Having previously worked with the Academy Award-winning German musician on two previous occasions – 2010’s Inception and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – the Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has once again joined forces with legendary film composer Hans Zimmer. Discussing their latest venture, the newest and much-delayed instalment of the 007 franchise, No Time to Die, Zimmer spoke to Variety this week to explain the turn of events that brought them together again.
Describing the moment he received a call from Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, whom Zimmer has long known, he says, “I never thought we would work together on something like that, so it was surprising just to get the call.” From there he contacted Marr and said, “‘I have two questions to ask you. First question is, what’s the only guitar part worth playing in a movie?’ And he said, ‘the Bond part’. And I said, ‘yeah right. Second question: Do you think I should do the movie and would you play the guitar part?’”
And here we are today, with their names attached to what is pegged to be the biggest cinematic release of the new decade. While Zimmer, using his official Twitter account @HansZimmer, had retweeted this post from the official James Bond page back in mid-February, it seems that we are now looking at old news. Of course, this is no great surprise, for No Time to Die is just one of the many films to have seen their releases, or entire productions, delayed by the world-stopping impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this original March 27th release date for the film’s hotly anticipated score will likely be pushed back to coincide the film’s November opening day.
The official soundtrack to #NoTimeToDie by @HansZimmer will be released on 27 March. Joining Zimmer on scoring the soundtrack are @Johnny_Marr and @SteveMazzaro. pic.twitter.com/34xpzw2bWI
— James Bond (@007) February 19, 2020
This is affirmed by Amazon’s product page for the upcoming album, where it states on the CD’s product details as, indeed, having been released on November 13, a day after the proposed UK premiere. Quoted in an interview with record label Decca, who will be publishing the soundtrack this year, the film’s director Cary Joji Fukunaga is said to be “beyond excited that Hans is scoring No Time To Die. The music of Bond has always been iconic and I’ve already witnessed Hans adding his touch of genius to the Bond legacy.“
