bridge-of-spiesThomas Newman has been hired to score the upcoming spy thriller Bridge of Spies. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Scott Shepherd, Amy Ryan, Sebastian Koch and Alan Alda. The movie follows a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Matt Charman (Suite Francaise) and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowkski) have written the screenplay. Spielberg is also producing the DreamWorks and Fox 2000 production with Marc Platt (DriveInto the WoodsLegally Blonde) and Kristie Macosko Krieger. The project marks Newman’s first collaboration with Spielberg and will be the director’s first movie not to be scored by John Williams since 1985’s The Color Purple. Williams was supposed to score the thriller, but according to a press release from the production companies, his “schedule was interrupted and he was unavailable to score the film due to a minor health issue, now corrected”. Bridge of Spies is set to be released on October 16, 2015.

  1. Linkword says:

    That´s is not good!…What is “a minor health issue” ?

  2. JAMO says:

    Oh God NOOOOO!!!, WHY??

  3. tiago says:

    I guess it was Williams himself that suggested Thomas for the job (he worked as orchestrator for Williams’ own Return of the Jedi). Or maybe Newman just thought this was his best chance to finally get his well deserved Oscar.

  4. Ferzen says:

    Very sad news! Newman is good, but without Williams’ score, this movie is incomplete

  5. Bernd-Helmut Heine says:

    Not a good sign. But let´s also not forget: Williams is 83 years old! And Newman will be a more than “alright” substitute…

  6. BB says:

    Really, it is quite strange watching a Spielberg movie without the score of John Williams … But before Thomas Newman (who is a composer who has the TOTAL control over your music) than the pathetic Hans Zimmer and his cronies

    • Linkword says:

      I agree! Newman is better than Zimmer! All composers are better…

  7. Joshua says:

    Gotta love when a story has absolutely nothing to do with Zimmer and the lowlifes STILL come out of the woodwork to bash him. That’s what’s pathetic here.