Today, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra and SPE Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman dedicated the newly renamed John Williams Music Building on the historic Culver City lot in honor of the legendary Academy, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning composer. At the dedication ceremony attended by Williams and his collaborators, friends, family and industry leaders, Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams both spoke in celebration of the composer's astounding career.
With a prolific career spanning more than six decades, Williams is one of the world’s most accomplished and successful composers for film, television and the concert stage. He has composed the music and served as music director for more than a hundred of the most recognizable and critically-acclaimed films in cinematic history. With 53 Academy Award® nominations, he is currently the most nominated individual in the history of the Oscars. Williams’ arsenal of films includes Jaws, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Fiddler on the Roof, Saving Private Ryan, the Star Wars franchise, Home Alone, the Indiana Jones franchise, the first three Harry Potter films, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, The Book Thief, War of the Worlds, Superman, Hook, The Witches of Eastwick, The BFG, and dozens scored from the Culver City lot including Sleepers, Sabrina, Nixon, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Angela’s Ashes.
“It is with great pride that we dedicate this building to John Williams for having made such a profound impact on not just Hollywood, but on the lives of billions of people around the world who have been touched by the magic of his musical genius,” said Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures.
At the ceremony John Williams shared, “The first time I came to this studio was 1940 when my father brought me here to show me the stage and I was about 9 or 10 years old, and I thought, some day this will all be mine! It’s finally come to be – it’s only taken me 92 years to get here! My hope and challenge for the next 100 years is put in the work and make some good music and make the next 100 years as good as the last. This is bigger than ‘thank you’ – there are no words that can capture it in the English language; our language stops there. This is beyond an honor.”
Williams has a rich history with SPE’s Columbia Pictures and has recorded over 30 iconic scores in the studio’s sound recording building. For Columbia Pictures, Williams scored the Academy Award®-winning Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Adventures of TinTin, and The Patriot. Of the 30+ scores he recorded from the lot, two of them were with J.J. Abrams — Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – and 18 of them were with long-time artistic collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Those include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, Empire of the Sun, The Fabelmans, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Post, War Horse, Lincoln, Munich, Amistad, Catch Me If You Can and many others.
“This month marks the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. How fitting the timing that to the pantheon of names that grace the buildings on this historic lot – like Capra, Poitier, Lear, Thalberg – we add Williams, the greatest film composer of all time, to the very building where so much of the joy he created happened,” said Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group.
At the dedication ceremony, Steven Spielberg shared the following: “I have grown up with Johnny from the very beginning. What he’s done for me is something I haven’t been able to imagine. This building is where all my stress dissipates…when I finally get to this stage of a production, and I know I’m in your hands. In the end I don’t recognize the movies as mine but as ours. Thank you Johnny, my movies would not be the same without you.”
J.J. Abrams shared the following: “There is no more magical being than John Williams. Johnny is able to tap into another realm, a profound, universal, utterly human place. Like an emotional wizard, he galvanizes a world, a spirit. He doesn’t just define the tone and power of a film, but elevates it into the pantheon. Every new score of his feels delightfully stunning, fresh, and yet, inevitable. He’s filled our lives with some of the greatest art ever produced by human kind. I am endlessly grateful for what he does and who he is.”
The John Williams Music Building is the home of the Cary Grant Theater, ADR and Foley stages, and the legendary Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage, which is one of the largest motion picture scoring venues in the world. Throughout its history, it has been used to bring hundreds of film scores to life including Forrest Gump, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Air Force One, Anchors Aweigh, Spider-Man, Mission: Impossible, An American in Paris, Independence Day, Black Hawk Down, Doctor Zhivago, La La Land and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The stage has also hosted some of the most renowned composers of all time including Max Steiner, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, Michael Giacchino, David Newman, Randy Newman, and, of course, John Williams.
This year marks Columbia Pictures’ 100th Anniversary. For more information, please visit www.columbiapictures100.com/
About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. Sony Pictures Television operates dozens of wholly-owned or joint-venture production companies around the world. SPE’s Motion Picture Group production organizations include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, 3000 Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films, Sony Pictures International Productions, and Sony Pictures Classics. For additional information, visit http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html
