John Williams collaboration with Michael Giacchino on new Star Wars
Since it was announced that JJ Abrams would be helming the new Star Wars movies, speculation has been rife about who would be scoring the music for the new movies – the legendary composer for all the original Star Wars movies John Williams, or long time JJ Abrams collaborator Michael Giacchino.
Following Williams recent announcement that he’d love to score the new movies, the debate has really heated up, with Hollywood.com asking whether in fact Williams should return, and many discussions starting online following this latest news being posted on nme.com, collider.com, vulture.com, slashfilm.com, ign.com, hypable.com and cinemablend.com
The problem Abrams faces is that he is caught between a rock and a hard place: If he chooses Giacchino, he will undoubtedly anger legions of faithful Star Wars fans and could draw pretty unfavourable criticism for snubbing Williams. However if he chooses Williams, there is an equally vocal crowd who will be unhappy as they are demanding new blood for the new movies – a fresh start so to speak, and it might put him in an awkward position with Giacchino.
So what is the solution? Composer Deane Ogden put forward the following idea on the excellent ScoreCastOnline forums and I totally agree:
A John Williams / Michael Giacchino collaboration. Why?
The thing is, apart from everything else, JJ Abrams is an extremely astute businessman, and one of the first rules of business is to find win win situations:
By going with a collaboration, Abrams avoids the delicate problem being seen to snub one or other of the composers, appeases the Williams crowd who would be devastated if Williams didn’t return, and also keeps the crowd who are demanding new blood for the new movies happy. Both camps I’m sure would be eager to see what these two legends would come up with together.
Also, announcing a collaboration between Williams and Giacchino would be a far more juicy news story than announcing just one or the other, and would pretty much guarantee in my opinion more column inches in the press than the other two options.
Abrams wins because he keeps everyone happy, avoids criticism, guarantees a serious amount of news coverage, and gives audiences something they have never heard before. The audience win because they get to enjoy the collaboration of two musical greats honouring the monumental original score and infusing it with new life.
So in answer to the Hollywood.com article: yes, Williams should definitely return, but wouldn’t it be fantastic to see “Music by John Williams & Michael Giacchino” when the credits roll. That would be seriously exciting!
I think for anyone that is a for hard fan of Star wars a collaboration will feel like a big step down. Williams is still doing incredible work and should start of the series alone. I would hope that Abrams has enough confidence to not worry about what makes most sense business wise and just do what’s best for the movie. I think it would be nice to see what Abrams could do with a different composer. Plus, It might be the one aspect of his film making that could truly separate the feel of his star trek movie from the new star wars movie. The problem with a collaboration is that Giacchino’s style is not that close to Williams in any way musically. A collavoration might end up sounding like a weird variation on the classic sound. Abrams should just go with Williams because it is best or have the guts to say no Williams because he is JJ Abrams. Make a bold choice!