5. James Newton Howard
Why Him? He’s a terrific composer that earn’s the loyalty of just about every director he works with. Tony Gilroy, M. Night Shyamalan and Christopher Nolan have all worked with him more than once, as have several others. The reason for that is his versatility and willingness to have a little fun – both desirable traits in a Star Wars score.
His score for Duplicity is great, and I listen to it about once every week or two. (The movie is also criminally underrated and overlooked, but that’s another article.) The reason I mention Duplicity is not because it has any relation to what Episode VII will look or sound like, but as an example of how he can match the score to fit the vibe and feeling of the movie. It’s a fun movie, that has fun with itself, and the music compliments this idea beautifully. On the flipside, his score for Blood Diamond, released the same year is gritty, brooding and intense. Plus,you have Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which he co-wrote with Hans Zimmer (more from him in a minute). Those films couldn’t be more opposite from Duplicity, and the scores keep up without missing a beat (pun intended). Next to John Williams, he’s one of the most versatile composers working today.
He’s also another composer who’s jumped into established franchises before – The Bourne Legacy the most recent example of this.
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21 Comments
Appreciate you giving this topic some time and space. In the world of Star Wars, the role of the original score could hardly be over-emphasized, so almost as important as who the choose to write and/or direct will be who they choose to write the original score.
Agreed the Giacchino is likely the first, most-logical choice to replace Williams (and I do believe Williams will NOT be scoring any of the upcoming movies).
As much as I’d love to see the Star Wars universe in the hands of Howard Shore, I don’t think he nor anyone else in the list (outside of Giacchino) is very likely.
There are many, much less recognizable names, in the film composing (not to mention video game composing) world, that could do a fine job.
I’m guessing the audience here are not necessarily soundtrack aficionados, so the names you list might only be vaguely familiar to them, but the list is more of a simple list of some of the busiest composers in Hollywood…and a few of the picks I don’t think have any chance of scoring the upcoming film.
We discussed this topic at length in a recent episode of our podcast. Give it a listen if you like and let us know what you think. http://bit.ly/soundcast
Thanks for reading Christopher! I’m a huge soundtrack fan, and Star Wars fan, so this was only natural for me to delve into. I hadn’t heard of your site before, but as soon as I’m off work, I’ll definitely check it out – as well as the podcast you mentioned.
Glad to see other soundtrack fans are still out there, and glad we agree on Giacchino.
I would definitely also agree with your assessment that there are many lesser known composers that would probably do a fine job with Star Wars, including some video game composers, like Jesper Kyd. I was mainly focused on the big boys for this list though, ones that have the most likely chance of at least making the short list. (Harry Gregson-Williams just missed out).
Joel McNeely’s perfect John Williams pastiche for Shadows of the Empire earns him a slot. You don’t even have to imagine his take on Star Wars–just listen to it. It’s awesome.
Giacchino and Arnold are great choices too. (And I’m also betting on Bird.)
Out of the rest of them, I think James Newton Howard (in King Kong and Wyatt Earp) has shown the most facility with soaring, long-form melody. (I find Shore’s motifs melodically anemic, though I realize I’m alone in that. And Horner would have to go back in time to recover his tunecraft.)
I’d also nominate John Powell, whose children’s scores are packed with tunes and colored with perfect pastiches.
Nice article Ron. All good choices. Giacchino for me was the first person who came to mind when thinking on the subject. Seeing as we rarely disagree when it comes to these things, this is no surprise.
Totally agree Colin, I was going to mention McNeely if no one else had. I listened to the “Shadows” score extensively back in the day and it may sound like blasphemy, but for a while (around its release) it was my go to “Star Wars” score. While it is not Williams’ work, it is still a stellar composition despite its shamelessness in lifting his sound. “The Destruction of Xizor’s Palace” was an amazing track that arguably helped shape some of the sounds to come on the prequel scores. “Shadows” was such a great book and a pretty decent video game. They totally had that awesome action figure line too. Too bad we’ll never see that movie. They teased it for so long… So cruel.
I DEFINITELY agree that Michael Giacchino would be the best replacement. I was going to be furious if he wasn’t on the list. He can reach an emotion level that I don’t think any of the others usually can. That is also why I would not include Hans Zimmer. I do not see what all the fuss about him is. The only soundtrack he has done that has carried decent emotional weight is The Lion King. Not sure what you call that main background piece, the one that plays while Simba is out in the field at night, but aside from that piece I don’t think he has composed much great. What a mess of noise sometimes. Probably gets attention just for being loud and intense.
Giacchino can make emotional piece after emotional piece, and each one is extremely moving.
If it is anybody other than Williams or Giacchino I will be disappointed.
Sorry to break it to you, but the process that created great scores has been replaced by production line music assembled by anonymous teams of ghostwriters. Most of the big names are just front names for big teams of composers who get little to no credit. Williams is one of the last of a dying breed (alongside Elfman) who actually has the integrity and skill to write every note you hear in his scores. This is why Williams’ music has his unique personality. The industry has in 98% of cases chosen to trade risk for predictability, and that means scores created by huge production houses with a conformed tone, with a single name out front to qualify for “Best Original Score” awards. There will be no replacement for Williams. Star Wars music is as dead as Looney Tunes music was when Carl Stalling died.
Well I’m sorry you feel that way, but I simply must disagree.
Outside of Zimmer – who does indeed work with a hive of understudy-type proteges, you’re right about that – all the composers on this list work on their own, especially Giacchino, which is why he’s the number one slot. He’s the closest to Williams all around; style, sound, approach to the craft, etc. He does, in fact, write every note you hear.
Personally, I’m not ready to sound the death knell on Star Wars music just yet. Call me an optimist if you must – a label I’m fine with – but I still think there’s plenty to love about plenty of modern scores and composers, and I won’t be turning my back on them any time soon.
Sorry to break it to you, but Giacchino does indeed use a hive of ghostwriters, but unlike Zimmer, he does not credit them. He didn’t do the Incredits, for instance. He is only successful because he can churn out unlimited variatios using his ghostwriters. Studios have no patience for a Williams or a Goldsmith. Composers like Williams, Elfman and Shore work with the same directors over and over, because they seem risky to big studios, with their slow writing and not using ghostwriters, and their directors are loyal.
Let’s just face it: NO ONE can replace John Williams! If they go with another composer on this one, it will just sound wrong, no matter who they choose. Some composers may be able to get the sound right, but are not able to compose a decent theme. Others may write some really great music, but it just doesn’t sound like Star Wars. No one mentioned makes me go “Yes, this is a perfect match!”. Not even Michael Giacchino, who is my absolute favorite composer. I’m sure he could come up with some great music, that would work in the films and on an album, BUT he’s not John Williams. And asking a composer to write in another style than he’s comfortable with, can only go wrong. Remember reading an interview with him about his Star Trek score, where he was trying to write the new ST theme. He was eager to make it sound ST like, but nothing worked. Not until he just did it like he normally would do, then he got it right.
I really hope they go all the way, trying to make John Williams return :) But if I had to chose another composer, I’d probably go with Giacchino, Silvestri or maybe Debney, but I just wouldn’t expect it to sound like a real Star Wars score.
Don’t get me wrong – as I mentioned in the article, it should absolutely be Williams, as long as he’s able and willing. For me to even consider writing the article felt like I was betraying all that made me love film scores in the first place. But we also must face the inevitability of Williams no longer making music, and that thought really saddens the inner child in me. Sorry to get all sappy, but I do feel really strongly about Williams, and I will miss him when he’s gone. This list was just a way for me to work through that in a way that I could understand and relate to.
Alexandre Desplat?
Hell no! :) At least not, if it sounds anything like his two Harry Potter scores.
Horner, Giacchino and Zimmer.
Sorry, but I don’t agree that it should be Michael Giacchino. The only thing similar to John Williams is his musicial arrangements which sound like they are trying to rip off John Williams! It saddens me that people hear a swirling score and think it sounds like John Williams. When I hear Michael Giacchino score it sounds obvious and I can hear the chord changes – I can’t do that when I hear a new John Williams score. Anyway, if anyone scores Star Wars 7 it will probably be Hans Zimmer. He’s done Batman, he’s doing Superman, he’ll probably do Star Wars. He works a lot with Disney and it’s a natural progression.
Of course, it would be appropriate if John Williams could come back to score three more films if his age isn’t too much an obstacle for scoring new SW movies(which thankfully it doesn’t seem to be at the moment.)
However i would agree with others here that some of the choices you have picked are questionable. I don’t think production line assembly music of the likes of Zimmer and his Remote Control staff are right nor appropriate for material like SW(as Nobody and Pooya have expressed) and frankly I think such a musical approach by Zimmer would actually harm the franchise.
To be honest as well, Giacchino and his music leaves a lot to be desired IMO. I found his score for Star Trek to be rather weak especially when compared to the contributions of previous ones (Goldsmith, Horner, Rosenman, Eidelman) and I think his comparison to Williams is rather misguided. (I think he is more on the lines of Mancini and Goldsmith). His use of leitmotifs are not that great IMO (e.g. for Lost, and some of his video game scores) and certainly not in the class of Williams. and his end music for Cloverfield was terrible just to cite an example. Just my two cents.
There are many great composers working today that surely need better attention than what most of the studios are giving.
I am very surprised that John Debney is not on your list as he is one mainstream composer actively working in Hollywood that comes really close to nailing and replicating JW’s sound. He’s has a great record of also scoring movies in similar genres that JW has done and he has shown to be able to score on the level of epic scale that JW does on many films. Need I mention his Cutthroat Island score for example? Plus he was also involved in re-recording the Superman the Movie score in the 90′s so this shows not only his technical ability to be on par with Williams but also how much honor and respect Debney has for Williams.
Joel Mcneely could have also been a good candidate because of his years of closely working with Disney, Jerry Goldsmith, and of course his scoring of Shadow of the Empire. Or how about someone like Don Davis of the Matrix films?
I am also not too sure of Thomas Newman (his music aims more towards the minimalism, something not appropriate for Star Wars) but his brother David Newman would be an excellent candidate.
There are also many fresh upcoming composers that could easily step up to the plate and fill in JW’s shoes in a way that faithfully captures the “force” excuse the bad pun) of the new films but makes it exciting and invigorating in a new way.
A composer like Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galatica, The Walking Dead) comes to mind and I would have loved to see him score something big like this.
My personal pick in a dream scenario to replace John would be Jeremy Soule (his absolutely fantastic, superb, excellent and delicious music for the Harry Potter Games, the Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars video games etc.) He has had exposure/background similar to Giacchino in video games, he is incredibly creative and has the same level of technicality like Williams, Goldsmith, Horner and I frankly feel he is far superior to Giacchino in terms of composition and the kind of music he creates out.
I forgot to mention as well, Soule’s contributions to SW – in his beautiful score to Knights of the Old Republic game. Surely that shows he is a worthy successor to Williams? :)
David Arnold needs a new franchise to keep him in the spotlight. He really does not get enough work along the lines of ID4 and GODZILLA, which is a shame. He does Williams perfectly, even does a little Goodwin, perfect for a space dogfight scene, and also believes in the Leitmotif.
On the other hand, Joel McNeely did a great Williams on the YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, but I am not too sold on the idea that good conctert style copycatters like McNeely or Debney should tackle this job after the horrific PREDATORS. I couldn’t pick up any material that didn’t smack of a Silvestri phrase, and I really believe a good franchise entry should also include new evolutions on top of old material.
A good case in point is Arnold’s TOMORROW NEVER DIES, where the SURRENDER melody and chorus line both became motifs over and above the usual Bond themes.
I’m tottaly agree, Giacchino should compose the new Star Wars score. But, independently of the composer who’s gonna write it, I hope and think that it should better, if the score would be completely new and original, with the exception of the main theme only to be used in the beggining and end of the score like in “Star Trek”, by Giacchino. And other thing, John Williams has created not only the Star Wars scores, but while doing it, he also created created a Star Wars score structure, that I think it should be followed by the new composer. It scares me seeing Thomas Newman composing the score, making 30, 40 or 50 tracks in a album without a nice organization.
Giacchino, Arnold, Zimmer
Giacchino for the obvious, Arnold for the sci-fi thematic style, and he should do some grat again, Zimmer if in the style of his “Pirates of the Caribean III & IV” (don´t ruin the score like in the Dark Knight series, it’s nothing compared to Danny Elfman’s Batman [get together two great composers Howard & Shore and do nothing great])
If John Williams doesn’t score SW7, then then might as well start the 20th Century Fox fanfare played with kazoos. The film would suck.
The term “classical music” did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to “canonize” the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beethoven as a golden age. The earliest reference to “classical music” recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836..
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