John Williams Wants To Score STAR WARS VII
When we first heard about new Star Wars movies my friend Mr Beaks, the very cromulent writer for Ain't It Cool News, worried about one thing: would John Williams be around to score these movies? Williams is the unifying factor that ties all six movies together, and the idea of a Star Wars without a Williams score is... well, such a movie wouldn't be Star Wars at all, would it?
Williams is getting up there in years - he's 81 years old. He's still working hard, and he's Oscar nominated this year for his Lincoln score. But there are still years to go before Star Wars Episode VII hits the scoring stage, and after that there are two more films in the new core trilogy. Wiliams would be around 88 when it came time to score Episode IX.
But he don't give a fuck! Williams - who is still conducting live shows - has gone on the record saying he'd quite like to come back and score the new films. Speaking just before launching into the main Star Wars fanfare at a gala this weekend, Williams said:
“We’re about to play Star Wars [audience interrupts with cheers] and each time we play it, I’m reminded of the first time we played it decades ago. Neither I, nor George, nor anyone else involved thought this would go far or in a few years there would be a sequel and I’d have to revisit the themes…and years later another trilogy. Now we’re hearing of a new set of movies coming in 2015, 2016…so I need to make sure I’m still ready to go in a few years for what I hope would be continued work with George…[more cheers].”
There was some speculation that new director JJ Abrams would bring his usual collaborator, Michael Giacchino, along with him for Episode VII. And that would be great... if Williams couldn't do it. But in a world where Williams is both willing and able, it would be madness not to have him come back for another go-round. I have to guess that even Giacchino would happily forego the opportunity in favor of the maestro.
By the way:
