At the ripe young age of 90, veteran Hollywood composer John Williams says there’s still one more major film franchise he’d like to tackle: “James Bond.”
The composer behind iconic scores for such blockbusters as “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” “Jaws,” “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Superman,” “Jurassic Park” and “Indiana Jones” — the fifth installment of which he’s currently working on — briefly opened up about the possibility of composing a 007 score in an interview with Classic FM (via the Guardian), saying only, “I’d love it” when asked if he’d be interested in the opportunity.
Elsewhere in the interview, Williams said he’s finished 30% with the score for the upcoming “Indiana Jones” installment, which is being directed by James Mangold (Steven Spielberg, who helmed all four previous installments, is a producer on the film) and stars Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann and Boyd Holbrook, among others. The as-yet-untitled film is slated for release on June 30, 2023.
In an interview with the Associated Press in June, Williams told the news service that “Indiana Jones 5” would be his final film score, pointing to an alleged proclamation by Ford that the upcoming sequel would be his last screen appearance (it’s worth pointing out that Ford hasn’t publicly stated this). “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,” Williams said in that interview. “So, I thought: if Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”
Notably, Williams didn’t say he would cease composing music, only that he would be retiring from film work (though he even qualified the latter by stating that he doesn’t “want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity”). Indeed, it seems clear that he’ll continue to write concert music after “Indiana Jones 5.” Just this past spring, Williams released the album “A Gathering of Friends,” a collaboration with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma that features reworked arrangements of his scores for the films “Schindler’s List,” Munich,” and “Lincoln.” He also has more film scores in the pipeline; in addition to “Indiana Jones 5,” he collaborated with Spielberg on the director’s upcoming semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” which is slated for release in November.
Of course, if Williams does decide to end his “retirement” from the film industry, it sounds like the producers of “Bond” have a better shot than anyone at talking him into it. Barbara Broccoli, take note.