Really? From what I know about JW, his personal life wasn't as "interesting" as the lives from rockstars and such, which usually include "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll". Sure, he became widowed and married a second time, but this is something that also happened with many people.  

 

Yes, but he eloped. That's probably a film in itself.

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It just occured to me that Spielberg might be talking about a, let's say, 20-minute featurette to be included on the FABELMANS Blu-ray/DVD release. I hope not, though, and that it's more substantial than that.

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Basically, to me it is unclear, If Spielberg is actually directing the documentary, producing it or just acting in it. 

He just said, "We are making a documentary on the life of John Williams." That could mean different things, depending on who "we" is.

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14 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Possibly unpopular opinion, but if it's Spielberg making it, I don't want him to do a documentary about Williams' life or entire career, I'd want it to be just a portrait of their collaboration specifically

 

I agree mostly in the sense that a movie just about the two of them would be the best way to max out Spielberg's video archives. It's just tough to say because what I really want out of a doc on their collaboration is somebody else interviewing them together supplemented with clips from the films, sessions footage from Spielberg and anything unused that Bouzerau shot for the DVD featurettes, and comments from anybody in post-production. Especially Michael Kahn/Carol Littleton, musicians, and people from the music or sound departments. 

 

I also just think any documentary on JW's entire life and career would inevitably have the effect of giving some things short shrift as these things do. And the Spielberg collab would still end up being so dominant anyway while having to hold back material, you'd kinda want to see a doc on that alone.

 

I'd love to live in a world where John Williams got the "Last Dance" treatment but I don't think even Spielberg could justify producing something like that. Watching an episode of JW talking about Lost in Space doesn't have the same appeal as Michael Jordan in North Carolina and JW isn't as dramatic anyway. I'd still love a basic 2 hour doc mostly about the greatest hits with some segments on his personal life and non-film career, a lot of stories we've heard and some we haven't, lots of clips of him working. Maybe some "day in the life" stuff of him playing piano at home, or any home video clips his family would share. I'd watch it a million times. 

 

My only true fear for this thing would be a "star studded event" where it's like Chris Pratt going "When I was a little kid and I heard the Jurassic Park theme" *clip of Jurassic Park* "That was awesome. And now to be here and the music of John Williams continues to be such an important part of the Jurassic family" *clip of Jurassic World: Dominion* "What a legacy." 

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3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Basically, to me it is unclear, If Spielberg is actually directing the documentary, producing it or just acting in it. 

He just said, "We are making a documentary on the life of John Williams." That could mean different things, depending on who "we" is.

 

It could mean many things, but probably not a thing we could say no to.

 

You're right of course, though, and it was one of my first thoughts as well. It could be a rather short affair, a feature-length film, or a multi episode miniseries; it could be directed by Spielberg or just produced by him, or he might just be one of the people appearing in it; it could focus primarily on JW's life (as suggested by the Spielberg quote), or his film scores, or his music in general, or his Spielberg scores in particular. And of course the question is, as has been mentioned multiple times, how much use will be made of Spielberg's own recording session films. Having a release that adds some material from them as a bonus (like the DVD of Karlin's Goldsmith documentary) would probably be the best outcome.

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It’s official https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/john-williams-documentary-in-the-works-from-steven-spielberg-1235305362/

Quote

 

The composer behind the scores for 'Star Wars,' the 'Indiana Jones' movies, and 'Jurassic Park' gets the spotlight.

 

---

 

You know his music. Now, you’ll be able to know him.

John Williams, the legendary screen composer behind some of the most recognized movie themes of all time, is now the subject of a feature-length documentary, with his long-time collaborator Steven Spielberg among those spearheading the project.

 

Amblin Television, Imagine Documentaries and Nedland Media are in the very early stages of production on the documentary that is being directed by Laurent Bouzereau. Bouzereau is a long-time director of “making of” and behind-the-scenes featurettes, producing a several hundred of them since the 1990s, including dozens for Spielberg movies.  

 

Spielberg is executive producing along with Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Justin Wilkes, Sara Bernstein and Meredith Kaulfers.

 

Williams is the most recognized and accomplished composer alive and perhaps the most influential in movie history, writing scores for such films as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman, Jaws and Harry Potter. And it’s his unique 50-year relationship with Spielberg that is remarkable in an industry that resists longevity and eager to chase the next big (and usually young) thing.

 

Williams, now 90, was expected to retire after finishing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, being directed by James Mangold. But at a talk with Spielberg on stage earlier this month, Williams surprised his friend saying that he no longer planned on retiring after the next Indiana Jones film. A visibly emotional Spielberg remarked he better figure out what film he was doing next, then.

 

Spielberg went on to sum up their 50-year relationship as like an ideal marriage. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a disagreement,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “I mean, what am I going to do? Sit down and write the music myself?”

 

With a career spanning more than six decades, Willams has composed the music and served as music director for more than one hundred films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone and The Book Thief. 

 

His nearly 50-year artistic partnership with Spielberg includes the aforementioned Raiders and Jaws as well Schindler’s List, E.T., Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG, The Post, and the filmmaker’s current feature, The Fabelmans.

 

He began his career working on hundreds of episodes of television in the early days of network broadcasting, composing music for the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island and shows such as Lost in Space. He also created themes for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), NBC’s Meet the Press, and the PBS arts showcase Great Performances. And he has also composed themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. With five Academy Awards and fifty-two Oscar nominations, he is the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars, after Walt Disney.

 

In 2016, Williams received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute — the first time in its history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer.

 

Williams was named the nineteenth music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1980, and currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993. He also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood. 

 

And while he does not reside in Los Angeles, he has become part of the fabric of the city and a summer time fixture thanks to decades of annual concerts at the Hollywood Bowl over the course of the Labour Day weekend that attract audiences both young and old.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

OH GOD I'D FORGOTTEN ABOUT HIM KEEP BOUZEREAU AWAY FROM THIS PROJECT

 

11 minutes ago, Gibster said:

the documentary that is being directed by Laurent Bouzereau. Bouzereau

 

Now we just need confirmation from Zimmer.

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Guiseppe Tornatore writes and directs heartfelt documentary about long-time friend and artistic collaborator Ennio Morricone. 

 

Steven Spielberg writes and directs hires Laurent Bouzereau to write and direct heartfelt documentary about long-time friend and artistic collaborator John Williams. 

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