David Arnold

David Arnold (born January 23, 1962 in Luton in Bedfordshire, England) is a Grammy Award-winning British film composer, best known as the current composer for the James Bond film franchise as well as scoring the cult television show Little Britain.

Arnold was a Bond fan from an early age and also a fan of Bond composer John Barry. In 1997 Arnold produced Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, an album featuring new versions of the themes from various James Bond films. The album featured a variety of contemporary artists including Jarvis Cocker, Chrissie Hynde and Iggy Pop. A version of "You Only Live Twice" by Björk was recorded but not included on the album. John Barry, the composer of many of the themes on the album, was complimentary about Arnold's interpretation of his work: "He was very faithful to the melodic and harmonic content, but he's added a whole other rhythmic freshness and some interesting casting in terms of the artists chosen to do the songs. I think it's a terrific album. I'm very flattered". Barry contacted Barbara Broccoli, producer of the then upcoming Tomorrow Never Dies, to recommend Arnold as the film's composer. He has scored the three subsequent films: The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Casino Royale. As well as the scores Arnold also co-wrote the theme songs for The World Is Not Enough, Casino Royale and the end title music for Tomorrow Never Dies.

David Arnold wrote the Björk-performed song "Play Dead" for the 1993 movie The Young Americans (his first film score). The following year he scored Stargate and Last of the Dogmen, with excerpts from the former ranking third in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers.

Other projects David Arnold has worked on include: Independence Day (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Godzilla (1998), Wing Commander (1999) (themes only, score by Kevin Kiner), The Musketeer (2001), Zoolander (2001), Changing Lanes (2002), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), the remake of The Stepford Wives (2004), Four Brothers (2005), Hot Fuzz (2007), and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008).

Arnold also composed the theme music for several British television series, including the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Little Britain. Arnold appeared in a Little Britain episode as one of the advisors of the Prime Minister (portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head). In 2001, he provided a new arrangement of Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme music for a series of audio dramas from Big Finish Productions.

He has recently completed work with Massive Attack, Natasha Bedingfield, Chris Cornell, Shirley Manson and Mark Morriss.

David Arnold is set to score The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).

Arnold is the second cousin of Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice. He is not related to British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold and should not be confused with David Arnold, a former player and current conductor for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra who is also involved in writing, arranging and producing music for radio, television and films.