Here’s an update that’ll have you smiling. John Williams, 93, will be teaming up once again with Steven Spielberg for the filmmaker’s upcoming and untitled UFO film, set for release next June.
Damian Woetzel, president of Juilliard, confirmed the news, saying that Williams is currently in Los Angeles doing what he does best: working with Spielberg in the studio.
In January 2023, Williams stated that he was retiring from film composing: “The Fabelmans” and “Indiana Jones 5” were going to be his final films. Clearly not. Regardless, this is great news.
Spielberg’s UFO film, which goes under the working title “Disclosure/The Dish,” will mark his 30th collaboration with Williams. “The Sugarland Express,” their first, dates back five decades. Williams’ 52 Oscar nominations are an all-time record for scoring — 17 of those are for Spielberg films, including “Jaws,” “E.T.,” and “Schindler’s List.”
Spielberg is collaborating with “Jurassic Park” screenwriter David Koepp for his latest, which quietly wrapped production in June. There’s real mystery surrounding this sci-fi film, but Koepp recently hinted that it would return to the roots of Spielberg’s earlier work.
The cast includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, and Wyatt Russell — and naturally, Spielberg regular Janusz Kamiński is the DP.
O’Connor recently compared the film to “old-school” Spielberg, name-checking “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“Yes, it is like a sci-fi… Well, I don’t know. I’m not supposed to say […] It does harken back to maybe a different tone than [what he’s done lately]. Something he used to do that he hasn’t done for a little bit.”
Spielberg’s last film was 2022’s “The Fabelmans,” the most personal project of his career, which garnered positive reviews and a Toronto audience award to boot. That came after another critically acclaimed film, 2021’s “West Side Story,” which itself earned seven Oscar nominations.