Jaws composer John Williams asked if he’d like to write a James Bond score

During his 90 years, the much-loved film composer John Williams has a back catalogue many would die for, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Schindler’s List, Superman, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter to name but a few.

That perhaps should have read Live and Let Die-d for as the famed bearded maestro – after being asked by Classic FM presenter Andrew Collins if he’d fancy writing a theme to a new James Bond film – has said “sure, I love it.” Well, he has had a career spanning over 007 decades, the name’s Williams, John Williams?

That’s not quite the emphatic yes that The Guardian and others have reported it as, but it is nice to dream, and who wouldn’t be excited at that prospect?

Hopefully, the Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. will have heard that and it will help get their skates on for finding the next 007 after Daniel Craig’s final turn in the tux in No Time To Die (2021).

And if they did take on Williams – who is currently finishing up scoring duties on Indiana Jones 5 - they’d certainly have the man with the golden baton. He’s the most Oscar nominations of any living person and is only second to Walt Disney in Oscar-history, that’s 52 and counting, resulting in five wins.

Williams has had the Midas touch with the Oscar, with wins for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial and Schindler’s List. He’s a straight-shooting marksman when it comes to not just scoring hits but themes and tunes that we know and hum.

Bond has done well of late in the best song category at the Academy Awards, step up Billie Eilish with No Time To Die, Writing’s on the Wall by Sam Smith for Spectre and Skyfall by Adele

And James Bond has had some amazing composers working on their scores, which includes many Oscar winners – although no one has ever been won for a Bond score. This illustrious list includes Hans Zimmer (No Time To Die), Bill Conti (For Your Eyes Only), Marvin Hamlisch (who was Oscar-nominated for The Spy Who Loved Me but lost out to Williams for Star Wars) and the much-missed John Barry, who scored an impressive 11 Bond films, ending his tenure with The Living Daylights (1987). And although they aren’t Oscar winners, David Arnold, Michael Kamen and George Martin delivered great James Bond film scores. Thomas Newman was also Oscar-nominated for his score for Spectre.

Ever since Williams worked with Steven Spielberg on The Sugarland Express (1974), he has had a lasting and fruitful relationship with the director. And that director approached former Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli twice about helming a James Bond adventure, it was not to be.

Instead, Spielberg got his action-adventure fix by directing the Indiana Jones series of films, with Harrison Ford. It was perhaps no coincidence then that the man who would go onto play the father of Indiana Jones would be the original James Bond himself, Sean Connery.

And if Williams did do the next Bond score, we wonder if they’ll bring back the character of Jaws?

 Words by Dean Newman

If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page

For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.