John Williams Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Adam Driver was back on Saturday Night Live and referred to not killing Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

For the second time in the last three years, the Oscar for Best Documentary Short has been claimed by Ben Proudfoot. The Canadian-born filmmaker and his fellow director Kris Bowers won the Academy Award tonight for their film The Last Repair Shop, the story of craftspeople in Los Angeles who keep 80,000 musical instruments in working order for the city’s public school students. It’s the only big city school system that keeps kids in tune with free bassoons, trombones, sousaphones, cellos, piccolos and every other kind of instrument.

96th Academy Awards are just a few short days away and the night promises to be an epic evening filled with A-listers, fun, music, funny commentary and heartfelt speeches. The Emmys, the Golden Globes and the Grammys have all come and gone.

Harrison Ford revealed that he can’t escape the music of John Williams, who scored Ford’s “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” movies — even during a certain delicate medical procedure. “As I often remind John, his music follows me everywhere I go — literally,” Ford, 81, said in a Variety profile of the “Indiana Jones” theme song.“When I had my last colonoscopy, they were playing it on the operating room speakers.”Ford, who’s a famous curmudgeon, also said that his admiration for Williams’ music extends beyond the movies on which they’re both associated.

John Williams composed for his most famous cinematic hero, Indiana Jones. “As I often remind John, his music follows me everywhere I go — literally,” Ford says.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-nominated artisans in the race landed historical firsts in numerous categories. After decades in the industry, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick earned her first nod for “Oppenheimer.” Scott George became the first Osage Nation songwriter to be nominated for his song in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” while Diane Warren scored a record 15th nod. John Williams bested his record-breaking achievement when he was recognized for original score.

Superman is soaring back to the forefront. A new iteration of the Man of Steel is coming from Warner Bros, which made a splashy acquisition at Sundance of the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. That tells the story of moviedom’s first Man of Steel, and how he found his real superpowers in becoming an activist after suffering an equestrian accident that left him paralyzed.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If would be hard to name an artist in any medium who illustrated Flaubert’s famous maxim of creativity (“Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work”) better than Ennio Morricone. Morricone, who died in 2020 (at 91), was certainly one of the greatest composers of movie soundtracks who ever lived. But even if you consider him next to his fellow giants (Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Nino Rota, Hans Zimmer, Max Steiner), Morricone scaled his own wild peak, inventing his own kind of beauty, his own transcendent cacophony.

Oscar winners John Williams and Martin Scorsese continue to prove that age is just a number with 2024 nominations.

Jon Burlingame Two songs from “Barbie” have been nominated as best song, part of a diverse collection of songs and scores nominated for the 96th annual Academy Awards. “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, and “I’m Just Ken,” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, were chosen by the 390 voting members of the Academy music branch.

ITV have confirmed which show will replace its latest drama, Vera, after the Brenda Blethyn series came to an end.The show, which aired a Christmas special, followed by series 13, ended on Sunday, January 21. But if fans are worried that they will be without a binge-worthy series, they don't need to, as it's been confirmed that the second series of police drama Trigger Point will be airing on Sunday 28.

When ITV’s Vera finally comes to an end after 13 seasons this month, there will be a crime drama shaped hole in the life of many fans.

“The first time I came to this studio was 1940 when my father brought me here to show me the stage and I was about 9 or 10 years old, and I thought, some day this will all be mine! It’s finally come to be – it’s only taken me 92 years to get here!”, said 5 time Oscar winning and 53 times-nominated legendary composer John Williams after the curtain was raised on the iconic Sony Pictures Entertainment lot’s newly renamed John Williams Music Building.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director John Williams recently told The Times UK that he’s not ruling “anything out” when it comes to staying retired from film scores. The five-time Oscar winner turns 92 years old on February 8. Back in June 2022, Williams teased his retirement by telling the Associated Press that his work on “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” would probably be his last.

John Williams has confirmed that he has not yet decided to retire, saying he “likes to keep an open mind”.The composer, 91, has won five Academy Awards from a staggering 53 nominations, and is known for his work on Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, among others.Williams had previously suggested that his score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, released in 2023, would be his final full length film composition.Speaking in June 2022, he had said: “At the moment I’m working on Indiana Jones 5, which Harrison Ford – who’s quite a bit younger than I am – I think has announced will be his last film. So, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also,” he said.However, by the time the film came out, he had already begun to row back on that assertion.Speaking to Steven Spielberg in January 2023, he said: “Well, Steven is a lot of things.

Revered composer John Williams has walked back his retirement talk, saying of previous reports that he’d put down his baton for the final time, “I don’t care much for grand pronunciamentos, statements that are firm and finished and surrounded by closed doors. If I made one without putting it in context then I withdraw it.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Many stories have been told about Westward expansion, but few have focused on the impact and consequences. John Williams’ 1960 novel “Butcher’s Crossing” follows William Andrews, a Harvard student who leaves his life behind to join a buffalo-hunting expedition, facing many harsh realities on his journey. Producer Molly Conners sat down with Variety for the film’s DVD release to discuss director Gabe Polsky’s journey adapting the story, financing the film, casting its star Nicolas Cage and working with the Blackfeet Nation to tell the story about the destruction of the buffalo population in 19th century America.

Five tones. That’s all it took for John Williams to convey a sense of a wider form of communication that stretches from the Earth to the Cosmos. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a film about (among many things) communication and the power of the universal language of music in particular. It is fitting, then, that the Royal Albert Hall would make room for Steven Spielberg’s 1977 Sci-Fi classic in its season of live orchestral performances this year. Not only is it a wonderful chance to revisit one of Spielberg’s finest, but it offers a means to greater appreciate just how emotionally complex William’s work is in this tale of making connection with beings not of this world. Seeing a film with a live orchestra is an experience that everyone should embark upon, be it your first time seeing the film for your 100th. It is a uniquely immersive experience, bringing you into the film in a way that no other screening format can quite muster. Music, and particularly the music of John Williams, is often used to heighten emotion and elevate scenes to their peak resonance, and the tangibility of seeing an orchestra play the score as the film progresses brings you even closer to those emotions in a truly profound fashion.The film and the score all build-up to one of the finest finales put to screen with the eventual meeting between our characters and the aliens who have been telegraphing their arrival. The moments of witty government conspiracy and deeply touching and devastating family drama give way to the meeting of human and alien, as the human race communicates to the huge, foreboding and colourful mothership through the medium of music. It is a sequence that never loses its grandeur on repeat viewing, a moment in which the

Adam Driver has been facing the wrath of Star Wars fans for the actions of his on-screen character Kylo Ren.

Feeling festive? With this stellar line-up at The Bridgewater Hall, Christmas 2023 promises to be an absolute cracker.

Give him another few decades and Ludwig Göransson may surpass the legendary John Williams in overall Grammy nominations. The Swedish-born composer, songwriter, and music producer has not even turned 40 and already has 14 Grammy nominations in just six years.

The Godfather and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in this way over the years, both of them at London’s prestigious and historic Royal Albert Hall in the centre of town.

The biggest movie of 2023 just keeps rockin’ and rollin’.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com The upcoming holiday season just got a little more merry and bright. “Family Guy” creator, director and long-time crooner Seth MacFarlane is dropping a holiday album with Liz Gillies of “Dynasty” and “Victorious” fame — and you can listen to their title track, “We Wish You The Merriest” right now. The velvety pipes of Gillies paired with MacFarlane’s baritone is the enough to soften even the most resolute of grinches.

As fans of his know, Nic Cage never stops working, ever. The indefatigable actor shot has six movies with 2023 release dates this year, with two already in the can for next year.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy has been voted the best film music by the UK public.Howard Shore’s soundtrack took the number one spot on a list of the top 100 film scores compiled by Classic FM, which received over 10,000 votes. The winner was revealed on Monday (August 28) on the radio station by presenter Jonathan Ross.Speaking about the win, Shore said: “Many thanks to all the Classic FM listeners.

Truck Festival last weekend has gone viral for moshing to an orchestra performance in the rain.During the Oxfordshire festival, the Oxford Symphony Orchestra performed on the festival’s main stage and got a raucous response.After the performance, videos of the crowd have gone viral, which see the crowd creating a rowdy moshpit to the sedate music.Songs given the moshpit treatment included the orchestra’s versions of John Williams’ ‘Indiana Jones Theme’ and Gioachino Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’.See footage of the proceedings below.

Jon Burlingame Despite all the musical superstars who entered this year’s Emmy competition, only one – Ed Sheeran – managed to score when the 75th annual Emmy Award nominations were announced Wednesday. Sheeran was nominated (along with co-writers Max Martin and Foy Vance) for the song “A Beautiful Game” for the season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso,” one of two songs from the popular Apple TV+ series that made it into the music-and-lyrics category. Emmy’s 550-member music peer group ignored the original songs entered by Dolly Parton, David Byrne, Steve Martin, Kid Cudi, Donald Glover and Lainey Wilson, as well as those from such Oscar-winning tunesmiths as Alan Menken, Steven Schwartz, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.