That is exactly why I have problems with specific composers. 90% of James Horner’s scores all sounded the same. I’m pretty sure Hans Zimmer just turns in exactly the same score every single time and it’s only 2 notes!!! Arnold’s are all different, and personally, I think they are better for it. At least for Bond.
I want the composer Fukunaga wants! For me it’s important the director gets the people he thinks will fulfill the movie he’s seeing in his head as he plans it and shoots it. Otherwise there’s 2 different visions colliding.
Arnold is versatile and if Fukunaga wants him then great. So long as we’re not getting a composer the studio thinks will temper any potential straying too far from the business model.
I wasn’t happy about Newman when mendes chose him. I wanted someone with more of a taste for strings and bombast. I was completely wrong. Newman turned in a wonderful score that took us to unexpected, interlectually and tonally exciting places.
Same goes for the editor, photographer (assuming Fukunaga won’t shoot it himself), art department and casting.
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i feel like composer is probably not at the top of the list of concerns for Fukunaga. I get the feeling it will be fine whoever does it, but nothing too exciting. don’t expect the theme song to be part of the score! (haha)
I suspect Fukunaga cares more about cinematography and the craftmanship of filmmaking which is a good sign:
“Before I even started working on True Detective , I made a point of telling Nic … that one of my priorities as director was to defend craft despite the constraints on my time and budget. In every episode I wanted to at least try to find specific moments in which you could treat the visual side of the medium with the same importance as we were treating the dialogue.”
The cinematography is definitely a question, given he has done it himself before. True Detective and Maniac (three episodes in) do demonstrate a desire for very crafted shots so I imagine finding a cinematographer who understands what he’s going for will be a priority.
yeah id bet that James Bond (likely with multiple units etc…) is too much for him to take on alone and I doubt EON, MGM or Universal would be comfortable proceeding without a cinematographer - Beasts of No Nation was much more of an indie affair ($6m budget). I’m sure he will have significant input whoever ends up doing it
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Not news" but I did do a double take whilst reading a recent Paul Weller podcast in the Guardian… What a theme he could write!
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I wasn’t familiar with Ceelo Green, but after a google he’s voice is decent enough.
I’d much rather have a theme sung by Noel or Weller, though! Something rock and edgy.
Much like Muse’s Supremacy, the Noel track Freaky Teeth is a ready made Bond theme and wouldn’t mind at all if they broke tradition and used it as a bond theme despite not being written as such:
From Weller something like this would great…
Someone’s even put some Noel to Spectre’s titles:
None of these strike me as Bondian enough.
And while I’m easily being too traditionalistic (is that a word?) about Bond songs, I would argue that a song that is too much of any genre (rock, pop, soul etc.) can work - but it would not work enough.
A song for a Bond film has to have that melancholy or grandeur or amused self-irony. Without it, it would be just another song for a movie. Something which could be slapped on anything.
Also, none of the above songs has the fun aspect I long for in a Bond song. They are all of the “we´re raw, serious, angry, emo”-variety.
Let’s not have that, please.
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I used to think the same until ‘You Know My Name’; very raw, serious and angry…and a great opening to Bond movie.
Besides, Noel does melancholy and irony as well as, if not better than anyone in the business. Ever heard the track ‘Half The Workd Away’? It’s used as the theme to the magnificent uk sitcom The Royale Family (about a family’s life sat in front of the telly in a council flat). Imo it’s melancholy and irony are heartbreaking:
Obviously it’s not what we want for a bond theme, but it certainly demonstrates a talent for melancholic irony.
Put that talent to evoke the melancholy and irony you desire with his ability to create a huge, epic sound with strings etc…
…and Noel’s opus shows he’s more than qualified to write and perform an outstanding Bond theme.
I see - he might be able to write a good Bond song, sure. I just did not discover songs of his that would fit my criteria.
Then again, Lulu´s discography would not have convinced me pre-TMWTGG either.
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Weller’s a genius though
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Not sure I’m convinced post TMWTGG either 
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Let it go.
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But seriously, as naff as it is I think lulu’s theme is, inexplicably, a corker.
The reprise of the theme just before the end credits, as the Junk sails way with Nick Nack complaining from the case tied to the top of the mast is a fantastic moment for me - romantic, epic, witty and cool - what Bond is all about.
I wish every Bond movie could end in such style with the image, music and content working perfectly together.
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A lovely bit of fan art from Twitter:
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Always the best. Never will understand why EON doesn’t hire you, Gobi-1. Very, very nice indeed. I’ll take this opportunity to say I’m elated for the recent news. To have someone I consider a modern Kubrick behind the ship’s wheel is enormous. Fukunaga’s a wonderful choice, and imo a better one than Boyle, of whom I’ve never been a fan. Very happy fan here indeed. About the date, oh well, my wife was the first one to say we’ve got to see it on Valentine’s Day 
Lucky me, right? She’s the best. A new lingerie set for her and a trip to the movies and we’re in business. The thing is, we might be a bit late to the trailers
odd-jobbies, that would be all kinds of awesome. Loved the Spectre opening titles with The Man who Built the Moon. Much, much better.
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Funny you should say that! I watched the first ep of his new Netflix series Maniac yesterday and aspects of it reminded me of Kubrick…
Despite an often busy set design he portrays a stark emptiness in it - a loneliness that’s pining for intimacy.
Like Kubrick (and Scorses) he also uses the crane and dolly to tell the story, moving the cam back and forth to reveal or underline things.
And there’s a sense of something dark and angry bubbling just out of sight - just under the surface (not as extreme, but similar to Lynch). One could argue it’s an obvious evocation of the story of the psychosis of Maniac’s protatagonist. But it was ever present in True Detective and so I think it’s a signature, or precupation of Fukunaga, just as it is of Lynch. I suspect we’ll have just as dark a simmering tension in Bond 25.
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Exactly! You mirrored my feelings, odd-jobbies. And he’s doing Napoleon after having been in Kubrick’s personal Napoleon library twice, and he was invited by Spielberg himself, who we all know to be a huge K. fan. Besides, his Jane Eyre is his Barry Lyndon, framing and lighting wise. One could even say he has his Full Metal Jacket (Beasts of no Nation), a Clockwork Orange (Maniac), Guy’s eclectic but also a visionary. Yes, the underlying active unconscious of a death pulsion drives all of his characters, not only the psychotic ones. They are all a bit realist, and philosophically negativist. It all amounts to an enormous and constant pressure, like if everything is always doomed to implode or explode. Craig will have a field day with his direction. I think it will make for a good match. His intense acting style, very underused as of late, with Cary’s sensibilities, one can only imagine what will be the result. I’m very optimistic.
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