No time to dieThe song’s theme song was eventually written by Billie Eilish, but Ed Sheeran now reveals that he was the one originally slated for the track. After a successful tenure as James Bond starting in 2006 with Casino royaleDaniel Craig parted ways with last year’s role No time to die. The film, which is being directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was delayed a number of times due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was eventually released to generally positive reviews from audiences and critics. In a first for the franchise, No time to die ended with the final death of Craig’s Bond as he saves the world from a nanobot infestation.
In keeping with franchise tradition, No time to die features a thrilling opening action in which Bond and his lover, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), narrowly escape a group of Specter agents in Matera, Italy. The action-packed sequence ends with Bond believing Madeleine betrayed him and the two split up at a local train station. No time to die then launches the usual opening theme song, which Eilish performs in her signature style. By writing the song for No time to dieEilish joins the likes of Chris Cornell, Alicia Keys, Jack White, Adele and Sam Smith, who have all previously written songs for Craig’s series bond movies.
In a recent interview about The Peter Crouch Podcast (through EW), Ed Sheeran reveals that he was actually scheduled to do the No time to die theme song before Billie Eilish was introduced. Despite losing the gig after putting some work into it, Sheeran makes it clear that he’d still be happy to take a call to do it again. Watch Sheeran’s full commentary below:
“I was a mug of puberty to do one. They changed directors, and then they just changed scripts, and that was it. But we had done all the meetings. I had started writing it.
“You have to – eventually, as an English singer – want to do a Bond song. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t hurt not to do it. When they come back I’ll say, ‘Yeah, yeah, of course.'”
How no time to die changed during development
After Craig was convinced to return for another bond film after the poor reception to Ghost, No time to die famous changed quite a bit during the development phase. 28 days later and Sunshine Director Danny Boyle was originally slated to direct the film with a script by his longtime partner, John Hodge, but producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson are said to have lost faith in their idea. Little is known about Boyle and Hodge’s original vision, but it later turned out that it was quite different from the typical one bond fare, with a plot primarily set in Russia that digs into Bond’s past.
Sheeran won’t go into detail about the behind-the-scenes situation, but it sounds like he was a victim of Boyle’s departure. Fukunaga, who was previously best known for Beasts of no nation and real detectivewas then brought in to direct No time to die with a new script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, which was later beaten by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While it’s unclear how far Sheeran has come in the writing process for his No time to die song and if fans will ever be able to listen to it, it sure sounds like the musician isn’t counting on doing another one bond theme in the future.
Source: The Peter Crouch Podcast (through EW)
