Star Wars Episode VIII Score Begins Recording This Month.
A brief detail in a recent interview with John Williams reveals that the maestro will begin work on Star Wars Episode VIII later in December.
From Variety:
Williams concedes that he had hoped for greater commercial success for The BFG, which was deemed a box-office disappointment after its July 1 release. His next film, however, won’t be: He begins recording Star Wars Episode VIII in December and expects to record off and on through March or April 2017.
I wouldn’t take this as a sign that Episode VIII is somehow going to get an earlier release date or anything like that, but more a sign that Rian Johnson’s initial cut of the film is essentially in place, as recording for this movie’s score will begin over half a year before recording for The Force Awakens did in its development. But really, who knows what Lucasfilm is up to with their current, breakneck pace of handling multiple productions at once? Since the Han Solo movie starts filming next month, for all we know, Episode IX might even begin production before Episode VIII is even out!
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Woo hoo! We all win with JW composing yet another SW episode!
They are so far ahead of schedule… VFX and the final cut should both be stunning with that much time to work on them.
Yeah, wasn’t TFA still in the studio a week before release? I remember John Williams was working on the score about a couple months before the release.
Episode 8 still has a whole year to go and they are basically finishing the final touches.
Pretty much! Granted they gave themselves less time pressure on Ep VIII, right off the bat, then delayed release by 7 months for re-writes. I think Rian gets more room to move with scheduling as he is a more novice director and the franchise has already been re-established.
Truthfully Rian started filming in Feb 2016 (Not counting the Island shoot shot before that), JJ started filming TFA in May 2014.
Exactly – more room to move. Plus Ep VIII was originally scheduled for a May 2017 release, then re-scheduled for December. If you do the math its roughly 10 months total more than JJ had for post production.
It’s become standard protocol for movies to be edited down to the wire before their premieres, and as such, I wouldn’t expect to hear anything about Episode 8 wrapping until a month or less (and it would almost certainly be less in this case) ahead of its release date, even with production being as far along as it currently is.
– Pomojema
Wait, are we sure ‘recording’ is the right word? Was there a previously revealed date he started writing? Is that maybe what they meant? This seems way, way too soon to be in the studio – a LOT can change in editorial on the film.
Williams can certainly commence recording sessions for sequences that have been finalized (at least for pace and rhythm). Then as other sequences are locked in, he comes back and records those… and so on… 🙂
“Recording” is what Variety said. I’m just reporting what I read.
– Pomojema
Sounds like the initial time crunch is over and they are a well-oiled machine now.
Keep in mind that a lot of TFA’s “time crunch” was a direct result of the fallout of Harrison Ford’s injury. The movie would have been on a much better schedule if it hadn’t happened.
– Pomojema
Well, that actually helped. I was more referring to the time crunch of the initial writing of the movie
Awesome……awesome…..and HANDSOME!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I87CWIs2i2E
He is one of the few genuine geniuses still working in film today. No one else comes close to being able to compose what he does. Can’t wait to hear where he takes the new themes introduced in the Force Awakens score.
I’m telling you guys, there will be a post credits scene after Rouge One contains a spoiler for Episode 8…
Nope. Gareth Edwards says that he had no interest in giving Godzilla a stinger (as he noted that he saw that gimmick as an unnecessary way of adding a new story element after the plot had wrapped up), and there’s no reason to believe that he’d suddenly changed his mind.
– Pomojema
I can’t believe how early they’re moving along with this movie. I think it was originally going to come out a tad earlier and moved it back. I mean, wasn’t it just a few months ago Rogue One had gotten it’s music issues down? Crazy.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a film’s production go so smoothly.
so… what are they gonna do for one year?
SFX and shit. These things take time.
VFX, pick-ups/reshoots, edits, etc. Still plenty to do I’d imagine, so there’s no rush.
I would like to think they will have enough time to polish a masterpiece. 😉
With all the time they seem to have with the post production for this…I think I’m expecting some VFX so good you don’t even notice it.
Which would fit well with Rian Johnson’s previous films, which don’t show off any big CG-heavy stuff, or make it look that way at least.
VIII is going to be a blast.
if they’re so inclined, couldn’t lucasfilm and disney just move the release date back up to may, if scoring will be finished by april? viii shouldn’t need a whole nother year for post surely?
Scoring is only one aspect. Editing, Sound, ADR, Visual Effects, possible pickups/reshoots. I am fine with them taking their time to craft the best film possible. If six more months enables that, I am fine waiting.
Don’t forget marketing. Us die hards are counting down the days but some people are just now realizing that rogue one isn’t episode 8. They need to get maximum exposure and to release it in April would be giving up thousands of dollars of free money for all the toys and books they sell at the holiday season. I will miss may Star Wars (these films used to come out on or around my birthday) but for better or worse I believe they are December films now unless heaven forbid they decide to start making multiple Star Wars movies every year
What’s the rush?
Why move VIII to May when you can toss out 3D versions of the OT (along with corresponding toys) and earn another few hundred million? There’s never a better time to rerelease ANH back to theaters than following RO, plus its 40th anniversary! Oh, and it gives audiences a refresher to who that guy was at the end of TFA.
What an incredible man… Getting 85 in a couple of months and still working (on one of the biggest movies ever made). I feel nothing but utter respect to this genious.
Wait…so there’s an Episode VIII coming out next year? 😉 No teaser. No title. No marketing period. It will keep its December date for that reason alone. They need time to promote. It’s encouraging that Williams is already underway though. Of course he is 85 so getting a jump on it is probably a good idea. Also, he said regarding TFA that he likes to take his time nowadays. He doesn’t like to burn the midnight oil like he used to back in the day. This could give Williams ample time to cook up something truly brilliant for VIII. Can’t wait!
So JW gets a year to score Ep 8 and Michael Giacchino got a month. I really hope the RW music is good. The rest of the music looks amazing…
Normally it’s unusual for a score to be recorded this far in advance, irrespective of the late appointment of Giacchino. It’s normally one of the final stages of post production. I can only assume it’s due to Willaims’ schedule.
or it’s due to advancing Williams’ age…
It’s because of Desplat’s scheduling conflicts that Giacchino only got a month.
The music for Troy (2004) was scored by James Horner under the same circumstances. The original score by Gabriel Yared was rejected. http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html
I used to wait Spielberg films with enthusiasm, expectation, excitement… and i am a fan of most of his films. But in the last years i think he has lost some trains without trying to give us great experiences (Jesus, even i think his last good one was KOCS, at least it was entertaining). There are directors out there telling better and amazing stories (Jeff Nichols or Denis Villeneuve to put just two exemples). I think he doesn’t risk anymore.
Williams was the best part of the last one, BFG, even not been a remarkable score. Hope JW will give us a tremendous soundtrack like in TFA. Can’t wait to hear another SW score composed by him.
Great news!
I’m wondering if maybe the article is wrong? Maybe he’s starting to write music right now and start recording in March-April. It really makes no sense to record right now…
The film was originally slated to released in May, and as far as the production has been concerned Lucasfilm has largely been operating under that schedule…so this only makes sense.
Pretty sure it has something to do with a teaser/trailer coming in the next few months.
you speak wisdom
All the trailers for TFA and R1 had third party composers.
Except for the first one. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00c26f0c09fd97143e5e7aa0138ec47782dea331a1bbc379a97dd7ad7241f9bc.png
I just got an erection.
*breathes sigh of relief* now we know for absolutely certain there will be at least one more Williams Star Wars score. No matter how his health goes I guarantee that if it’s written, they will record and use it.
And to think, Giacchino had to write his in just 4 months.