Composer News (Or Not News)

T.A. Ferguson wrote:

A composer has been found.....Dan Romer.

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/bond-25-composer-dan-romer-cary-fukunaga-1202154760/

Thanks for sharing. Never heard of him, to be honest.

JSW wrote:

Not happy with this at all. Arnold should have been brought back. He is the only one who gets John Barry, and brings enough of those sounds into a Bond film which has been severely lacking in Craig's past 2 outings.

From the examples I've heard, it sounds like Bond 25 will be another moody Newman type job, which I'm sick to death of. I was really hoping Arnold would have returned. It was the one thing I was holding out for (that, and some unused Fleming scenes).

Yep! Arnold should be the new Barry, insofar as, if he's unavailable, you bring in someone else. I won't source out any of Romer's material, but if it is cut from the same cloth as Newman's sterile sound (or even Arnold's clinical CR sound) then it will be another just facet of the film eliciting disappointment.

JSW wrote:

So I'm already disappointed now by Bond 25 from the choice of composer. Here's hoping we at least get a few lifted Fleming scenes (although again, wishful thinking.)

I don't Fleming material wasted on Craig's Bond. They fucked up royally with CR06 so don't want to see more of it mistreated in this (hopefully) experimental era.

CR wrote:

Cubby knew he needed to stick with Barry whenever possible, and he also knew he had to still rely on Fleming, even during the 80's when the novel titles dried up. Short stories and scenes were still heavily relied upon. Other than CR, we haven't seen any Fleming scenes adapted since LTK in 1989. Instead, we've had to suffer poor attempts at `Fleming re-imagined' by P&W.

Ha. CR06 is a poor attempt at "Fleming re-imagined". I'd rather not see literary scenes adapted for the sake of it. If it's not done well it's such. a. waste.

MP wrote:

There's a lot of oddities with the scene. Like Bond's game plan: "Head for the gully, I'll lead them into the trees", because if he assumes they're there to assassinate her, I'm not sure why he'd not realize they could just split up and go after two targets. But I suspect that dialogue was planted simply so Bond could never come to the realization that he was the target all along and they were working for Elektra.

Here we go again.

I'll reserve judgement. On one hand I'm interested in hearing a fresh Bond score from a new composer and on the other hand I don't know this guys work to begin with. Time to do some research I imagine.

Wondering if getting to work with his regular musical cohort was a condition of Cary's for taking the job?

I'm also unfamiliar with his works. I'll keep an open mind. I am very familiar with Fukunaga's work and will trust his judgement. It's another step towards film completion and that's a good thing.

Likewise I'll keep an open mind. Music is a big part of my love of the world of Bond, hence why I'm deliberately not going to source out Romer's other scores. I'd rather go in not knowing anything. I knew of Newman's score prior to SF and felt he was totally wrong for Bond. I was right.

The music has been critically ignored and buried for years in both the lack of attention paid to it and the sound mixes themselves. A bit of fanfare and press happened with Arnold on CR06 in holding back the Bond theme usage until the very end but I really have no interest in that score as I simply didn't like anything Arnold did with it.

There is no other film where the music is so critically important to the success of the whole enterprise and yet they're just throwing it away-again.

I don't think there's been a particularly "big" moment for any score since DAD and the last truly iconic musical moment in the series is without question the charging leap of the Q Boat from the blown MI6 HQ to Arnold's triumphant "Come in 007, Your Time is Up".

Yes to all of that. Though the Kiss of Life sequence in DAD might be the last time.

Actually, the DB5 reveal in SF was pretty cool. Just wish it wasn't that CR version of the Bond theme.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Actually, the DB5 reveal in SF was pretty cool. Just wish it wasn't that CR version of the Bond theme.

I like the guitar play a lot better in the SF's version over CR's.

As do I, but never been big on the opening strains of the cue.

Rumour has it Romer is no longer scoring NTTD. Still just about time for Arnold to get hired and do it, maybe?

Wouldn't be surprised if they get Arnold, which is something to look forward to in the film, then.

Wonder why Romer left. The mind automatically presumes "creative differences" with the temperamental director and/or lead.

Strong suggestion on another (non-Bond) forum that Hans Zimmer is gaining momentum to score Bond. I'll try and look into soon but float it out there. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of his, I'm not a detractor but nowadays I tend to avoid his scores or listen to them as much (I've knackered my Rush soundtrack back in the day).

It'd be interesting...a 'big' composer, who with respect to Arnold, seems bigger...but would it be?

Somehow missed your post Hilly but seems you were right. Apparently Dan Romer was fired because his score was 'too experimental' for Bond. Very curious to hear that but doubtful it would get released. Unless it gets reused for something else he's composing for.

Yeah, we had enough of that carry-on with Serra's GE score .

I'm not too thrilled about a Zimmer score. I stand to be corrected.

Neither am I Hilly.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Yeah, we had enough of that carry-on with Serra's GE score .

And yet we're still talking about it 25 years on.

I bet we will of Zimmer's score. Just want this film done with. I'm not looking to get on certain bandwagons but I find I'm just flat out tired of everything.

Great. Just great. More wannabe binaural tone music not even fit for elevators but now in the most iconic series known world over for it's musical heights....just how experimental could the rejected score be for them to go to the bastion of brain dead film scoring???

I really, really, really hate Zimmer scores particularly his modern ones that seem like completely lifeless sonic wallpaper.

hegottheboot wrote:

wannabe binaural tone music not even fit for elevators... brain dead film scoring... completely lifeless sonic wallpaper.

Yep. It plagues modern cinema, not just Bond. It's worse that Bond has adopted this sound since the world of 007 is colourful, sexy, full of intrigue... and the music reflected that.

That said, I know he can provide something with the zest and heart of the original Lion King score. I like that. But I doubt it will happen.

Johnny Marr to Work With Hans Zimmer on Score for New James Bond Movie No Time to Die

https://pitchfork.com/news/johnny-marr-to-work-with-hans-zimmer-on-score-for-new-james-bond-movie-no-time-to-die/

Interesting. There's hope yet.

With his involvement I think I'd prefer The Pretenders to perform the theme song instead of Eilish.

I was doing some quick googling and in February the soundtrack was scheduled for a March 27 release. Now with the film postponed, clearly it's not happened but nowhere seems to have updated when it will be out (November I'm guessing) nor album details. Like the NTTD OST has vanished into the ether.

Perhaps they're waiting until the Covid outlook is more predictable before confirming new dates. The Spy Command (Napoleon Solo here) said in an MGM conference this week there were no plans made to move NTTD's release, so it's on track for November.

Didn't realize Bill Koenig is Napoleon Solo here. Makes sense though.