JW Fan Questions for Laurent Bouzereau

[mahler3 548]

If you would like to ask Laurent anything about John Williams please post here and I’ll ask on your behalf for an FSMO interview.

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

Thanks for asking.

 

I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if a physical release of the documentary is ever going to happen.

[Joe Brausam 231]

Are there any special considerations you take when creating a documentary about an individual who still maintains a professional career?

[BB-8 6,118]

8 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Thanks for asking.

 

I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if a physical release of the documentary is ever going to happen.

A question I didn't dare to ask - but a good one.

 

Has Williams not approved?

[Jurassic Shark 16,373]

Please ask if Bouzereau could do an extended series of Spielberg's and others' recording session footage of JW.

[Bespin Copilot 10,735]

And, if possible, with some elements at the wrong speed to maintain a certain continuity.

[Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld 97]

Hey @mahler3, thanks for asking! I'm curious if Mr. Bouzereau, in all these years as a documentarian for Amblin, has ever seen a rough cut of any of the movies, or maybe a cut with a temp score?

 

And with 2027 approaching, is there maybe a new retrospective doc in the works about the making of the first Star Wars?

[Jurassic Shark 16,373]

Please ask when he expects to be finished with the unaltered OT.

[wickerman 38]

I really like Lauren’t book about Spielberg’s first 10 years so my questions would be:

 

- Are we gonna see pt. 2 covering 1990-2000s

- Is he considering similar coffee table book on John Williams ?

[SF1_freeze 138]

Could you ask Laurent if during all his behind the scenes work he got any insight into John Williams work method regarding general thematic cataloguing. This is still a bit of a mystery for me. Does John Williams create a sort of fact sheet with all important themes and motifs for each score. Something like this i asume would also be needed for orchestrators, music editors and directors to identify all the thematic material in a given score.

It would be so interesting, how JW approached this topic over his career.

[BB-8 6,118]

This may be a somewhat delicate topic… Those of us who followed Behind the Moon by JW's biographer TG know how long and arduous the process was to secure the maestro's blessing for a written biography - marked by frustrations, setbacks, and unexpected turns.

 

My question is: how did Laurent experience the development of the cinematic biography? Was it an automatic win facilitated by Spielberg (the one person Williams never says 'no' to) and/or the Disney brand, or did similar doubts and obstacles arise along the way?

[Rachael Foley 10,032]

4 hours ago, SF1_freeze said:

Could you ask Laurent if during all his behind the scenes work he got any insight into John Williams work method regarding general thematic cataloguing. This is still a bit of a mystery for me. Does John Williams create a sort of fact sheet with all important themes and motifs for each score. Something like this i asume would also be needed for orchestrators, music editors and directors to identify all the thematic material in a given score.

It would be so interesting, how JW approached this topic over his career.

"5 films, with this huge glossary of themes, and we have no love theme"

 

Han Solo and the Princess:

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,908]

What's your favourite cake?

Sorry; all the good questions were gone.

[BB-8 6,118]

"And tell us honestly: did you have to send cookies?"

[Rachael Foley 10,032]

Does John Williams communicate in a "music first" way? (I hope this makes sense?)

[Marian Schedenig 11,611]

2 hours ago, BB-8 said:

My question is: how did Laurent experience the development of the cinematic biography? Was it an automatic win facilitated by Spielberg (the one person Williams never says 'no' to) and/or the Disney brand, or did similar doubts and obstacles arise along the way?

 

 

 

[Amer 2,722]

2 hours ago, The Score Cleaner said:

"5 films, with this huge glossary of themes, and we have no love theme"

 

Han Solo and the Princess:

 

That guy is legend meme and from my Country. Plus the flag!!

[mahler3 548]

Ok thank you for (most of) these suggestions.

 

 

[Amer 2,722]

He produced the Indiana Jones Trilogy box set. How did that project came to be and what challenges did he face in bringing that to fruition?

[crumbs 15,934]

I'd love to know if he has any cool pieces of JW or Spielberg media that can't be released, and what his favourite is?
 

I assume lots of cool stuff never gets released because JW or SS don't approve, or licensing/cost issues. He produced the Concord Indy box so presumably he has the complete recording sessions of that trilogy.

 

And it's a tangent but I'd love to know if he sees deleted scenes or early cuts of Spielberg films when making his featurettes. Did he ever see the big 'Camelot' deleted scene from WOTW, or the Pirate Town musical sequence for Hook? Does he ever try to convince Spielberg to release them?

[BB-8 6,118]

7 hours ago, mahler3 said:

Ok thank you for (most of) these suggestions.

 

 

[mahler3 548]

😳I can’t unsee this! Thank you 🫣

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

[Marian Schedenig 11,611]

10 hours ago, BB-8 said:

17 hours ago, mahler3 said:

Expand  

 

[Laserschwert 674]

I would love to know what William's workflow is when writing a sequel score. Especially with something like SW, when getting to movie #9, and he returns to a theme from an earlier movie, does he know all the themes he wrote for all the other movies by heart? Does he dig out the sheet music to refamiliarize himself with what he did before?

[Chen G. 6,065]

In some cases we know he dug up the score, but usually not when he's reprising a theme but an entire chunk of music: he did it for The Rise of Skywalker when Luke lifts the X-Wing from the water and they reprise the same music as Yoda doing the same in The Empire Strikes Back. That entailed digging up the score. I imagine similar exercises in Revenge of the Sith and elsewhere required the same.

 

For just reprising themes I think it's more intuitive than that. It's not a litany of short motives like Wagner in the 1870s harkening back the falling tritone figure that Wellgunde used to lead Alberich on in Rhinegold, composed 1853.

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

12 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

For just reprising themes I think it's more intuitive than that. It's not a litany of short motives like Wagner in the 1870s harkening back the falling tritone figure that Wellgunde used to lead Alberich on in Rhinegold, composed 1853.

[Chen G. 6,065]

The point there's a difference between reprising Yoda's theme, and reprising some little scrap of melody from Return of the Jedi. Nobody in 2019 will have heard, say, the Luke and Leia theme and went "goodness, how on earth did you remember this was even a thing, John?"

 

Now, if it were that little woodwind figure from Shmi's music from Attack of the Clones...

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

Just funning. You don't need to explain anything to me...more than twice. lol

[Laserschwert 674]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

The point there's a difference between reprising Yoda's theme, and reprising some little scrap of melody from Return of the Jedi. Nobody in 2019 will have heard, say, the Luke and Leia theme and went "goodness, how on earth did you remember this was even a thing, John?"

 

Now, if it were that little woodwind figure from Shmi's music from Attack of the Clones...

So you think he has memorized each and every major theme he's ever written? Not in their fully arranged form, but as their basic melody line?

 

I think this would be an interesting question for Bouzereau to ask him.

[Nathan95 76]

Are there any rare pieces of archival footage he felt should be seen but didn't make it in the documentary, specifically from recording sessions or concerts?

[Brando 2,768]

On 04/12/2025 at 1:03 AM, crumbs said:

And it's a tangent but I'd love to know if he sees deleted scenes or early cuts of Spielberg films when making his featurettes. Did he ever see the big 'Camelot' deleted scene from WOTW, or the Pirate Town musical sequence for Hook? Does he ever try to convince Spielberg to release them?

I second this! It's annoying that we have all 3 versions of Close Encounters all on 4K, yet for whatever reason, won't release deleted scenes from his Jurassic and Indy movies. Some movies he'll allow them to be released and others he won't, but why, it's such a shame.

[mahler3 548]

Thank you all for these. 
 

The interview will be published at FSMO next week and I’ll follow up on some of your ?s.

 

[TownerBarry 1]

Since Disney is cleaning up The Original George Lucas Star Wars release of 1977 …Are they also working on A John Williams Box Set of Star Wars, TESB, or much needed help of The Return of the Jedi? Alternates, Unused, and on and on. 
 

thanks 

[mahler3 548]

Hello ! Lucasfilm cut some questions I’m afraid, but I can summarise a couple of anecdotes:

 

There won’t be a physical media release due to the costs involved in licensing the clips and the music cues. As you’ll hear during the interview there were 1 or 2 pieces which Laurent really wanted to license for the documentary, but his lawyers couldn’t get approval. Likewise, the many hours of footage and interviews filmed would need music and film clips, so even if these were released digitally Laurent wouldn’t want them used unless they had the audio and visual coupling inserted to add the context.

 

Regarding the question about working with JW and talking about retrospective scores, off camera Laurent would often be politely requested to not talk about his older scores because JW doesn’t like looking backwards. That would be a challenge for LB’s line of work, but that’s his skill at being able to make JW feel comfortable and relaxed enough to look back when the camera is turned on.

Some of you might be interested to see this video introduction from last year. The new audio interview is published in the latest FSMO.

 

 

 

[crumbs 15,934]

41 minutes ago, mahler3 said:

Hello ! Lucasfilm cut some questions I’m afraid

 

Interesting... Was the interview authorized through Lucasfilm?

 

Any chance you can tell us what questions they cut? 

[bollemanneke 4,321]

Why are digital licenses far easier to arrange than physical release licenses? Anyway, thanks a lot for the answers.

[BB-8 6,118]

What if the Disney servers crash?

[crumbs 15,934]

1 hour ago, bollemanneke said:

Why are digital licenses far easier to arrange than physical release licenses? Anyway, thanks a lot for the answers.

 

I assume it's the same legalistic nonsense that prevents the labels from licensing digital/streaming rights on expansions.

[Marian Schedenig 11,611]

It's quite absurd… I'd happily pay them for a physical release. I'm not going to pay them to watch Disney+.

[BB-8 6,118]

I've been a John Williams devotee since 1978, yet "Music by John Williams" remains out of reach - courtesy of this bloodsucking subscription culture.

[Marian Schedenig 11,611]

There are ways…

[BB-8 6,118]

[Jurassic Shark 16,373]

On 16/12/2025 at 4:46 PM, BB-8 said:

I've been a John Williams devotee since 1978, yet "Music by John Williams" remains out of reach - courtesy of this bloodsucking subscription culture.

 

But you'll get Bambi as well. 

[Brando 2,768]

@mahler3 something I was randomly thinking about the other day…who’s idea was it to open the documentary with the orchestra chit chatting and tuning only for it to die down and then the opening of Jaws begins to play? Whoever came up with that idea was a genius because that was such a fantastic way to hook the viewer in the first minute.

[BB-8 6,118]

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

On 16/12/2025 at 5:12 AM, bollemanneke said:

Why are digital licenses far easier to arrange than physical release licenses? Anyway, thanks a lot for the answers.

China has figured all of this out. 

 

2 hours ago, Brando said:

@mahler3 something I was randomly thinking about the other day…who’s idea was it to open the documentary with the orchestra chit chatting and tuning only for it to die down and then the opening of Jaws begins to play? Whoever came up with that idea was a genius because that was such a fantastic way to hook the viewer in the first minute.

 

Just going by memory, I think it's the same audio clip that Bouzereau used to introduce Williams' segment in his 20th anniversary 'Jaws' documentary.

[Martinland 415]

...meanwhile the Morricone documentary "Ennio", which has been directed by Tornatore, one of his main collaborators, himself, and which runs even longer, which has a real scope ratio (not plain lazy 16:9 w/ letterboxing modern TV format as Bouzereau's) so that excerpts from anamorphic feature films really fill the ((home) cinema) screen (saw it at the movie theatre initially), and which had many more international movies to deal with as Morricone was quite prolific ... is available outside of China on physical media, even good ole DVD.

 

*sigh*

 

I started to lose faith in the mouse house ever since they gulped up Lucasfilm...

 

*doublesigh*

[Brando 2,768]

5 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Just going by memory, I think it's the same audio clip that Bouzereau used to introduce Williams' segment in his 20th anniversary 'Jaws' documentary.

Is it? I don't seem to remember that...either way, brilliant idea!

[Mr. Hooper 8,686]

54 minutes ago, Brando said:

Is it? I don't seem to remember that...either way, brilliant idea!

Now that I think about it, it might've been only on the Signature Collection laserdisc, and was taken out for the edited version of the documentary on the 25th anniversary DVD...

 

It's been so long since I've seen either. Maybe @Andy can confirm.