The fact he put the knock on the original for the reasons he did makes me discount his praise for the new effort.
Yes, I agree. The new version, from the trailer at least, looks far glossier and more Technicolored than the 1961 film. The cast in the Spielberg seem to be your typical bland photogenic millennials too, so I'm not sure why Sondheim is being so disparaging in that admittedly very brief interview. Perhaps he gets extra bucks for promoting the remake?
I have mixed feelings about the new version. The 1961 film isn't perfect, but the dance numbers are still as electrifying as they were 60 years ago, and Johnny Green's musical direction (along with the dynamic sound recording) is peerless. I suspect the remake will feature lots (and lots) of jump cuts in the dance sequences and an orchestra that sounds synthesized and overly-dense, so depending on your standpoint (and age!) will either be exhilarating or excruciating!
Around 1:04:41 …David Newman Talks about Johnny Williams coming to Him…and asking David to take over the Conducting and Arrangements…So I guess Johnny didn’t want to do this…for whatever reason.
Yeah, just from this teaser Spielberg's version already looks more vital and better-acted--I've really tuned out of Spielberg's more recent output and I'm not a giant fan of musicals (although I have a great sentimental attachment to both West Side Story and The Sound of Music) but this grabbed my attention from the opening few shots. And I too expected it to be updated and I'm kind of glad it's not--the period feel adds an extra dimension to it.
All of this. It's been years since Spielberg has really grabbed my attention, and I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but to me, this looks fantastic.
It's weird to read that credit block and see that pretty much everyone except David Newman is mentioned.
I think when you're remaking a big time piece of classical music you don't emphasize/advertise what's been changed?
Considering how many music people are mentioned on that credit block (at least three, not even counting Bernstein & Sondheim), the omission of Newman is a bit odd.
The trailers are impressive (despite my being perennially unimpressed with Ansel Elgort), but I've long wanted Spielberg to make a musical (if nothing else, the Swing Swing Swing dance number from 1941 is fantastic), but why he felt the need to remake a perfectly fine one will forever be a mystery to me.
