Johnny Marr has announced that he’ll be teaming up with film Hans Zimmer – this time to pen the musical score to the upcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die.

The 25th film in the series, directed by Cary Fukunaga (Maniac, True Detective) stars Daniel Craig in his final appearance as 007 and will be released on April 6, 2020. Last week it was revealed that cinema legend Hans Zimmer would be taking over the score, and NME can now confirm that the former Smiths turned solo legend Johnny Marr will be joining him.

Speaking exclusive to NME, Marr said: “Part of the legacy of the Bond films is iconic music, so I’m very happy to be bringing my guitar to No Time To Die.”


The pair previously collaborated together on the score for movies including Inception and The Amazing Spider-Man. Marr has often joined Zimmer on tour, but his son Nile recently replaced him in his live band. Speaking to NME in 2017, Johnny described Zimmer as “family“.

This comes after Billie Eilish confirmed earlier this week that she’ll record the theme tune for No Time To Die. The track is a collaboration with her brother Finneas and will see her making history as the youngest artist to ever record a Bond tune.

Speaking to NME at Glastonbury 2019 about his upcoming plans, Marr said: “I’m going to come off the road for a little bit and do something else, write some new stuff or start a different project. I feel like I’ve been touring now for years. I just want a little bit of a break to record, write some new songs before I take the show on the road again.”

He continued: “‘The Bright Parade’ more a psychedelic, sped-up shoegaze. That’s probably a contradiction in terms. Running shoe gaze. [Recent single] ‘Bright Parade’ is this thing that’s where I’m at right now, and I’ve purposefully left my options open to see where I go on the next album.


“It was always have energy about it, because we’re a live group and I can’t really imagine anything that I wouldn’t want to put on the stage. It’s not always the case. You can do conceptual records and conceptual music for a different purpose, but I’m so into performing and playing the guitar live on stage.”

Meanwhile, Marr recently released a vinyl box set of all of his solo singles.