'Music By John Williams' Documentary Chronicling Legendary 'Star Wars' And Spielberg Composer Announced
The film will premiere on October 23 at the AFI Fest and reach Disney+ November 1
Disney+ documentaries this year will go from a Star Wars-involved Idea Man to its music man. Music By John Williams chronicles the life and legendary career of John Williams, composer of many of the most iconic soundtracks in film history, and will be arriving on Disney+ this November.
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, it will first have its world premiere on opening night of the 2024 AFI Fest on October 23. Produced by Lucasfilm, Amblin Documentaries and Imagine Documentaries, Music by John Williams is boasted as a comprehensive look at the prolific winner of five Oscars on 54 nominations. A debut at AFI Fest is apt as Williams was the 2016 recipient AFI Life Achievement Award, making him the first composer with the honor. The 92-year-old has scored ten of the eleven live action Star Wars movies (including the entire Skywalker Saga), the first three Harry Potter movies, every Indiana Jones movie, 1978’s Superman, and the first two Jaws, Jurassic Park and Home Alone movies, which makes him the composer of each and every one of their iconic theme songs. He also composed for every Spielberg movie from Empire of the Sun to Lincoln, and that’s just the longer streak. He of course had Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial before that, in fact all of Spielberg’s films before The Color Purple.
“Growing up in France, I discovered the soundtracks I bought on vinyl ahead of most American movies that would come out months after the U.S. release. John Williams was the composer I immediately identified with; his scores made me fall in love with music, and made me realize at a very young age, the power that a score had on cinematic storytelling,” said Bouzereau, who produced with Spielberg, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Meredith Kaulfers, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall, with Markus Keith and Michael Rosenberg serving as executive producers. “This was an important story to tell, not only because it is about one of the greatest composers of all time, but because of the message it carries about the survival of orchestral music, and musicians.”
The documentary features interviews with Spielberg, Howard, Kennedy, Marshall, J.J. Abrams, Chris Martin, Chris Columbus, George Lucas, Ke Huy Quan, James Mangold, Kate Capshaw, Gustavo Dudamel, Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Kasdan, Yo-Yo Ma, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Seth MacFarlane, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Branford Marsalis, whose lives have been influenced by his music. "It’s no exaggeration to say that John Williams is the greatest film composer of all time," Kennedy says. "His music has transcended cinema and become a part of our global culture, touching the hearts of billions, both young and old. John’s music has done as much to keep classical music alive as it has to shape the world of film."
The AFI Fest premiere will be followed by a limited theatrical release seemingly lasting a week. It’s described as before the documentary arrives on Disney+ on November 1.
Sources: Star Wars, The Hollywood Reporter
A long overdue tribute. His career spans decades and involves much more than Spielberg and "Star Wars".