Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones Complete Score

To whom it may concern:

This letter/petition is meant to serve two purposes:

1. To establish the undersigned fans' desire for a Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - Complete Edition 2-CD soundtrack release.

2. To establish what the undersigned fans want out of such a conjectural release, and to let Sony Classical know how to improve upon the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - Ultimate Edition in order to deliver a superior product.

It is very important to the undersigned fans to let Sony Classical know exactly what they expect from the Star Wars name. The Phantom Menace - Ultimate Edition, which was released in 2000, failed to meet fan quality expectations in several significant regards. Foremost among these was the unsatisfactory musical presentation - much of the music which John Williams composed had been cut up, tracked, repeated, removed, etc. Here are excerpts from the most prominent Star Wars, soundtrack, and review websites on the Internet:

"The new 'Ultimate Edition' soundtrack album includes not only jarring edits between bits of music, but also repeats lengthy sections of music and adheres to a musical flow that will outrage fans who expect to hear every note Williams recorded for the film in the order he originally intended them." - Jeff Bond, Film Score Monthly (www.filmscoremonthly.com)

"...one was filled with hope: On Sony's 'Ultimate Edition', we'd finally get to hear all the music the way Williams originally scored it, right? No chopped up cues, lots of emergent and rousing new melodies, and a few alternate takes - right? Well, um, actually, no ... The so-called 'Ultimate Edition' plays like an isolated score track on the 'Episode I' DVD, horrid warts and all .. Is the negligence not appealing? Indeed it is." - Alexandra DuPont, Ain't It Cool News (www.aintitcool.com)

"...the average fan will find the music fragmented and erratic ... the collection as a whole doesn't provide a coherent musical representation of the movie." - Jeff Berkwitz, SciFi.com (www.scifi.com)

"The most obvious problem is that many tracks that Williams wrote were not put on this CD, but we know that other tracks do exist ... Practically the entire mid portion of Disc 1 ... gets looped at some point. Disc 2 is worse: the final action sequences sound chopped up, hacked around with, folded, spindled and mutilated, loops abounding ... in regards to the Ultimate Edition soundtrack, (Sony Classical) could have done better. They should have done better. Would I recommend this collection to a discriminating, serious fan of John Williams? I would not hesitate to say 'no' ... Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - The Ultimate Edition should be avoided like a mange-infested Ewok." - Chris Knight, The Force.net (www.theforce.net)

"...the sharp edits on some of the cues make this album very different from the typically fine-crafted Williams affair ... These sharp fades ... are a great detriment to the album ... for Star Wars and John Williams enthusiasts, you might find the logic behind the album to be a bit confusing and you'll wonder why there are still ten or so minutes of music entirely missing (music that was recorded, but not used in the film). Make no mistake about it; this album is the equivalent to a heavily edited isolated DVD score track." - Christian Clemmensen, FilmTracks Modern Soundtrack Reviews (www.filmtracks.com)

"The edits here sound absolutely horrible. Fragments of Williams' score are found here and there, in between the horrendous loops and edits. I keep asking myself, 'Why did they do this? Didn't they actually think, or listen to us hard enough!?' So if you were wondering whether or not to purchase the Ultimate Edition, here's my words for you. Stick with the original album, and wait for a decent release of the score..." - "JarJar", JediNet (www.jedinet.com)

Clearly, Sony Classical has good reason to pay attention to what the fans are saying now. For your convenience, here are the expectations which the undersigned fans hold for a potential Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - Complete Edition:

WHAT WE WANT FROM THE MUSIC:

I. In Homing Beacon #54, the official Star Wars newsletter, producer Rick McCallum reported that John Williams had recorded 125 MINUTES of music for "Attack of the Clones". This is what we want to hear: all of the music John Williams wrote and recorded, in its original dramatic sequence. We are aware that not all of the music which Williams composed was used in the finished film. We want it anyway. It's a huge selling point.

II. We understand what some cues were edited or shortened in the final film. We want the cues as originally recorded, before editing and cutting took place.

III. IN PARTICULAR we want to hear the film's original finale sequence! Sources involved with the recording of the score have revealed that Williams originally composed a "massive orchestral blowout" for the finale, which was subsequently removed and replaced by a statement of the Imperial March. This statement is what appears on the current soundtrack release (Track 13, "Confrontation with Count Dooku and Finale").

The edits are rather obvious to a trained musical ear. In addition, a few tantalizing seconds of the unreleased finale DO APPEAR in the "Across the Stars" music video. There ought to be enough room on a conjectural Complete Edition to give the fans BOTH versions of the finale. But if it must be one or the other, please give us what we don't already have.

IV. In the finished film, final battle sequences were partially scored with actual recordings of music from "The Phantom Menace". Please don't represent these out-of-control musical edits on a Complete Edition release. Instead, give us any music that was originally intended to accompany these scenes. You can find a list of the tracking and edits at www.jwfan.net.

V. Any other alternate versions of cues, or bonus tracks, etc., are very welcome... but not at the expense of the complete, unabridged score the way John Williams wrote it. In other words, we'd much rather have the original musical finale than a "dialogue version" of "Across the Stars".

WHAT WE WANT FROM THE PACKAGING:

VI. Please include TRACK TIMES somewhere on the packaging.

VII. Avoid "slipcase-style" packages that may scuff the discs during removal.

VIII. A track-list on the OUTSIDE of the package would be nice.

IX. Please make an effort to give us QUALITY LINER NOTES. Cursory comments from George Lucas and John Williams are fine, but we would love a thorough, scholarly examination of the music that demonstrates real insight into the scoring process, and serves as an effective guide to the music presented on the CDs.

X. Clear and ACCURATE ADVERTISING, both on the package and in the media. Sony Classical has had problems in this regard in the past. The Phantom Menace - Ultimate Edition was aggressively marketed as including "every note which John Williams composed", when it clearly did not. The Attack of the Clones regular edition included a bonus track only available at Target - a fact which was not made clear to anxious fans prior to the CD release.

IN CONCLUSION:

We urge you to pay careful attention to what the fans want. A quality musical presentation, coupled with detailed and efficient packaging, will bring accolates from the fan community. If Sony Classical responds intelligently to the expectations detailed above, the same influential voices that harshly criticized The Phantom Menace - Ultimate Edition will, without a doubt, praise the Attack of the Clones - Complete Edition.

It should be noted that each expectation listed above makes for a terrific selling point and ought to be exploited. Star Wars and soundtrack fans everywhere are eager to give you their consumer support. Please reward them with a product worth supporting.

This petition has been created to open a dialogue between Sony Classical and Star Wars/John Williams fans. Therefore, if there is any confusion, or if Sony Classical has any further questions, please feel free to contact the petition authors at [email protected] or [email protected]