ST John Williams scored TFA - incl. Soundtrack discussion

In web docs for episode III, I remember him talking about just starting work on the score as little as only about 4 or 5 months before the movie is released. So yeah I'd say about 6 or 7 months before release sounds about right I guess. I would imagine the writing would be the most time consuming part, followed by the mixing and editing it into the film.

 

Williams is really the only reason that I hope they don't take too much time with this trilogy, and can stick to the original two year plan after Episode VII. He seems to be in good health, but he isn't young and it would be a huge loss for this trilogy if he were unable to complete it. However good or bad these films end up being, I know I can count John Williams to elevate them and give us something to love about them that we can pretty much all agree on.

 

Regarding the future of Williams post-VII, even if God forbid he is unable to do the rest of the trilogy, VIII and IX will credit him due to the use of the Star Wars Main Theme. That, imo, is one of the best things about these movies.

 

If John Williams wasn't available, if I were JJ, I'd be tempted just to use his previous scores rather than have someone else score something that would be second rate (compared to Williams). He's that fundamental to 'Star Wars'.

 

Though I agree Williams is iconic and should be first-choice, there's been excellent Star Wars music made without him.

Mark Griskey has done some spectacular work over KOTOR II, The Old Republic and The Force Unleashed. Even his unused tracks are lovely:


Joel McNeely somehow managed to make a waltz work for Star Wars, and it's magnificent:


Longtime JJ Abrams collaborator Michael Giacchino is the perfect stand-in, having worked with Williams already on the Star Tours II score. His work on John Carter has been mentioned before in this thread.


One of the things I'm looking forward to most is hearing new themes and hearing how the old ones will be developed. I'd rather someone took that mantle on if John Williams couldn't for whatever reason.

 

Oh I agree - I'm really looking forward to new the themes the most... but I still think any composer (no matter their merits) could not compete with Williams work. I thought Nicholas Hooper's work on the Harry Potter films was very good, but ultimately inferior to Williams (IMHO).

 

With or without Williams the movies will of course still use his themes. And of course Giacchino will step in if god forbid Williams cant continue (which given his age, unfortunately, seems likely) who is todays' John Willliams. He will do a marvelous job. Im admittedly dissapointed that he wont be trying his hand at the score for VII. Hoperfully there may be room for him to collaborate with John.

 

Well, regardless of how the actual movies turn out, the score will be as fantastic as always.

 

I was going to bring Harry Potter up as an example. I haven't seen the films but JW did score the first one and I'm sure they use his themes throughout. Him scoring Episode VII will set the stage for the motifs used in Episode VIII and IX (and perhaps X-XII).

During the sequel trilogy, he would record the score in February. For whatever that's worth. I'm sure as filming commences, he'll have regular meetings with JJA to go over the tone, characters, scenes.

The quality of his work has gone down in my opinion since TPM, his last legendary score (I can probably be convinced of the ROTS score). I hope he has it in him for 1-3 more goes at it. I would want no one else while he is able.


** Let's hope the sequel trilogy are not like my three above posts, disjointed and meandering.

 

The first 3 HP films were scored by Williams... and they are excellent scores, with themes and cues as good as he's ever done. Hooper's scores for HP, while being perfectly fine, are as different as Williams score for Superman: The Movie and Superman Returns.

Whilst Ep IV will be the focus, I have a feeling that Williams will be scoring for the entire ST over the next 12 months... This way they can record several additional pieces and have additional score unused if Williams, for whatever reason, was unable to continue after the first film.

 

I suppose I would be okay if there were other composers for episodes VIII and IX, since John Williams will have already laid down the groundwork for the ST with episode VII for them to build off of.

As long as they use his classic themes as well, and don't change them up at all purely for the sake of changing – kind of like what was done for the score for Jurassic park III. The composer there changed up the themes just to make it sound fresh and new. That was unnecessary.

So as long as any future composers leave the familiar themes exactly as they are, I would be willing to accept any new contributions they have…

Although of course I would prefer JW to do all of them. If they stick with the "every two years" schedule, I think this would be doable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Nice to see this confirmed. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, I don't really know many Star Wars fans anymore so I don't get the chance to gush. Is Star Wars really Star Wars without a score by John Williams - or at least a score written in the style of John Williams, at the very least? It's been said in many documentaries that the traditional music, along with the three-dimensional characters, are what give us emotional investment in a Star Wars film. The music is one of the puzzle pieces that elevates Star Wars beyond action, wonder, and spectacle. I don't know about you guys, but when I watch Star Wars, I can become as emotional a happy Sith, and a lot of it has to do with the music. I get the same way when I watch Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones - or other Williams-scored masterpieces. He really knows how to fill you with "dem feels".

I wonder what kind of variations we're going to see with the motifs. How is he going to mix up classic themes? Will we get another legendary duel theme like Fates or Heroes?

Super excited for this score.

 

If Johnny doesn't make it through the whole ST, I hope whoever takes over keeps the tradition of having one swelling version of the Force Theme in each movie. In VII, it will have to do with the excitement of leaving home to begin an adventure (Anakin leaving, Luke longing to leave), in VIII, it will have to play right before the protagonist goes off to rescue loved one(s) (Anakin his mother, Luke his friends), in IX, it will have to be during a reflective moment (The Lars' contemplating their new responsibility, Luke contemplating his father's life).

I said this another thread, but it would be sooo cool if Johnny wrote a full concert version of the Force theme for the ST with an added melody weaved into it representing Luke's new Jedi Order.

 

Joel McNeely

 

Giacchino is the obvious choice (whether or not he's the best choice is open to debate, though I'd be comfortable with him), but whoever eventually takes over for Williams will have the benefit of an unparalleled catalog of themes and cues to draw from. Heck, if all they ever did was recycle Williams' existing catalog it would work. I mean, how do you top perfection?

 

If a Star Wars film can be made without George Lucas, it can be made without John Williams.

 

Of course a Star Wars film can be made without any connective tissue to the original 6 whatsoever... be that characters, designs, writers, producers or composers. But this tangent isn't really about wether a film can be made without those connections (of course it can)... this is more to do with the assumption that it would be automatically inferior (which I tend to agree with).

 

Where/When is the 2 year interval confirmed? 2015-2021 is the timespan given which comes out to 3 year increments. (That Iger interview is well over a year old. Time flies when you're tracking Star Wars news)

 

Guys, if Williams cannot score beyond Episode VII and JJ is still at the helm, there's only one composer he's using... Michael Giacchino. It's really not up for debate, Giacchino is his go to guy now..


Yancy

 

Wow all this time I was thinking that in that first conference call Iger said every two years, but l just looked again and he actually said every 2-3 years in the long term. Must have been wishful thinking. I do seem to recall a lot of discussion around here about a two year gap between films instead of the usual three. I missed that tweet about the 2015-2021 time frame though.

 

Were you going to say something in response?

 

Yes but I was having computer problems. My question was why wouldn't JW score the entire trilogy and spinoffs? I doubt JJ would fire him.