Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Film and TV
Jess Hardiman
Legendary composer John Williams has hinted that the fifth Indiana Jones film may well be his final cinematic project, having been spurred on by rumours that Harrison Ford might be doing the same.
Over the past seven decades, 90-year-old Williams has forged a career as Hollywood’s go-to composer, with music credits including everything from Jaws and Jurassic Park to Home Alone and Star Wars.
He recently celebrated his milestone birthday with a gala concert at the Kennedy Center, where the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Stéphane Denève took the audience through some of Williams’ greatest hits.
That same day, Thursday 23 June, Williams also spoke to the Associated Press about his plans for the future – heavily implying that he’d be stepping back from scoring movies.
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Williams, who has earned five Oscars for his work, 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.”
For the record, Ford hasn’t actually said that publicly, while Williams went on to make it clear he’s not necessarily sure he’s ready to follow through with his threat.
“I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity,” he added with a laugh.
“I can’t play tennis, but I like to be able to believe that maybe one day I will.”
However, right now, there are other things that Williams would like to concentrate on, noting how a Star Wars film demands six months of work, which he feels ‘is a long commitment' for him ‘at this point in life’.
Instead, he’s hoping to devote himself to composing concert music, including a piano concerto he’s currently writing for Grammy-winning American pianist Emanuel Ax.
Turning 90 back in February prompted Williams to reflect on his accomplishments and what a lifetime in music has meant to him - as well as focusing on his remaining ambitions.
He continued: “It’s given me the ability to breathe, the ability to live and understand that there’s more to corporal life.
“Without being religious, which I’m not especially, there is a spiritual life, an artistic life, a realm that’s above the mundanities of everyday realities. Music can raise one’s thinking to the level of poetry. We can reflect on how necessary music has been for humanity. I always like to speculate that music is older than language, that we were probably beating drums and blowing on reeds before we could speak. So it’s an essential part of our humanity.
“It’s given me my life.”
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