Sam Mendes and Sam Smith

Now pay attention, 007. It was a case of Sam meets Sam recently. The latest official video log from the SPECTRE production team was released on the evening of October 20th, focusing on singer Sam Smith’s theme song Writing’s on the Wall.

The new Vlog explores the creative evolution of the song, how the 23-year British singer was given the job, and the views of the producer Barbara Broccoli and director Sam Mendes on the resulting ballad.

The song, which was co-written with Jimmy Naples, was secretly recorded by Sam Smith at the famous Abbey Road studios in London earlier this year (about half-way through the production of SPECTRE), and it has already broken a Bond record since its official release. In its first week of release, it went straight to Number One in the UK music sales charts, the first James Bond theme song to do so in the history of the EON franchise.

In the new Vlog, Sam Smith explained how keen he was to win the job of writing and performing the SPECTRE theme song, how he contacted his agent and asked the agent to try and get him on the short-list, and how he was asked to go to Pinewood Studios to meet Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli. He also described how the movie required the ‘greatest love song’.

Barbara Broccoli said: ‘It’s really important that you have a song that matches the feeling and the tone of the film and (with) Sam Smith we couldn’t have picked anybody better’. She also commented: ‘He really took it seriously – he really got into reading the script and talking to Sam, and having many meetings with him’.

Seen at one point in the Vlog sitting with Sam Smith in a studio, director Sam Mendes told the singer: ‘What’s amazing about a Bond song as good as yours is that it can actually help story-telling aswell, and what’s lovely about when you get a song early that you love it starts talking back to the movie aswell’.

Smith emphasised how special it was to be able to sing a James Bond theme song; he said Bond is the ‘most classy and timeless thing you can do’.

TV viewers in the UK are in for a real treat this Friday (October 23rd), when Sam Smith will perform his song live before an audience in a BBC studio in a special James Bond edition of the BBC’s The Graham Norton Show, which will be screened at 10.30 in the evening on BBC-1.

The show will also have 007 himself, Daniel Craig, as the main guest, together with Naomie Harris (Miss Moneypenny). Naturally, they will talk all things SPECTRE with host Graham Norton, but in a light-hearted way. Naomie has also given a tie-in interview to the new edition of the BBC’s listings magazine Radio Times, which also has Craig and Harris on its front cover.

The 24th 007 adventure receives its World Premiere in central London on October 26th.  Are you ready??

Sam Smith song image mendes_2 SPECTRE teaser poster 225

 

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