‘No Time to Die’: Hans Zimmer Brings the Smiths’ Johnny Marr Aboard Bond 25 Score
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The soundtrack for director Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming James Bond film “No Time to Die” is shaping up to be quite the mind meld. Earlier this week, it was announced that vocal-fried pop queen of doom du jour Billie Eilish has written and will perform the film’s theme song — and, at 18, she’s the youngest artist ever to do so. Now, Johnny Marr will be joining composer Hans Zimmer to write the score, as revealed today by NME.
The lead guitarist behind The Smiths, everybody’s favorite gloomy English rock band of the 1980s, will, like Academy Award-winning composer Zimmer, be making his James Bond debut here. It’s the 25th film in the franchise, and will be the last one to star Daniel Craig in the role of 007. The last Bond score, for “Spectre,” was penned by Thomas Newman, an Academy Award nominee this year for “1917,” and the theme song came from Sam Smith, who won the Oscar for “Writing’s on the Wall.”
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“Part of the legacy of the Bond films is iconic music, so I’m very happy to be bringing my guitar to ‘No Time To Die,'” Marr told NME. In the past, Marr has joined Zimmer on tour, recently replaced by Zimmer’s son Nile for the composer’s live tour. Marr previously collaborated with Hans Zimmer on the scores for “Inception” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” and in 2015, Marr went solo behind the scenes to compose the score for the lesbian drama “Freeheld” in 2015. While The Smiths broke up in 1987, Marr has kept busy, contributing his guitar chops to groups including 7 Worlds Collide and Modest Mouse.
“No Time to Die,” directed by Fukunaga, boasts a top-drawer cast that along with Daniel Craig also includes Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Rory Kinnear, and Lea Seydoux, all reprising their previous Bond roles, alongside newcomers Rami Malek, Ana De Armas, Lashana Lynch, David Dencik, Billy Magnussen, and Dali Benssalah “No Time to Die” will hit theaters on April 10, 2020, in the U.S. Fukunaga co-write the script with Scott Z. Burns and “Fleabag” mastermind Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who doctored the script on behalf of Craig.
The official synopsis for “No Time to Die” from MGM reads: “Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.”
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