While there has been no official word from the Bond camp just yet, it would seem that Sam Mendes is truly looking to put his own stamp on the 007 franchise and Skyfall, with news site MI-6 reporting (via The Playlist) that he's hiring regular collaborator Thomas Newman to take over scoring duties from current composer David Arnold.
Arnold has been in charge of the Bond musical sound since he was recommended to **Tomorrow Never Dies **director Roger Spottiswoode by 007 legend John Barry. Since then, he’s worked for every director up to Quantum Of Solace’s Marc Forster. He’s been credited with helping to modernise the franchise, bringing a trademark blend of orchestration and propulsive synthesised work.
While it’s surprising that Mendes would have brought someone new in given the producers’ control of most Bond elements, it’s not tough to see why Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli would have given him the okay to hire Newman. The composer has worked on all of Mendes’ movies bar **Away We Go **and he’s a veteran of everything from Pixar (Finding Nemo and Wall-E) to Soderbergh, and a wide variety of others, including The Shawshank Redemption and last year’s The Help.
If this pans out, colour us intrigued to see what he can bring to Bond and co. With Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw all in the cast, Skyfall is shooting right now and will be out on October 26.