Bond 25 director Cary Fukunaga is turning to an old friend to compose the score for Daniel Craig's last outing as 007, as Dan Romer has been tapped to handle scoring duties on the untitled blockbuster.
Romer previously worked with Fukunaga on his acclaimed Netflix drama Beasts of No Nation starring Idris Elba, as well as the streamer's trippy sci-fi series Maniac starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. He replaces Thomas Newman, who composed the scores for Skyfall and Spectre, and in turn took over from David Arnold, who scored Craig's first two Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Indiewire broke the news, and according to their report, there had been speculation that Oscar-winner Justin Hurwitz (La La Land) would be poised to score Bond 25, joining two of his former Damien Chazelle collaborators, cinematographer Linus Sandgren and editor Tom Cross.
Currently filming in London, Fukunaga recently released a little sizzle reel for Bond 25 in an effort to combat rumors that the set had been plagued by trouble. While it has certainly been a difficult shoot, all of that off-screen drama has appeared to stay off-screen, as the sizzle reel featured a new vibe for the Bond franchise. The latest movie starts out in Jamaica, where Bond is visited by CIA spook Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and MI6 agent Nomi (Lashana Lynch), as they hunt for a mastermind who's eager to exploit genetic engineering, played by newly-crowned Oscar-winner Rami Malek. It's described as a neon-soaked noir, and at one point, the film was apparently titled A Reason to Die, though reportedly, that has since been nixed and nothing has been decided yet.
In addition to his work on Maniac and Beasts of No Nation, Romer has also scored the Hulu comedy Ramy and the movie Zoe starring Bond 25's Léa Seydoux, as well as the documentaries Chasing Coral and Gleason. But the film that comes to mind first when I think of Romer is, obviously, Beasts of the Southern Wild, which he scored with director Benh Zeitlin. Now that's a score that I've sat in my car and listened to, as I recall Fox Searchlight being particularly generous with the film's soundtrack that year. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a gorgeous score that is full of life, and while the Bond franchise will always be haunted by the specter of death, I can see how Romer would come up with a sound worthy of the film's sun-drenched Jamaican setting.
Of course, the Bond franchise never settles down for long, and indeed, this new film is expected to take 007 to Italy, Norway, and jolly old London. But the important thing is that Fukunaga and Romer are on the same page, and given their long history together, I don't think that will be a problem. Lord knows Bond 25 has endured enough of those already. You can catch Craig's last turn in the tuxedo next April... unless it's pushed back to the fall, when most of his entries have hit theaters.
