Variety: For ‘Indiana Jones 5,‘ John Williams Scored ’An Hour and a Half of Music, Maybe More’

[Cerebral Cortex 3,357]

Not sure if this has been shared anywhere yet.

 

Variety: For ‘Indiana Jones 5,‘ John Williams Scored ’An Hour and a Half of Music, Maybe More’

 

Quote

The composer finished recording the score for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on Feb. 10 and, while he suggested last summer that the final Harrison Ford adventure would be the last of his 100-plus film scores, that’s not quite the truth.

“I might have meant that at the moment,” he says with a smile, “but you never want to say no unequivocally. If Steven or another director should come along with something that is so moving that you want to drop the phone and rush to the piano and have it all come out — should that happen, with the appropriate energy needed to do it, I wouldn’t rule out a situation like that.”

Recording for the final “Indiana Jones” film – and three of the previous editions, starting with 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” were Oscar-nominated for their music – began last June 28, and has continued off and on since then.

“It’s certainly got to be an hour and a half of music, maybe more,” Williams estimates. “But I’m quite happy with it. There’s a lot of new material. The old material works very well as a touchstone of memory, but I had great fun, and I have a theme that I’ve written for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the wonderful actress.” She plays Helena Shaw, reportedly Indy’s goddaughter.

Williams introduced her theme last summer at the Hollywood Bowl at the suggestion of director James Mangold. “And I enjoyed doing it last week with the San Francisco Symphony with [violinist] Anne-Sophie Mutter, who I arranged it for, for that concert. And I think I’ll play it in Chicago next month.”

The composer praised the script and performances of both Ford and Waller-Bridge in the film, which opens June 30. “Harrison is wonderful in it. He looks great, he moves beautifully. The best part of it for me is the writing and the interplay of dialogue between Harrison and Phoebe, like the old-style Hepburn-and-Tracy kind of bickering. It’s witty and bright and snappy, like a duet that goes on for two hours.”

The “Indiana Jones” scores, Williams notes, “are unified by Indy’s theme, and the general style of the film, which is in my mind a kind of action-comedy, because you never take the action seriously. It’s certainly a swashbuckling affair from beginning to end, fashioned more like movies of the ’30s and ’40s where the orchestra is racing along with the action, which you wouldn’t do in contemporary films very much.”

He liked working with Mangold, who he described as “ebullient” and “a lovely man. He’s done a very, very expert job on a very difficult kind of film to make.”

 

Some great other bits in there too about various things.

 

Edit: Thanks for making this its own thread, Jay. I'm always scared to pull the trigger on those things.

[Tom 4,630]

Nice article.  I would like to have read that the piano concerto is underway, but such is life.  I hope we get a couple other big themes from Indy.

[Brando 1,848]

23 minutes ago, Cerebral Cortex said:

“But I’m quite happy with it. There’s a lot of new material. The old material works very well as a touchstone of memory, but I had great fun, and I have a theme that I’ve written for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the wonderful actress.”

Sweet!

[King Mark 3,624]

there's probably 2 hours and a half but he doesn't remember

[Jay 37,249]

Or he scored an hour and a half and someone else scored the rest 

[Faleel 5,326]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Or he scored an hour and a half and someone else scored the rest 

Lin-Manuel Miranda

[Stark 306]

It’s Hans Zimmer. The great collaboration of our time!

[mrbellamy 6,270]

Honestly it would be so refreshing if this is an indication that the movie is under 2 hours. 

[Manakin Skywalker 4,889]

Reminds me of this classic...

 

 

[Pawel P. 738]

Great reading! And the second concert in Japan, in Tokyo. Higher chance that one of them will be filmed.

[crumbs 14,287]

Great news! Though Mangold said the Dial of Destiny score was 2 hours long before they'd even finished recording?

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,488]

Is it possible to have "scored an hour and a half of music"?

Surely it should read: "scored an hour and a half of the film"?

[JohnnyD 1,220]

15 hours ago, crumbs said:

Great news!

 

“…maybe more.” Basically, the Maestro scored OVER 90 minutes of music, hence “2 hours of brilliant music”; hence, “it’s a huge score and 99% in the film.”

[Brando 1,848]

2 hours ago, crumbs said:

Dildo of Destiny

[Edmilson 7,367]

We are only going to listen to 60 minutes of movie cues on the OST album anyway (the other 15 minutes will be concert arrangements).

[Faleel 5,326]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Is it possible to have "scored an hour and a half of music"?

Surely it should read: "scored an hour and a half of the film"?

Well, when they write music, they write it down on a score.

[artguy360 1,842]

Every time I click this thread I get more and more excited for this score and OST. I am beyond hyped for more JW in Indy music mode. 

[Cerebral Cortex 3,357]

13 minutes ago, artguy360 said:

Every time I click this thread I get more and more excited for this score and OST. I am beyond hyped for more JW in Indy music mode. 

 

I feel in retrospect the Disney ST almost served as an exercise for Williams to get back into blockbuster mode. I personally feel like the action music got better in each entry. Imagine him now getting to do another big blockbuster but with a film that might actually inspire him creatively and with a character he cares about.

[King Mark 3,624]

well we'll have the OST and the Oscar promo with some unreleased music in 128kbps MP3's

[Garrett 153]

As a comparison, how much music did he write for the other four Indy films?

 

It's good to hear that he wrote a lot of new material. In my opinion, the Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker scores suffered from too much rehashing of old material.

[Chewy 2,372]

5 hours ago, crumbs said:

Though Mangold said the Duomo of Destiny score was 2 hours long before they'd even finished recording?

Fixed

[crocodile 7,973]

Oh so they dropped 30 minutes of the score already Empire-style? 😏

 

Karol

[crumbs 14,287]

Reassuring tweet from Mangold about the music's treatment in the sound mix!

 

[TolkienSS 405]

On 24/02/2023 at 10:50 PM, Stark said:

It’s Hans Zimmer. The great collaboration of our time!

 

You know, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.