Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Has that been officially announced?

 

No, but I doubt it will be. If Williams were indeed taking over scoring duties, it's unlikely the first announcement of it would be an offhand mention in a Boston Globe article. I assume we would have heard something from one of soundtrack news sites by now if it were true.

If I do find anything official though, I'll be sure to post it.

 

It's a very false article.

 

Yeah as I look closer, I can see that.

 

I hate sloppy reporting like that.

Anyways, in August he's doing that Memoirs of a Geisha thing with Yo Yo Ma in Chicago, so I doubt he'll be doing anything major between now and then aside from that Boston Pops stuff. After that though, who knows. With the Potter film coming out at the end of the year, it would give him plenty of time to work on it if he chose too. The next Spielberg projects won't be ready until well into 2009, so he'll have some time to kill.


EDIT: I sent the person who wrote that article an email about the misleading statement. I suggested rewording the statement and perhaps adding the CSO Memoirs thing in August. Of course I worded my email appropriately.

 

I thought about doing that...

 

If he announces anything at his yearly concert in Hollywood in August about DH, I'll let you guys know.

 

With a November release, I expect spotting the film has already taken place or will take place soon. Scoring will record in like Late September I would think.

 

Of course, i love John Williams the best. The score for "Prisoner" was his very best since maybe Jurassic Park.

I really didn't like "Goblet of Fire" much, from whoever that was, i forgot because that's how little i liked it.

"Order of the Phoenix" however, was actually pretty darn good! I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what Nicholas Hooper does with "Half Blood Prince", and i was glad to see him on board again, along with David Yates.

As the legendary Williams grows older, i'm looking and hoping for some other composers to fill the gap. So far, Howard Shore's LotR and Nicholas Hooper's HP5 are the rare few i've really enjoyed.

 

Well, looks like we have about a year to wait to hear if Hooper has improved. The film has officially been pushed back to July 2009.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=48001

 

Has it even been officially announced that he's back to score the film?

 

Yes.

 

That is a crying shame.

 

I'm seeing JW in less than two weeks; we'll see if he says anything about DH.

 

Unless you're going to talk to him face to face, I wouldn't expect to hear anything about Deathly Hallows.

 

He almost always plays Harry's Wondrous World, and he sometimes talks about projects, so we'll see.

 

So from what I've been reading, the reason for pushing back HBP is for it to make more money in the summer. Perhaps they feel the movie is took dark and that parents will not take their kids to something like that around the holidays.

But my concern is the production of the Deathly Hallow movies. If it's just about money, then Deathly Hallows should still start filming sometime next summer or fall as HBP will have long since been finished. I just don't want the production of that movie to be pushed back because John Williams is 76 years old now and by the time that movie ready to be scored he'll be 78. I just want Williams to cap off the series.

 

According to WB, production on the other films is not being delayed and they will come out as previously announced. Although I wouldn't hold my breath about Williams returning seeing as how Yates is on to direct the final films.

 

If David Yates has a chance to work with John Williams and he says no then he is a ****ing idiot.

 

Pretty much. John's already said he wants to do it; let the man go out with a bang.

 

I assume you mean out of the HP franchise and not some "before he dies" thing like HLAS.

 

Well, he is getting pretty old...

 

Unlocked at user's request.

 

If you check out the official site, there are two snippets of music from Hooper's score. You have to pause the trailer after letting it load for a few seconds to hear the music.

The first clip is a new theme/motif and then a new rendition of Hedwig's Theme (at least I'm fairly certain it's new).

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/

 

My review.

For those hoping Hooper would step up his game from OotP, he didn't. The score reminds me of a D effort from Hans Zimmer while making no attempt to incorporate anything from Doyle and throwing in Hedwigs theme twice because he was likely pressured. There seems to be one new theme that surrounds Dumbledore and while not bad, it has no depth or variation. As you progress your listening of the tracks, you'll realize they become fairly boring very fast. Hooper for some reason feels that an easy way to mask this is by increasing the volume of certain tracks towards the end. Also only one or two tracks are over 3 minutes and none pass the 4 minute mark.

Scoring a Potter film is a huge opportunity for someone like Hooper and while I liked certain parts of OotP, he doesn't even match that here. Sometimes composers are able to step up to the plate and deliver a home run with such a canvas, sometimes they hit grand slams, and hell sometimes they hit doubles. But Hooper has been up to bat twice now for Potter and it's clear he has nothing left in the tank and is trying to bunt or be walked.

For Deathly Hallows they either need John Williams or someone else who can get the job done.