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Following clues offered by Lukas Kendall on www.filmscoremonthly.com "60's bestseller goes free", speculation is mounting on FSM's message-board that Born Free is their July 'Silver' release!

Hmm, we will gratefully accept Born Free, if so, but Alice's Adventures would have been nice!

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We would like to congratulate Bryan Forbes who has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the order of the British Empire) for services to the arts.

Formerly a decent actor in a host of British films, Forbes turned to screenwriting at an early age and won critical acclaim for his screenplay for Basil Dearden's The League of Gentlemen. The following year, he wrote one of his most controversial screenplays for Guy Green's The Angry Silence, starring Richard Attenborough, following firstly the formation of Beaver Films (with Attenborough) and then Allied Film Makers (with Basil Dearden, Michael Relf, Carl Foreman, Richard Attenborough and Guy Green).

His directing career began in 1961 with Whistle Down the Wind, starring child star Haley Mills and his films which featured a John Barry score included Séance on a Wet Afternoon, King Rat, The Whisperers and Deadfall. He also directed his wife, Nanette Newman and Malcolm McDowell as paraplegics who fall in love, in the excellent The Raging Moon.

More recently, Forbes had a hand in the writing of the screenplay for Chaplin, another film scored by Barry.

He has been married to Nanette for nearly 50 years and they have two children: Emma and Sarah. Emma is a television presenter and Sarah is married to the actor, John Standing. Bryan Forbes IMDb page

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SONY LEGACY CELEBRATES JOHN BARRY WITH TWO RELEASES

Expanded Reissues of DANCES WITH WOLVES and THE CHASE Showcase the Talents of Legendary Film Composer John Barry

(April 8, 2004) - New York, NY - In celebration of his recent 70th birthday, Sony Legacy will release two titles by legendary film composer John Barry: THE CHASE (Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Soundtrax) and DANCES WITH WOLVES (Epic/Legacy/Sony Music Soundtrax). Barry has been nominated for seven Academy AwardsT, and has won five times.

At age 33, Barry, who had been writing film music less than 5 years at the time, celebrated 1966 with his first two Oscars for Best Original Score and Song with BORN FREE. That year also saw the theatrical release of THE CHASE. Starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford and Angie Dickinson, directed by Arthur Penn (THE MIRACLE WORKER, BONNIE AND CLYDE), based on a book by Horton Foote (who won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), and produced by Sam Spiegel (ON THE WATERFRONT, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA), the film wasn't well received by the critics or the public in spite of its outstanding pedigree. Barry's score, however, was extraordinary.

The British-born Barry would have seemed an unlikely choice to score the uniquely American film which follows the prison escape of Texan Bubber Reeves and the subsequent chase that ensues as he tries to go home to see his wife. His contribution was a wonderfully nuanced score, aptly described in the liner notes by journalist Richard Torres as "an aural landscape which is uniquely Southern and utterly ominous."

The 1990 release DANCES WITH WOLVES was a landmark film and a landmark score for Barry, who had been out of commission for the previous two years due to health problems. The film earned twelve Academy AwardT nominations, winning eight Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Kevin Costner), and Best Original Score - Barry's fifth career win. With this reissue Barry's score for DANCES WITH WOLVES is presented for the first time in its entirety. This package includes the previously unreleased film versions of "The Buffalo Hunt" and "The John Dunbar Theme", with liner notes by Jon Burlingame (Variety).

The two titles, DANCES WITH WOLVES and THE CHASE will be in stores on May 18, 2004.

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It's now official: John Barry's music will not be featured in The Incredibles.

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"Royal grandeur from the movies John Barry's soundtrack for a king and Prokofiev's score for a czar make for a lush night at Carnegie Hall" Interview with John Barry at www.newsday.com, by Marion Lignana Rosenberg. Very interesting read. (Link is gone.)

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James Southall reviews the new expanded Dances With Wolves CD "Dances with Wolves is a quite wonderful piece of film music, truly beautiful throughout and blessed with some of Barry's finest themes. This new album certainly shows off the score at its finest, and it comes highly recommended."

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Hot off the press comes news of the Almeida Theatre's new season, which opens with BRIGHTON ROCK

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Now adding a lyrics page to the site. We have only just started adding titles, so no lyrics there yet. But, if you like, you can submit.

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As we already announced below, but now with the poster of the occasion:

Tuesday, May 25, 2004, 8:00 PM

Crown Imperial: Music and the Movies

Sergei Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible / John Barry: The Lion in Winter in celebration of the composer's 70th birthday. Live music with film. 7:00 PM Pre-concert conversation: An Interview with John Barry

The screening of two classic films will be accompanied by a live performance of the music for each: Prokofiev's elaborately scored music to Ivan Grozny (Ivan the Terrible), Sergei Eisenstein's spectacular final film of 1945; and, to celebrate his 70th birthday, John Barry's Oscar-winning score from James Goldman's 1968 film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton. Both films feature stunningly beautiful and vivid music for chorus. Timothy Dalton will be host for the evening.

More information here: http://www.collegiatechorale.org/Schedule.htm

Mind you: "All Carnegie Hall concerts will be conducted by Music Director Robert Bass and feature The Orchestra of St. Luke's. "

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Many people have wondered whether or not John Barry is the composer of the Mercedes Benz TV commercial "Faithful". For those not familiar with the commercial, here's your chance to hear the music to hear how much John Barry it is.

We have an email reply from the producer of the ad and he writes to us: "The musical score on the commercial is an original composition by Mike Hewer, with Amber music in London. Mike is quite an accomplished composer and works on both feature films and commercials."

So, Poll closed! Results:

Mercedes Faithful TV commercial
Is the music in the Mercedes "Faithful" ad a John Barry composition?

Definitely, there is no doubt about it (6) 25%
Could be, though I am not sure (11) 45%
Absolutely not; good imitation though (7) 29%
Number of votes: 24.