In a bit of shocking and unfortunate news,No Time to Diehas lost its composer mere months before the film is due to be released. The 25th Bond film suffered setbacks throughout its development asDanny Boylewas originally onboard to direct based on an original idea he hatched withJohn Hodge, only for the duo toexit over creative differencesa few months before filming was due to begin. The film’s producers went back to the drawing board and enlistedCary Joji Fukunagato take the helm, but this time with a new script that includes work by Bond veteransNeal PurvisandRobert Wade,Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Fukunaga himself.
It seemed as though production went smoothly, but nowVarietyreports that composerDan Romeris being replaced on the film with just three months to go before release. Romer was a frequent collaborator of Fukunaga’s having scored his filmBeasts of No Nationand his Netflix seriesManiac, and first made waves with his score for the Sundance indieBeasts of the Southern Wild. This Bond film was by far Romer’s biggest project to date and I was incredibly excited to hear what he’d put together, but unfortunately it sounds like we never will. Variety cites “creative differences” for his exit, though it’s hard to imagine he didn’t deliver what Fukunaga intended. My guess is his work didn’t match what veteran Bond producersBarbra BroccoliandMichael G. Wilsonhad in mind.
In his stead, Variety reports that veteran composerHans Zimmerhas been brought in to take over composer duties, with a score likely due to be completed by mid-February. In order to meet that insane deadline, Variety speculates that Zimmer may enlist some help from frequent collaborators likeBenjamin Wallfisch—with whom he scoredBlade Runner 2049—andLorne Balfe, who recently solo composedMission: Impossible – Fallout. In truth, Zimmer is an incredibly collaborative composer and has been frank about the fact that he works with a team of musicians on many of his scores, but he’s gonna need all the help he can get to write the score for a new Bond movie in basically a month and a half.
This isn’t unprecedented. AfterAlexandre Desplatopted to departRogue Onewhen reshoots necessitated a new score,Michael Giacchinowas hired with only four and a half weeks to compose a brand newStar Warsscore. The result wasn’t bad, but there’s only so much one can do with so little time.
As a result, I wouldn’t necessarily expect something mind-blowing from Zimmer onNo Time to Die. More likely the producers are merely looking for something serviceable enough, to which I say why not just keep Romer’s score? Can it really be that bad? Surely it’s not worse thanThomas Newman’s ho-hum work onSpectre, right?
Zimmer is great when he has time to experiment and craft something truly unique, like withInterstellarorBlade Runner 2049orMan of Steel, but that’s not the case withNo Time to Dieso it’ll be interesting to see how this turns out. It’s not like he’s sitting idly by—Zimmer has his hands full in 2020 with the scores forWonder Woman 1984,Top Gun: Maverick,Dune, andThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, and he’s also on tap to scoreSpace Jam 2.
As for Romer, we at least get a new score from him in the form ofWendy, the highly anticipated second feature fromBeasts of the Southern Wildfilmmaker (and Oscar nominee!)Benh Zeitlin.
No Time to Dieserves asDaniel Craig’s final turn as James Bond and hits UK theaters on April 2nd and US theaters on April 10th.
