He's semi-retired and usually only does a project when Spielberg or Lucas ask him to.
When The Goblet of Fire was being made, he was actually busy with FOUR projects: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds, Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich. Reportedly he was considering scoring the second half of Deathly Hallows (Alexandre Desplat did the first half and ended up doing the second half) but was busy with Tintin and War Horse.
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/He became semi-retired in 2006, five years after the first Harry Potter.
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/It's a shame, but it seems like it was better for him that way. After all, he's only human.
I did like how in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows part 2 they reused one of John Williams' themes from the first Harry Potter movie.
Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.I couldn't find a source either but that's what a friend told me (while we were talking about Ennio Morricone, who's 81 and still doing film work as well as concerts). Seeing that he's nearly 80, he probably just wants to take things easy.
edited 19th Jul '11 4:14:30 PM by Buscemi
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/I like John Williams, and the sheer number of awe-inspiring scores to his name is testament to his skill, but I think the switch to other composers was a benefit to the Harry Potter films. Listen to the scores done by Williams particularly for the first two. They sound like parts of them were almost lifted from The Phantom Menace.
The later composers were able to take the music in a different direction, giving it more of a feel and really take on a life of its own. I've become particularly fond of Nicholas Hooper's orchestrations for Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince.
I almost look at John Williams and post-John Williams Harry Potter as two seperate continuities.
Silly, I know
He who fights bronies should see to itthat he himself does not become a brony. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, Pinkie Pie gazes Also

Just got back from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now I'm listening to John Williams' soundtrack for Sorceror's Stone.
I miss John Williams. From what I understand, he couldn't score Goblet of Fire because he was busy with War of the Worlds and Revenge of the Sith. Still unfortunate. I wonder why he never came back for subsequent films.
edited 17th Jul '11 5:16:51 PM by RL_Nice
A fistful of me.