This time last year, composer Michael Giacchino was doing interviews talking about how he had had such a short window to write the score for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While there were many factors that led to this condensed schedule for Giacchino, one of them was the fact that he joined the project fairly late into production because the film's original composer, Alexandre Desplat, had dropped out. Desplat's reasoning was unclear at the time, but the composer recently set the record straight in an interview with Film School Rejects.
There has been a big change behind the scenes on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Jurassic World) is replacing Alaexandre Desplat as composer on the Gareth Edwards directed film. This apparently is a result of the highly publicized reshoots, which altered the schedule so that Desplat would be unable to score the film in time.
The announcement of this news is welcome, and as a fan, I can't help but be excited about this. It is hugely difficult to envision a live-action Star Wars movie without the so-called 'oxygen' of Star Wars (i.e. John William's musical score). Audiences tout John Williams as one of the greatest movie composers of all time and some fans have levelled serious concern about the future of Star Wars in a post-William's era. However, this is something that Star Wars fans will have to get used to, starting with the new Rogue One anthology movie.
The anthology film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is set to hit theatres this year on December 16. The film will be scored by Oscar winner, Alexandre Desplat. Desplat's bio speaks for itself, having scored some titanic blockbuster hits, including The King's Speech (2010), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Argo (2012) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts One (2010) and Two (2011). Desplat is best known in the industry for his ability to compose a full film score in a short time span.
Personally, I am excited to hear how the oscar-winning composer puts his own 'spin' into the upcoming anthology film. How will it differ from John William's classic score? Of course, I would like Desplat to stay true to some of William's classic themes, including the Imperial March score and the Force theme. However, as fans, I also believe we have to be willing to accept change and expansion in the Star Wars Universe, not just in terms of visual effects and story, but also in relation to the music. Rogue One is a perfect test ground to see how Disney and Lucasfilm will cope with the inevitable future loss of John Williams (whether down to Willaim's personal decision or health reasons). As a result, I implore fans to remain unprejudiced in our judgement of Alexandre Desplat. We should not merely be critical of Desplat because he is a Star Wars film composer who doesn't live up to John Williams.
As for Desplat himself, this movie could parachute him further into the media spotlight and perhaps make him a contender to be one of the best film composers of all time. IMDB have listed Despat as the tenth best film composer of all time, could he push into the Top five in the years to come? I don't mean to say that this one movie will make Desplat the 'best' current film composer of all time , but a successful musical composition of Rogue One could lay the ground work for Desplat's elevated status as a film composer and Desplat could become a candidate to be a long-term successor to John Williams, when he retires. At the age of 54, Desplat could become a Star Wars film composer for the next decade.
It remains to be seen what will happen, and no-one wants to get ahead of themselves because there are many factors at play (Desplat's musical composition may not be popular with the mainstream masses; Desplat may not want to score another Star Wars movie, or Disney may want to - as is their policy with the directors of Star Wars movies - appoint a different film composer for each Star Wars film). A strong performance by Desplat would help to settle fan's concerns of imagining a future live-action Star Wars film without the touch of the movie musical talent that is John Williams.
Who do you think should be the long-term replacement to John Williams? Tell us in the comments below.
Composer Alexandre Desplat confirmed this week that he will begin work on the score for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in "a few weeks". The composer chatted with Hey U Guys at the red carpet premiere for Florence Foster Jenkins where he confirmed he had not yet started work on the film, though he did call the trailer "very exciting" and had high praise for director Gareth Edwards (with whom he had previously worked on Godzilla). Check out the video below,
Rogue One will be the first live action Star Wars film to feature music composed by someone other than John Williams. Desplat is best known for his academy award winning music for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, as well as his work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and Part 2, Zero Dark Thirty, and The King's Speech.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16th.
It looks like Star Wars: Rogue One will have an academy award winner writing the music, but not the one you're expecting. A new report suggests that John Williams will not be picking up the baton for the first Star Wars stand alone film, and that Alexandre Desplat will be taking his place. According to Film Music Reporter, "Alexandre Desplat revealed in an interview on Radio Classique’s Culture Club that he will be reuniting with director Gareth Edwards on the upcoming Star Wars spin off feature Rogue One."
Desplat worked with director Gareth Edwards on Godzilla, and he has an incredibly impressive resume that includes The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 &2, Zero Dark Thirty, and many more.
I think we all knew this was coming at some point, that we would see a Star Wars film without John Williams. And these stand alone films seems like the best place to start, with Williams continuing on with the sequel trilogy (or at least kicking things off with The Force Awakens). In addition, Desplat is very talented and seems like a worthy successor to the maestro and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what he does.
Star Wars: Rogue One hits theatres on December 16, 2016, starring Felicity Jones and directed by Gareth Edwards.
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