Williams Says He ‘Hopes’ to Work on New Star Wars Trilogy

from jwfan.com: “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].”

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22882

sorry for the double post

I can see him collaborating, but maybe someone else will handle a majority of the composition.

Still, nice to hear about his interest. JW is legend.

I can't imagine they would go with anyone else.

He does not seem to get that George is not involved in these films and that he would be working with JJ on the scoring stage with the LSO not Lucas.

skyjedi2005 said:

He does not seem to get that George is not involved in these films and that he would be working with JJ on the scoring stage with the LSO not Lucas.

Maybe that would work for him better, I recall him to be a little pissed when Lucas edited his music to fit the films and he couldn't score them like the OT.

LexX said:

skyjedi2005 said:

He does not seem to get that George is not involved in these films and that he would be working with JJ on the scoring stage with the LSO not Lucas.

Maybe that would work for him better, I recall him to be a little pissed when Lucas edited his music to fit the films and he couldn't score them like the OT.

What else was Lucas supposed to do with the score for say AOTC, when Williams produced a pile of crap?

I was as pissed as the next person hearing the same tunes from TPM being used, but maybe that's the only choice old Lucas had!?

I'd be happy for JJ's guy to score the new films, as long as he used the original themes. We need a fresh approach. Sorry, but Williams lost it a long time ago!!

Mmm, his Harry Potter main theme was good, rest was all the same. Sounded like a cross breed with Indy Jones, Jurrasic Park & Episode 1. 

Which is my point. All his scores sound like they come from the same movie.

Shame really as Empire is without doubt the greatest piece of movie music ever written IMO!

Don't  me wrong, he still comes up with wonderful themes (duel of the fates, across the stars, flag parade, droid army,a couple from Sith) it's the in between stuff is where I think he's lost it!! Like someone said earlier, it's just background music. 

I haven't seen any Potter films but one was once playing on the background and when hearing it I thought why did it have AOTC music. Before it I didn't even know Williams composed the music for them, but then realized it.

HotRod said:

Don't  me wrong, he still comes up with wonderful themes (duel of the fates, across the stars, flag parade, droid army,a couple from Sith) it's the in between stuff is where I think he's lost it!!

Agreed. 

I think there was also just more testosterone behind the original SW scores- there is an aggression and energy there that is not present in the prequel scores (although I think Episode 1 definitely captured that energy again in large part.  Expectations were huge for Episode 1).

Everybody ages and not everybody can be at 100% all the time.  I still enjoy JW's music and I think that he is motivated by good material, it's just that he hasn't had many truly great movies to score lately. 

darth_ender said:

While I'm not in total agreement, I see where HotRod is coming from. I've been listening to the Radio Dramas which uses the original JW music. It amazes me how easily I recognize the part of the film the song originally played in, regardless of the fact that it is simply a reprise of an oft-repeated theme. It's surprising not only how iconic the main themes are, but also how memorable and individualized each background piece seems to be.

I can't say the same for the PT, though to give JW the benefit of a doubt I'll admit that I've not seen it nearly as many times.

I agree.  I even feel that ROTJ even had a lot more "filler" or "incidental" music that, even when I hear it today, doesn't stir scene memory for me.  For Ep IV and V I can listen to the scores and remember/recite lines like crazy.

I still think it was mostly Lucas that butchered the scores to Ep I and II--maybe even III; I don't think Williams composed crap that couldn't be used; I think Lucas couldn't stop changing the film and it would have been too expensive to get Williams to rewrite music and/or adjust cues to fit the new scenes, plus re-recording the orchestra would have been costly or time consuming--even with today's digital music editing abilities.

Too bad Ken Thorn is not around anymore. I very much like how he recycled the John Williams' "Superman" themes for "Superman II" and "III".