Did Daniel Craig veto a previous version of Billy Eilish’s No Time to Die theme? The popstar seems to insinuate that the James Bond actor has a pretty big say when it comes to the franchise’s music in a new interview. Getting to do a Bond theme is an honor that not many artists have achieved over the years, which makes it even more special and desirable. Billie Eilish and her brother/co-producer Finneas O’Connell new right away that they wanted to be a part of the upcoming movie in any way that they could.
In a new interview, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell detail how the process went. O’Connell says, “Well, this is the first song I know Daniel’s opinion of, of ours,” to which Eilish concurs, “That’s true.” O’Connell then stated that Daniel Craig had to like the song, to which Eilish says, “Now. [As if he didn’t like it before]” O’Connell concluded by stating, “If Daniel doesn’t like it, you don’t get the job.” It seems that Craig may have passed on either a different James Bond theme song they pitched, or a different version of it.
When asked how long it took to write the song, Finneas O’Connell pauses for a moment and says it took three days, with this current arrangement, which also leads one to believe that he and Billie Eilish received some notes from either Daniel Craig, the studio, or both. Their theme for No Time to Die fits in well with the footage we have seen from the movie, while also playing with the title. Were they told anything about the movie before they started writing?
James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli attended a Billie Eilish performance in Ireland and they talked about doing the No Time to Die theme back in September 2019. According to Eilish, who was careful not to give anything away, Broccoli told them about the opening scene of the movie, which inspired them to write the song. After the final arrangement was down, Finneas O’Connell and Eilish recorded it on their tour bus in Texas. It seems like everything worked out rather quickly, with the majority of the work happening while the duo were on the road.
Radiohead were beat out by Sam Smith for the Spectre theme. The band took time out of recording their own record, A Moon Shaped Pool, to record the track, only to have it rejected. As for why it was rejected, that remains unknown. Daniel Craig is a massive Radiohead fan and has even interviewed the band’s lead singer, Thom Yorke. If Craig did veto a previous version or a completely different version of Billie Eilish’s No Time to Die theme, we may end up hearing it at some point down the road. The interview with Eilish and Finneas O’Connell was originally conducted by The BBC.
