John Williams Wants To Score This One Huge Franchise Before He Quits
John Williams plans to retire from scoring films after his current project, but he still wants to take a run at a famous franchise.
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John Williams is undoubtedly the most accomplished and famous living film composter in the world. His work with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas has produced some of the most iconic film scores in cinematic history. His resume is practically a list of the best-known musical moments in movie history: Star Wars. Indiana Jones. Harry Potter. Superman. Jaws. However, according to a recent interview, John Williams still wants to take a crack at one of the few major franchises he has not yet been involved with: James Bond.
Speaking to The Guardian, John Williams revealed that he would like to work on the music for the James Bond franchise before he retires from scoring films. Earlier this year, he revealed that he would retire from the business of scoring films after completing work on the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones film in order to focus on other musical endeavors. Apparently, though, John Williams could potentially make an exception for James Bond; that does seem pretty reasonable, considering the pairing of the greatest film composer living and the greatest spy franchise ever could potentially produce some pretty wonderful work.
Whether John Williams gets the chance to work on the James Bond franchise is questionable. The 007 franchise is currently in its periodic hibernation state, as actor Daniel Craig bowed out from the series with 2021’s No Time to Die and the role has yet to be recast. The selection of the next actor to play the British superspy is always a delicate thing; the franchise’s fanbase is famously hostile to any kind of change to the role, to the point of initially rejecting the eventually acclaimed Daniel Craig because his hair is kind of dark blonde. We recently reported that Eon Productions and longtime James Bond steward Barbara Broccoli are currently looking for an actor who is a person of color and relatively unknown, so we will just have to wait and see what happens for the next reboot.
The pairing of John Williams and James Bond makes a lot of sense, but it does seem like we are running out of time to give the legendary composer an opportunity. In the interview with The Guardian, John Williams describes the work of scoring films as incredibly difficult and constricting, hence his wanting to bow out of the profession soon.
It is interesting that John Williams is closing out his film scoring career with Indiana Jones 5, considering how much James Bond DNA the adventurous archaeologist has in him. The character was created by George Lucas with the British spy as one of his primary inspirations, along with an Arthur Conan Doyle adventurer and oddly, Scrooge McDuck. All four Indiana Jones movies so far have been scored by John Williams and directed by Steven Spielberg. In fact, Williams has scored all but five of Spielberg’s movies, making it one of the most lasting and productive film partnerships in history. It is fitting to end it with another Indiana Jones, but it is still fun to imagine what John Williams and James Bond could do.
