Happy Holidays! I am a promotions person hired to publicize the film soundtrack
for Catch Me If You Can. I thought the press release might be of interest in
this group, as Christopher Walken is in the film.



Thanks!

Beth



For immediate release:



"For the first time in our long association, John has composed a score in the
idiom of progressive jazz prevalent in the '50s and '60s. Charlie Parker would
have been proud.. As John's music matures, he continues to get younger and more
daring each day."

- Steven Spielberg, from the liner notes to Catch Me If You Can: Original
Motion Picture Soundtrack



"This is an interesting deviation for both of us," says Oscar and Grammy
winner John Williams of his score and the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg's
latest work, the DreamWorks Pictures film "Catch Me If You Can." "It's always
fun to deviate from the norm."

Catch Me If You Can: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (due Dec. 10 on
DreamWorks Records) marks the 20th Spielberg-directed project for which Williams
has composed and conducted music, but it's the first to feature a progressive
jazz score.

Also produced by Williams, the album is likewise the first
Spielberg/Williams collaboration to include source songs, original recordings
contemporaneous with the period captured in the film. They include "Come Fly
With Me" (sung by Frank Sinatra), "The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole), "The
Look Of Love" (Dusty Springfield), "Embraceable You" (Judy Garland) and "The
Girl From Ipanema" (Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim
and Astrud Gilberto).

Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape,"
"Titanic") and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks ("Philadelphia," "Forrest
Gump") engage in a game of cat and mouse in "Catch Me If You Can," under the
direction of three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg ("Saving Private
Ryan," "Schindler's List").

Frank W. Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) worked as a doctor, a lawyer and a
co-pilot for a major airline - all before his 21st birthday. A master of
deception, he was also a brilliant forger whose skill at check fraud netted him
millions of dollars in stolen funds. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) has
made it his prime mission to capture Frank and bring him to justice, but Frank
is always one step ahead of him, baiting him to continue the chase.

The film also stars Academy Award winner Christopher Walken ("The Deer
Hunter"), Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen (TV's "The West Wing"), Nathalie
Baye, Amy Adams, James Brolin, Brian Howe, Frank John Hughes and Golden Globe
winner Jennifer Garner (TV's "Alias"). It premieres nationally Dec. 25.

"'Catch Me If You Can' is largely set in the early '60s," Williams
explains, "and Steven has achieved such a fantastic recreation of the period,
from the dress to the cars to the rest of American life, that we wanted to
capture the musical tone of the period just as precisely.

"Back then, progressive jazz meant something different than it does
today. It was the hip, upscale, jazz sound of the time. It was Dave Brubeck.
It was Art Pepper and Lee Konitz. In the '40s, Charlie Parker was progressive
jazz, and other alto sax players like Pepper and Konitz were the children of
Parker. I was even a minor practitioner myself in the late '50s, playing piano
with Shelly Manne and on recording sessions. So this is actually a happy,
healthy and welcome regression for me."

Catch Me If You Can showcases saxophone solos that have been developed
beyond what is heard in the film. The soloist is Dan Higgins. "I needed a
brilliant player," says Williams, "and Dan is a true bright light on sax."
Higgins previously played with Williams at a Hollywood Bowl concert and at the
2002 Academy Awards ceremonies. He is perhaps the most sought-after session sax
player in the country. Higgins' extensive credits range from his work with
Aerosmith and Christina Aguilera to Natalie Cole, Al Jarreau, Barry Manilow and
Luis Miguel.

A few of Williams' other scores for Spielberg have also veered from the
majestic, large-orchestra timbre that is the composer's signature, including the
more intimate chamber orchestra with solo violin of "Schindler's List" and the
broad burlesque of "1941." The "Catch Me If You Can" score, however, might not
have taken the direction it did if it hadn't been for the animated sequence that
opens the film.

"I always seem to come to the best conclusions later in the creative
process," says Williams. "I wrote a lot of material for this film that I didn't
use. I kept searching for some key." The key began to emerge when he wrote a
piece hinting at progressive jazz, recorded a demo of it and laid it atop a
work-in-progress version of that animation.

Suddenly, progressive jazz also presented itself for the theme for
Abagnale's father, a central composition titled "Recollections (The Father's
Theme)." Williams then rearranged its original strings-and-piano incarnation to
spotlight alto sax, an instrument that has not been significantly employed in
film scoring for years.

Soon saxophone formed the musical bedrock for the movie's scam and
crime-busting scenes. "Hence the score," says Williams matter-of-factly. "I
hope it's witty; it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek."

Indeed, an impish sensibility surfaces with the appearance of the source
song "Come Fly With Me." Played over an airport scene, the track conjures a
time when airline travel was glamorous. Passengers would dress in their Sunday
best for a trip to the airport. Flight attendants were called stewardesses.

According to Williams, Spielberg personally chose the songs. "In the
past, rather than use historical source material, I would create original music
in a pastiche style," Williams confirms. "But these songs belong so fully to
the mainstream culture of the time that it just made sense to use them."

Nonetheless, Williams made sure his score music echoed the ambience of
this material. "When you do a period piece," he says, "you have to be aware
that every era has its own favorite harmonic progressions. Yes, there are only
12 semi-tones in Western music, but time and place dictate a great variety in
the musical grammar. Tapping that is one of the key tools a film composer uses
to create atmosphere."

Williams has created aural atmospheres for Steven Spielberg for all but
one of his films (1985's "The Color Purple"). Along with the 19 feature films
they've done together, Spielberg directed and Williams wrote the music for the
documentary "The Unfinished Journey," which premiered at America's Millennium
Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31, 1999. The
year 2002 marks three decades of collaboration for the pair.

Attests Williams: "Thirty years is remarkable. It's not something you
plan; it just evolves. There's a sympathetic match of personalities and shared
interests and Steven and I have clearly struck a comfort level. I feel very
lucky."



Steven Spielberg directed "Catch Me If You Can," from a screenplay by Jeff
Nathanson, based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Frank W.
Abagnale with Stan Redding. The film is produced by Steven Spielberg and Walter
F. Parkes ("Men In Black II," "Gladiator"), with Barry Kemp, Laurie MacDonald,
Michel Shane and Tony Romano executive producing.



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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:



cinemediapromo@...



"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN" HOME PAGE: www.dreamworks.com/catchthem

DREAMWORKS RECORDS HOME PAGE: www.dreamworksrecords.com



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