Williams to Return to Star Wars for Episode VII

Written by Jon Williams

It’s been nearly six months since we’ve checked in with news on the upcoming Star Wars films. In that post, one of the items we speculated on was who would write the score for the new trilogy. This past weekend, at the Star Wars Celebration event held in Essen, Germany, that question was put to rest. Fans will be able to breathe easy with the news that John Williams, who has scored all six Star Wars films to this point, will return, at least for the first installment (Episode VII).

Williams, 81, is perhaps the best-known composer of classical music today, due primarily to his work in film. He began his career as a Hollywood orchestrator and musician under other composers. His first credit for a score he composed himself was on 1960’s Because They’re Young. He composed music for a number of television shows throughout the ‘60s, including Lost in Space and Land of the Giants. He also continued to work on feature films, such as Valley of the Dolls (1967) and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969), which earned him his first two Academy Award nominations. He won his first Academy Award in 1971 with his score for Fiddler on the Roof.

In 1974, Williams scored The Sugarland Express, the debut film of a young director named Steven Spielberg. This would turn out to be a profitable partnership. The next year he scored his second Academy Award for Spielberg’s second film, Jaws, with its unmistakably ominous theme. Spielberg, of course, has gone on to a career as one of the most successful directors in Hollywood history, and Williams has scored all but two of his films. This includes such memorable movies (and scores) as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List.

This collaboration paid off in other ways as well. It was Spielberg that recommended Williams to George Lucas, who put him to work on the score for his space opera Star Wars. Williams delivered with one of the most recognizable movie themes of all time, and followed it up with the equally recognizable “Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme) on the score for The Empire Strikes Back. His work on the saga has been the high point of an epic career. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine a Star Wars film without his iconic sound; other Star Wars-related spinoffs (the Clone Wars animated TV show and the Shadows of the Empire project) have leaned heavily on Williams’s themes for their music.

Williams has won a total of five Academy Awards for his film scores, to go along with four Golden Globes and 21 Grammy Awards. He is certainly best known for his work in movies, but that is by no means the whole of his career. For a full selection of titles composed or conducted by John Williams, SmartBrowse his name on our website.

Hot This Week: July 29

Identity Thief stands strong at the top of this week's DVD list, joined by a variety of newcomers: the fantasy film Jack the Giant Slayer, the Tyler Perry drama Temptation, and horror remake Evil Dead. Half of the CD chart is new, with Jay-Z holding onto the #1 slot. Daniel Silva knocks Dan Brown from fiction's top spot, while Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) makes "his" debut at #3. The titles on the non-fiction list just shuffle spots, with Lean In staying on top.

DVD

1. Identity Thief
2. Jack the Giant Slayer
3. Dead Man Down
4. A Good Day to Die Hard
5. The Call
6. Tyler Perry's Temptation
7. Oz the Great and Powerful
8. Evil Dead
9. The Host
10. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

 CD

1. Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail
2. Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest
3. Kidz Bop 24
4. Ace Hood, Trials & Tribulations
5. Florida Georgia Line, Here's to the Good Times
6. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions
7. J. Cole, Born Sinner
8. Teen Beach Movie Soundtrack
9. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience
10. Cody Simpson, Surfers Paradise

Fiction

1. The English Girl, Daniel Silva
2. Inferno, Dan Brown
3. The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith
4. First Sight, Danielle Steel
5. And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
6. Hidden Order, Brad Thor
7. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
8. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
9. Second Honeymoon, James Patterson and Howard Roughan
10. Bombshell, Catherine Coulter

Non-Fiction

1. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell
2. Happy, Happy, Happy, Phil Robertson and Mark Schlabach
3. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
4. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris
5. Dad Is Fat, Jim Gaffigan
6. The Duck Commander Family, Willie & Korie Robertson and Mark Schlabach
7. The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson
8. American Gun, Chris Kyle and William Doyle
9. The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
10. Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty

There’s “Money” in Being a Writer

Written by Kyle Slagley

Folks in the United States are accustomed to seeing dead presidents and other political figures on banknotes. Folks in Canada branch out a little bit to include more than just dead Prime Ministers, but with only one or two exceptions, most of the faces on Canadian bills are political figures as well.

The money is clearly a bit stuffy and stodgy here in North America.

Europe, on the other hand, seems to be a bit more open-minded with their funds. The other day I heard on the radio that the Bank of England recently released the proof for the new Jane Austen ten-pound note, which will go into circulation sometime around 2017, according to BBC News. Austen will replace famed naturalist and author Sir Charles Darwin.

Obviously on this side of the pond, we are unaccustomed to seeing authors and writers on the cash lining (or not lining, as the case may be) our wallets, but after my curiosity got the better of me, I found there are a surprising number of writers who graced various currencies at one time or another.

A couple of the more unsurprising faces are Benjamin Franklin and Nelson Mandela, who also happen to be famous for much more than just their writing. Franklin’s image currently graces the U.S. one hundred dollar bill, and also was pictured on the two-dollar note, which is now out of print. South Africa’s currency, known as the rand, issued five new notes in 2012 – all of which feature Mandela on the front.

From there we delve into writers who were primarily just writers and only delved into political satire on the side. Probably the most satirical of the bunch would be Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, who was pictured on the Irish ten-pound note issued in 1976. Swift was replaced in 1993 by Ulysses author James Joyce.

Though the Bank of England is the central bank for the United Kingdom, the crown permits eight different banks to issue legal currency. Scotland is home to three of those banks, and each of them has issued notes featuring a different writer. In 1994, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a one-pound commemorative note picturing Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island. In 1998, Clydesdale Bank issued a five-pound note picturing Robert Burns, author of the poem “A Red, Red Rose.” Finally, in 2007, the Bank of Scotland released four notes featuring Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott – the bank had previously released one note in 1999 featuring Scott.

To wrap up, lets venture outside the realm of English-speaking nations to Denmark and Germany. From 1952 to 1975, Denmark, whose currency is the krone, circulated a ten-krone note picturing Hans Christian Andersen – author of such fairy tales as “The Ugly Duckling,” “Puss in Boots,” and other characters you would now find in Shrek films.

Finally, from 1992 until they joined the EU in 2002, Germany circulated two 1,000-mark notes featuring the Brothers Grimm, one of Jacob and one of Wilhelm. The Brothers Grimm are of course responsible for “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rumplestiltsken,” and the other half of the Shrek cast of characters.

If you’re as curious as I was, check out this Wikipedia page to see who is pictured on the currencies of nations across the world.

Russian Lit Yields Masterpieces

Written by Jon Williams

Earlier this month, Entertainment Weekly magazine published an issue containing their lists of the Top 100 movies, TV shows, albums, and novels of all time, respectively. While one can debate the order of these lists, and in some instances even their content (that’s what they’re for, after all), there’s no doubt that they’re a great starting point for anyone hoping to sample some of the best that pop culture has to offer.

For their #1 novel of all time, EW chose Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. They’re hardly alone in their praise; William Faulker said the novel was “the best ever written.” This tragic romance between the protagonist and the dashing Count Vronsky has captivated readers since it was first published in complete form (it originated as a serial tale) in 1878. It’s been adapted for film a number of times, most recently starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law in 2012.

Of course, while Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s greatest masterpiece, it is by no means his only renowned work. He is also the author of War and Peace (#28 on EW’s list), The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and a number of other novels, short stories, and plays. More to the point, he is just one well-known writer of Russian literature that has provided a treasure trove of novels and stories over the years.

One of Tolstoy’s contemporaries was Fyodor Dostoyevsky, himself an icon of world literature. Dostoyevsky is known for such works as Crime and Punishment (#14 on EW’s list), Notes from Underground, and The Brothers Karamazov (#23), among others. He and Tolstoy were at the heart of 19th century Russia’s “Golden Age” of literature, which also included Ivan Turgenev, poet Alexander Pushkin, and playwright Alexander Ostrovsky.

Coming slightly later, and influenced heavily by both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, was Anton Chekhov. A doctor by trade, he once said of himself, “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.” He wrote a number of classic plays, and his roster of short stories is among the finest ever written. Chekhov then led into Vladimir Nabokov, author of a number of modern masterpieces, both in Russian and in English. His best-known, Lolita, clocks in at #19 for Entertainment Weekly; it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1959. Nabokov never won the National Book Award, but was a finalist seven times in all.

As outstanding as the history of Russian literature has been, it’s likely that none of it would have come to be without the influence of Nikolai Gogol. Gogol was the author of Dead Souls, a novel (although Gogol himself referred to it as a poem) that paints a broad portrait of life in the Russian countryside in the early 19th century. He envisioned it as the first in a trilogy; however, he suffered from writer’s block and then died young, burning what he had written of the second book before he did so. Nevertheless, the one volume he did write paved the way for the rich tapestry of Russian literature to come.

Hot This Week: July 22

This week sees three new titles on the DVD list, headed by the gritty action-thriller Dead Man Down. Hip-hop icon and business mogul Jay-Z storms to the top of the CD chart. Brad Thor jumps onto the fiction list, held off from the top spot by reigning champ Dan Brown. The Boys in the Boat, a story of the 1936 U.S. Olympic rowing team, makes its debut on the non-fiction list.

DVD

1. Identity Thief
2. A Good Day to Die Hard
3. The Call
4. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
5. Oz the Great and Powerful
6. Snitch
7. Dead Man Down
8. Side Effects
9. The Host
10. Spring Breakers 

 CD

1. Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail
2. Ciara, Ciara
3. J. Cole, Born Sinner
4. Florida Georgia Line, Here's to the Good Times
5. Imagine Dragons, Night Visions
6. Kanye West, Yeezus
7. Wale, The Gifted
8. Skylar Grey, Don't Look Down
   
9. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
10. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, The Heist

Fiction

1. Inferno, Dan Brown
2. Hidden Order, Brad Thor
3. And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
5. Bombshell, Catherine Coulter
6. Second Honeymoon, James Patterson and Howard Roughan
7. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
8. Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen
9. Beautiful Day, Elin Hilderbrand
10. The Light in the Ruins, Chris Bohjalian

Non-Fiction

1. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell
2. Happy, Happy, Happy, Phil Robertson and Mark Schlabach
3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris
4. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
5. Dad Is Fat, Jim Gaffigan
6. American Gun, Chris Kyle and William Doyle
7. The Duck Commander Family, Willie & Korie Robertson and Mark Schlabach
8. Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty
9. The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson
10. The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown