Thomas Newman Steps In To Score Sam Mendes' Bond Film 'Skyfall'

After composer David Arnold’s five film run scoring Bond films, Oscar-nominee Thomas Newman will now be stepping in to lend his musical genius to the newest Bond adventure Skyfall. That sounds like great news to me, but he might not ring a bell with you at home so here’s a few titles you might recall. Those of you Pixar fans will recognize his work from Finding Nemo and Wall-E. He’s also had his share of  weighty and dramatic period pieces with Revolutionary Road, Cinderella Man and The Help. His scores are always highly emotional and pensive but how will that translate to the high octane world of MI 6’s most famous 00 agent? Guess we’ll find out this November.

Some of you Arnold fans you might be asking why is he not returning? Well, he wanted to but the resident 007 orchestrator (Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies through Quantum of Solace) had to respectfully bow out this time. His current obligations and duties with the 2012 London Olympics have him a little too tied up. While we’ll miss the familiar work of Arnold it’s not to say a little new blood is a bad thing for a beloved franchise such as this. We’ve not only had new Bonds every decade or so, there’s a little forgotten 007 composer named Eric Serra (the Geroge Lazenby of 007 composers if you will). His music for Goldeneye was a nice change of pace actually. Sure it’s dated now a days but still it was pretty fitting for the time and that particular reboot. But I digress.

I for one can’t wait to see what Newman brings to the series with this installment. Plus he’s had a pretty great track record with previous Mendes films so this all sounds like good news. Newman recently finished The Iron Lady and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel so with the addition of Skyfall we’re in store for a multitude of themes from him this and next year. We’ve featured him in plenty of our FourScore posts so you know I love the guy. But I’ll ask you, what do you think of Thomas Newman getting a chance to score Bond 23??