While the James Bond movie franchise is known for its action, adventure and blockbuster ticket sales, the films have become equally popular for their timeless, signature theme songs.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, published Friday (Sept. 30), longtime producer Barbara Broccoli discussed Amazon Prime’s new documentary The Sound of 007 — which explores the making of the James Bond themes throughout the years — and shed light on the Amy Winehouse theme song that sadly never came to fruition.
Broccoli recalled meeting with Winehouse to create a theme for 2008’s Quantum of Solace, but due to the singer’s emotional state at the time, the producer said, penning a theme song for the movie did not work out.
“Well, that was a very very distressing meeting. She was not at her best and my heart really went out to her,” the producer told EW. “She was very fragile emotionally and, you know, you understood how she could create such moving material, because she has a great depth of feeling and it was very very tragic. What an incredible talent, what an incredible voice, what an incredible person she was and it was very very sad.”
In 2008, the year Quantum of Solace was released, Winehouse won five Grammy Awards for her work on sophomore album Back to Black, including best new artist and song and record of the year for “Rehab.” She died in July 2011 of an alcohol overdose at age 27.
Though things did not work out with Winehouse, the Bond franchise has seen massive success in recent years with theme songs by Adele (“Skyfall”), Sam Smith (“Writing’s on the Wall”) and Billie Eilish (“No Time to Die”) — all of which went on to win Oscars.
“It’s really pleasing to us,” Broccoli said of the award wins. “It was so great when Adele won, and then Sam Smith, and then Billie and Finneas — so we couldn’t be more pleased, really. It’s been a fantastic time at the Oscars for our music.”
The Sound of 007 will be released via Amazon Prime on Oct. 5. Watch the trailer for the documentary below.
