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John Powell - Wicked The Movie: Part One (2024), Coming This November


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How does that prove he's writing original score? Maybe he's just involved with orchestrating the songs.

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6 minutes ago, Jay said:

How does that prove he's writing original score? Maybe he's just involved with orchestrating the songs.

Not to mention, how does this confirm his involvement at all?

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Just now, mstrox said:

The director tagged him in the post.

He has been tagged in posts about this movie for while though, why all of a sudden is it confirmed?

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I suppose this is just the first time the John Williams Fan Network and its users paid attention to Wicked - or at least noticed the tags on its director’s Instagram page.

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8 minutes ago, mstrox said:

I suppose this is just the first time the John Williams Fan Network and its users paid attention to Wicked - or at least noticed the tags on its director’s Instagram page.

Except it isn't

 

 

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Is that Gavin Greenaway on the stand?

 

Look, Powell could very well do this, in whatever form.

I do think tge songs have been recorded, because snippets of it were in the trailers and they usually get recorded before filming.

 

If he is doing the score, it would be awesome!

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3 minutes ago, Smeltington said:

The film will need a score, and it would be strange if Powell was involved, but NOT with the actual scoring. 

He was score consultant/advisor on Encanto, which was scored by Germaine Franco....

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20 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

He was score consultant/advisor on Encanto, which was scored by Germaine Franco....

 

Well sheeeit. Although Franco was probably seen as appropriate for that project due to her background, with Powell providing "A-lister" advice. Kinda like Giacchino helping on Captain Marvel. But I guess it could go either way in this case.

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^^ Yesss! Finally confirmed.

You can’t imagine how happy I am after I started to follow this development for months!!

 

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My interest on this will depend on how much John Powell original score we will be getting. If he's only arranging the songs from the old Broadway show or whatever, then I have zero interest. Never cared for this kind of musicals and I personally think Powell's time could be better used writing a truly original score.

 

But if he's doing the score and writing quite a bit of music, even if including bits from the songs a la Alan Menken (I guess this is inevitable), then count me in!

 

Either way, there's two new JP works coming later this year: Wicked 1 and the Christmas Netflix movie. 

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2 hours ago, mstrox said:

I suppose this is just the first time the John Williams Fan Network and its users paid attention to Wicked - or at least noticed the tags on its director’s Instagram page.

I like Wicked!

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So there has been 2 separate orchestra sessions for this movie

(based on what I gathered form social media, mainly from Mike Knobloch's IG)

 

First, the orchestra session for the songs.

It appears that the movie version of the songs are still orchestrated and produced by the original Broadway's music team, led by the musical director Stephen Oremus

IMG_8816.jpeg

 

Seen here is Stephen Oremus conducting the orchestra for the songs

(this is from mid June, taken from Mike Knobloch's IG story):

image.jpeg

 

So that means, based on the above posts at least, John Powell will NOT be so much involved in the orchestration of the songs.

 

 

That brings to the second orchestra session that is currently happening in Air Lyndhurst Studio London,

which is probably for the score

IMG_8811.jpeg

 

This is from Mike Knobloch's IG story,

and if you can see closer, as @JNHFan2000 has pointed out,

this session is being conducted by Gavin Greenaway, which is Powell's frequent collaborator conductor 

image.jpeg

 

So based on all of those, John Powell's task will be a whole separate one from the songs,

which is of course, he is going to provide the underscore (Again, the underscore, not original score)

 

Let's wait until Powell himself explain this,

but I guess don't expect any "original score" from Powell for this one.

I assume the official credit will be similar to Solo Star Wars Story, which is probably going to be:

"Original Music and Lyric by Stephen Schwartz, Score Composed and Adapted by John Powell"

where Powell will adapt to his own liking and style, all of the already iconic themes from the songs, and I guess only create one original theme that represents something (Like how Christophe Beck has that one "danger theme" in Frozen's score)

 

 

The reason why I'm so excited for this, not because of Wicked (frankly, I don't really care for it),

but the chance to hear Powell's full blown fantasy score against these wonderful scenes as seen in this trailer!

 

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8 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

This is one of these many trailers recently that more or less l the whole story already. Rather a summary than a teaser. Terrible marketing. 

Ugh, we're back to the 90s?

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As a huge fan of Wicked, I couldn’t be more surprised (and excited!) for this news! I also just so happen to be in a massive John Powell phase at the moment (was listening to HTTYD 3 when I read the news). Can’t wait to see what he does with this!

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I also can’t imagine this trailer is going to spoil too much of the endgame to the play (since this year’s movie is also only the first half of the musical).

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Don't give half a shit about Wicked but I'm glad John Powell's doing it! Maybe his treatment will actually get me into the music.

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We now have an official update regarding John Powell's roles and capacities in this movie, confirmed by the original Broadway music composer himself Stephen Schwartz:

 

.....

 

Award-winning film composer John Powell is co-writing the Wicked movie score with Stephen Schwartz, with Powell providing the underscoring outside of the songs themselves.

 

In our brief June 18th email interview exclusive for The Schwartz Scene, Stephen writes, “I just spent the past week recording the live orchestra for all the song cues, and two weeks from now, John Powell will be coming to London to record the scoring cues. (I can’t be there for that because of conflicts with The Queen of Versailles rehearsals.)”

 

Stephen adds that his efforts have mainly been on “intros to songs and, for the most part but not entirely, music within songs. We have of course consulted closely with one another throughout the process.”

 

The following is the continuation of our email Q and A about recording sessions for the movie soundtrack:

 

Carol de Giere: How much is film scoring a different type of storytelling from writing an original musical? Do you have the image of the film in front of you?

 

Stephen Schwartz: I didn’t find the kind of scoring I did very different from underscoring a show. John Powell, as an experienced movie score composer, has a somewhat different approach, but we believe the two will meld seamlessly. And yes, of course, it’s impossible to score the film without watching it. I got and learned a new computer program (Logic) in order to allow me to score to picture.

 

de Giere: Did you expand the musical themes you already created or create new ones? What was it like writing for and working with a full orchestra compared with a Broadway orchestra?

 

Schwartz: I basically used the existing themes. John Powell may wind up creating some new themes, but I didn’t.

 

The orchestrations for the songs are by Jeff Atmajian, whom I found to be enormously gifted and who really seemed to get my style and intentions. They were based in most cases on the original Broadway orchestrations, but of course an orchestra of eighty or so musicians is going to have much more richness of sound than is achievable on Broadway.

 

The orchestra, made up of superb British musicians, was conducted by Stephen Oremus for the song cues, assisted by Dominic Amendum, and since both of them have spent years conducting and supervising the Broadway and touring shows, they know very well what is needed. The recording was done in the famous AIR Studios in London, which is a converted church with magnificent acoustics, especially for strings.

 

.....

Taken from:

https://www.theschwartzscene.com/quarterly-newsletter/issue-78-summer-2024-wicked-soundtrack/

 

----

 

John Powell did in fact write new themes! (yay!!)

 

And it looks like Powell's official credit won't be only adapting, but it's more of a co-composer type situation.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

There is a (big) possibility that there won’t be a score album for this movie, as indicated by the official soundtrack cover:

IMG_9432.jpeg
 


This is sadly in line with how Powell not even once promote the movie in his Instagram, like he usually does, even though his involvement has been made public for months. 😔

 

A new trailer will be released today, and if he doesn’t repost or mention it, then that further confirms it.


(But who knows, maybe he will surprise us with score album, but as the fact stands now, don’t put hope 😔)

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Since when do musical movies have a lot of original score in them?

 

This movie is going to be mostly songs, with small amounts of score that just references the songs, I'd imagine.

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Two parts? I don't care how popular the stage show is, this seems ambitious, especially for a musical. Feels like something that was planned back when people will still going to the movies and willing to buy tickets to this kind of thing.

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I also find it interesting that Powell has not once posted or mentioned anything about this. Almost makes me wonder that he's more of a consultant or something than the composer. But that's just a guess.

 

 

 

And I'm confused about the two parts, because all the trailers have shown stuff from the entire storyline of the musical.

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Maybe someone could ask Powell on social media about the extent of his involvement, if they're going to release a score album, etc? He seems to be very open with his fans on Instagram.

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“Wicked 2″ has changed its release date, bumping up five days to open Nov. 21, 2025.

 

The sequel was previously slated for Nov. 26, 2025, which would have put it up against Disney’s “Zootopia 2.”

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/wicked-2-moves-up-release-date-1236142134/

 

Is Powell also confirmed for Part 2?

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A snippett of John Powell’s score in this reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_58-iapKXi/?igsh=MXc4eTl5MnIwZzlnbA==
 

Clearly sounds Powelly 😍


—-

 

You can find more Powell’s music in the story section of Universal Pictures Brasil’s Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/universalpicsbr?igsh=ZGczeTRuMXB4eWk4


Here, I recorded them for you so you don’t have to bother searching for it:

 


Really can’t wait for the score release!

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What? Upcoming Projects are the films that they are working on, it doesn't mean soundtrack albums. It's unlikely there will be a separate score album, nor that he'll need to write new themes of his own for the score. That's not really how movie musicals work. The film will be dominated by songs, with Powell score in between at times that mostly riffs on the song melodies. And I'd only expect one soundtrack album, that has all the songs and if we're lucky a few score cuts.

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24 minutes ago, Jay said:

What? Upcoming Projects are the films that they are working on, it doesn't mean soundtrack albums. It's unlikely there will be a separate score album, nor that he'll need to write new themes of his own for the score. That's not really how movie musicals work. The film will be dominated by songs, with Powell score in between at times that mostly riffs on the song melodies. And I'd only expect one soundtrack album, that has all the songs and if we're lucky a few score cuts.

 

Well, the info is taken from 5 Cat Studios website https://5catstudios.com/listen

and that is not a composer/artist's website.

 

But that is a record label's website, and it's John Powell's record label.

The term "upcoming projects" here is different and doesn't apply to your explaination.

 

And if you look at the link I shared above:

Screen Shot 2024-09-22 at 22.25.14.png

^^

Wicked (Score) belongs to the SOUNDTRACK ALBUM section/coloumn, which indicates that Wicked is an album in production.

 

And tell me, based on all of that list, which album that didn't get a release? They all did

 

And one more thing, why even put the term "Wicked (Score)" and the time "December"; even though we all know the movie is released on November 22; if it's not in fact an information of the score album release

 

So based on all of that, there will absolutely be a separate Wicked (Score) album release.

(at least for now)

 

 

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Oh I see.  You're saying that since the song album will surely be on a major labor, the 5 Cat Studios album would therefore have to be a score-only album.

 

I understand now.

 

I hope you're right!

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43 minutes ago, PrayodiBA said:

 

Well, the info is taken from 5 Cat Studios website https://5catstudios.com/listen

and that is not a composer/artist's website.

 

But that is a record label's website, and it's John Powell's record label.

The term "upcoming projects" here is different and doesn't apply to your explaination.

 

 

TBF It's also a Music Production Studio though.

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15 minutes ago, Jay said:

Nice find!

 

Here's a direct link to the music file

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-popular.mp3

 

28 minutes ago, Gabriel Bezerra said:

Promotional site for the movie:
https://www.shizuniversity.com/en
 

After you click enter you are greeted with a score cue by John Powell


 

And here is the link to the super wonderful score cue by John Powell on the home page:

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-home.mp3

 

Just wow, wow, JOHN FREAKIN’ POWELL!! 😍😍


——-


And you can also hear more score in one of the video on that web, watch it starting from this moment:

 

Sounds truly beautiful as well!

It’s as if this is John Powell’s answer for his own version of Harry Potter score

 

Wow, my anticipation for the score has just gone through the roof!

Can’t wait for the score album!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Clicking your first link just redirected me to her page in generall, but this link seems to have the music you put in your first clip

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAt-FIQNijt/

 

Is this music also Powell?

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAoHxpKMXAD/

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6 hours ago, Jay said:

Clicking your first link just redirected me to her page in generall, but this link seems to have the music you put in your first clip

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAt-FIQNijt/

 

Is this music also Powell?

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAoHxpKMXAD/

Oh yeah, I missed to put the exact link.

Yes, that’s the correct link.

 

For the second link, I think it is. It has a strong characteristic of a Powell cue.

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I remember a satellite service tie in to HTTYD2 had a demo/mockup/synth recreation of music from the score lol

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