Next Spielberg film 1st in decades without score by Williams

NEW YORK — The next Steven Spielberg will be missing a familiar sound: a score by John Williams.

For the first time in three decades, a Spielberg-directed film won’t be scored by Williams. DreamWorks Pictures announced Wednesday that Spielberg’s upcoming Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies” will be scored by Thomas Newman.

Williams had previously been signed on to the movie, but is departing, DreamWorks said, because of a minor health issue that has since been corrected. The last feature film Spielberg made without Williams was 1985’s “The Color Purple,” which Quincy Jones scored.

Williams will still score Spielberg’s following film, the Roald Dahl adaption “The BFG.”

“Bridge of Spies,” to be released Oct. 16, stars Tom Hanks as a Brooklyn lawyer tasked to negotiate the release of a captured pilot.