The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelisations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz. The latest novel is Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz, published in May 2018. Additionally Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1993), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013). For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Thomas Montgomery Newman is an American composer best known for his many film scores. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous classics including The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, Cinderella Man, American Beauty, The Green Mile, In the Bedroom, Angels in America, Finding Nemo, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, WALL-E, the James Bond films Skyfall, Spectre, and the war film 1917.
David Arnold is an English film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films, as well as Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998) and the television series Little Britain and Sherlock. For Independence Day he received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television and for Sherlock he, and co-composer Michael Price, won a Creative Arts Emmy for the score of "His Last Vow", the final episode in the third series. Arnold scored the BBC / Amazon Prime series Good Omens (2019) adapted by Neil Gaiman from his book Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett. Arnold is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. It had been previously adapted in a 1965 film of the same name. Unlike the majority of Bond films, Never Say Never Again was not produced by Eon Productions, but by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.
The James Bond film series from Eon Productions features numerous musical compositions since its inception in 1962, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known of these pieces is the ubiquitous "James Bond Theme". Other instrumentals, such as the "007 Theme" or "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs, such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" and Tina Turner's "Goldeneye" also become identified with the series. Two Bond songs have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song: "Skyfall" by Adele and "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith, with the latter also becoming the first Bond theme to reach number one on the UK music charts.
The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No, released in 1962. The piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film besides the 2006 reboot Casino Royale.
The Spy Who Loved Me is the soundtrack for the tenth James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me. The soundtrack is one of only two Bond soundtracks to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The other score nominated was Skyfall (2012).
The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, "007", who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. It is one of the longest continually running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present. In that time, Eon Productions has produced 25 films as of 2021, most of them at Pinewood Studios. With a combined gross of over $7 billion to date, the films produced by Eon constitute the sixth-highest-grossing film series. Six actors have portrayed 007 in the Eon series, the latest being Daniel Craig.
Simon Hale is a British composer, arranger, and keyboardist.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:
The James Bond series of films contain a number of repeating, distinctive motifs which date from the series' inception with Dr. No in 1962. The series consists of twenty five films produced by Eon Productions featuring the James Bond character, a fictional British Secret Service agent. The most recent instalment is the 2015 film Spectre, which was released in UK cinemas on 26 October 2015. There have also been two independently made features, the satirical Casino Royale, released in 1967, and the 1983 film Never Say Never Again.
Skyfall is a 2012 spy film and the twenty-third in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the villain, and Judi Dench as M. It was directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan and features the theme song "Skyfall", written and performed by Adele. It was theatrically distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The story centres on Bond investigating an attack on MI6 that leads to a wider plot by former agent Raoul Silva to discredit and kill M as revenge for abandoning him. It sees the return of two recurring characters after an absence of two films: Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Miss Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris.
"Skyfall" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Adele for the James Bond film of the same name. It was written by Adele and producer Paul Epworth and features orchestration by J. A. C. Redford. The film company Eon Productions invited the singer to work on the theme song in early 2011, a task that Adele accepted after reading the film's script. While composing the song, Adele and Epworth aimed to capture the mood and style of the other Bond themes, including dark and moody lyrics descriptive of the film's plot. "Skyfall" was released at 0:07 BST on 5 October 2012 as part of the Global James Bond Day, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film.
Skyfall: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 23rd James Bond film of the same name. Released by Sony Classical on 29 October 2012 in the United Kingdom and on 6 November 2012 in the United States, the music was composed by Thomas Newman. This is Newman's first Bond soundtrack, making him the ninth composer to score a Bond film. The score won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. In 2013, it became one of two Bond scores to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The other to be nominated was the score from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
No Time to Die is a 2021 spy film and the 25th in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It stars Daniel Craig in his fifth and final outing as the fictional British MI6 agent James Bond. It is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear and Ralph Fiennes reprise their roles from previous films, with Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik and Dali Benssalah also starring. In this film, Bond, who has left active service with MI6, is recruited by the CIA to rescue a kidnapped scientist, which leads to a showdown with a powerful adversary.
Samuel Frederick Smith is an English singer and songwriter. They rose to prominence in October 2012 after being featured on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. Smith was subsequently featured on Naughty Boy's "La La La", which became a number one single in May 2013. In December 2013, they were nominated for the 2014 Brit Critics' Choice Award and the BBC's Sound of 2014 poll, winning both.
Spectre is a 2015 spy film and the twenty-fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures. It is the fourth film to feature Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond and the second film in the series directed by Sam Mendes following Skyfall. It was written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth.
"Writing's on the Wall" is a song by English singer Sam Smith, written for the release of the 2015 James Bond film Spectre. The song was released as a digital download on 25 September 2015. The song was written by Smith and Jimmy Napes, and produced by the latter alongside Steve Fitzmaurice and Disclosure and released on 25 September 2015.
"Spectre" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, produced by Nigel Godrich. Radiohead wrote the song, an orchestral ballad, for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, but it was rejected by the film producers. Instead, Radiohead released it as a free download on 25 December 2015, their first release since 2011. It was also released as a B-side on the vinyl single "Burn the Witch", and included in the special edition of Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool, both released in 2016. It received positive reviews.
