Composer David Arnold, who has composed the score for five James Bond movies, said on Twitter on Oct. 9 that he doesn’t know yet if he’ll do an encore for Bond 23.
Arnold, the composer for 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies through 2008’s Quantum of Solace, was asked on Twitter if he’ll do the same on next year’s James Bond film. To view the exchange, CLICK HERE. There’s not much to read. It goes like this:
@DavidGArnold r u doing the music for bond 23?
9 Oct
in reply to @ironh1de ↑
@DavidGArnoldDavidGArnold
@ironh1de don’t know yet.
If Arnold doesn’t return, who might get the job? Thomas Newman, part of a Hollywood dynasty of composers (his father Alfred Newman composed the “20th Century Fox Fanfare” that precedes every Fox movie), has worked with Bond 23 director Sam Mendes on a number of movies. Anyway, it’s too early to tell. Still, it’s possible Bond fans may be exposed to a new musical voice.
Meanwhile, to give you an idea how long the Newman music clan has been around Hollywood, here’s Alfred Newman’s FINAL composing credit, which occurred 41 years ago It’s a 1970 movie where the first actor to play James Bond (Barry Nelson) was part of the cast:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Bond 23, David Arnold, James Bond Films, James Bond music, Quantum of Solace, Sam Mendes, Thomas Newman, Tomorrow Never Dies, Who will score Bond 23? |
The Spy Command 
Wow, that’s a surprise! I could have sworn he said he was on board at some point.
It would be a big mistake to change him, one of the elements that did work in Quantum of Solace was Arnold’s score and it would be a real pity to to bring him back for Bond 23.
To be fair, there’s been no announcement that he’s not doing the music — which at this point would be big news. Officially, he’s listed as the composer on the Bond 23 IMDB page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/fullcredits#cast
and the film is listed on Arnold’s own page.
I think Eon knows what an asset they have in Mr. Arnold, and every indication he’s given leads us to believe he’s a fan and enjoys his James Bond work. We shall see…
Paul’s correct, there hasn’t been any announcement Arnold won’t do the film. We just wanted to make note of Arnold’s tweet.
Other Bond 23 participants,Judi Dench, Roger Deakins (director of photography) and Javier Bardem have been making their own disclosures, none of which were announced by Eon.
We just thought it was worth noting that a) David Arnold says he doesn’t know yet and b) Sam Mendes has worked with Thomas Newman on multiple occasions previously.
One note: IMDB credits aren’t official. It’s a great resource but most of the work is done by volunteers (just like Wikipedia). In some cases (and one of our staff has had this experience), correct information is posted and then somebody gets on it and alters it to be incorrect.