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Comments
not for me, the theme gives always an extra plus to scenes, i especially like when is played in "normal" scenes, such as arriving in hotels, walking in streets.....only FRWL and TND have this in common.....
Also in action ones thou, just think of Bond on the camera in the Liparus of TSWLM, try to watch it without the theme, it totally changes......
Skyfall needs more Bond theme.
(GOTTA HAVE MORE BOND THEME, BABY)
it would be rude of EON to just drop him without even talking to him/ giving him a reason etc.
I'm sure Eon would contact him in some form if Newman takes over for Skyfall.
If this is the case, I'm sure Eon will be eyeballing how Newman does to see if they'll bring Arnold back for 24 (or 25 if Mendes does a double). If Newman does a good score with a good reception, then Arnold probably wont return, even if Newman doesn't return. But if Newman's isn't anything special I'm sure they'd bring Arnold back.
Even Barry reused the Bond theme "over and over again" in OP, and everyone seems to love him!
I don't mind them bringing someone else in for a change, as long as he understands and stays true to the classic "Bond-sound" using strings and brass, and do go for a contemporary different approach like Conti and Serra.
So how is the situation now? I mean, come on. The production of 'Skyfall' is well under way. They are busy filming for more than a month now. And so far it seems this Bond film could go into post production much sooner than its three recent predecessors.
Could the editors of MI6 not publish a question about the scoring of 'Skyfall'? I mean, I think the chances of David Arnold not scoring 'Skyfall' seems to grow a bit now.
Same here.
Tonight I am going to see 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol'. The official score by Michael Giacchino is now on YouTube. I must say, I ADORE his version of Lalo Schifrin's original theme! Completely instrumental, NO electronics, but instead a very sixties approach of the theme. I love the strings sections in this one:
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Babs and Michael? Can I say something? Hire him!
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Really? I thought he had nice variety of scores and was very adaptive for the locations they were at...but yeah, his score wasn't near his best in Lost or The Incredibles.
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This is.....India 2011 AD completely. And I adore these tracks. IMO David Arnold keeps faltering in composing easy-to-listen tunes that represent certain countries on this planet.
Then there is this great pumping Budapest opener. The tune is very basic, but it builds up wunderfully. Very Bond-ish. The helicopter shots of the city reminded me of the Lago di Garda shots from QOS:
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I also want to mention -again- two other composers that are in my opinion contenders to take over from David Arnold. John Powell did some great work for movies like 'Paycheck' and 'The Bourne Supremacy'. Ab-so-lu-te-ly thrilling, perfect build up and you can hum the themes with your own voice:
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If you listen to the theme of 'Paycheck', you can actually hear some Bond tunes in it.
Alexandre Desplat is also one of my favourites to do a Bond score. His work on 'The Ghost Writer' was full of suspense. A bit like the old espionage days in FRWL:
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So, I think I would be happy if one of the above composers would be composing 'Skyfall'. And, I say it again, I want David Arnold OFF the Bond projects now. Time for new blood.
And if I hear Sam Mendes, Daniel Craig and Babs & Michael talking about 'Skyfall', they will NOT take scores that are 'just good enough' for granted. For 'Skyfall', they are really dragging all talents out of every team member: Actors, production staff AND music department staff alike. And they won't say it openly, but I think Babs & Michael are desperate to get an Oscar nomination.
To summarize in short the problems I have with David Arnold:
A) He has never been completely the self-made man in the music department he would like to be. Conducting is not his strongsuit. He actually needs Nicholas Dodd for that. Writing music on paper....well, that's not his strongsuit either. He always composes by watching first edited film rolls. IMO a let-down.
B) Then there are all these filler themes; background music. John Barry always composed it himself. David Arnold on the contrary always asked other music colleagues to do him a favour. For instance, Four Tet for 'Crawl End Crawl' (We still don't know what percentage of this score IS actually his own original composition) and Propellorheads for 'Backseat Driver'. But one can also mention the Carver Party music in 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. That music is great, but it is not HIS.
C) I am also not satisfied with his way of composing. It is just not his talent. He is a great guy getting together a great team. A great 'string puller' so to say. But as stand alone composer he lacks talent. He can not create those memorable unforgettable melodies that actually made watching 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' and 'The Living Daylights' great musical fun! Tracks that are easy-to-whistle so to say.
That's why I say. Bring on one of the three composers down below and get rid of Arnold in a neat way :):
- John Powell
- Alexandre Desplat
- Michael Giacchino
You mean this one ;)?
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You are right 200% Getafix. A theme that, sadly, David Arnold could not do.
Sorry, but I found there to be nothing exciting about Giacchino's score.
Well, thank the stars you aren't making the big decisions about the films. If David Arnold is replaced, it will be because EON feel there is a better candidate available. But if Arnold is the best candidate, he will be retained. You're too emotionally-invested in the choice of composer to be able to make the right choice - if Arnold produced a recording of a score that John Barry would have been proud of, you would probably still have him removed.
I would add an ´s´ after ´score´. I´m not very fond of his work. And I don´t think much more of Powell. Arnold is more messy in way and much less theme-insistent, but he´s still way ahead of those two when it comes to big noisy pictures. Desplat is very good at small scale drama, but he always failed miserably when he did something cinemascopic.