David Arnold on AllMovie

A talented composer whose sensibilities run the gamut from epic to low-key and nearly everything in between, David Arnold is as comfortable writing grandiose compositions for the latest James Bond opus as he is creating music for such intimate dramas as Baby Boy. A native of Luton, England, Arnold started out scoring the short films of friend Danny Cannon, which sparked an interest in cinematic orchestration, and it didn't take long for the ambitious young musician to find his way into feature-film territory. A collaboration with Icelandic songstress Björk resulted in the hit single "Play Dead," which was included in the score for Cannon's 1993 crime drama The Young Americans. Arnold moved into sci-fi territory when he scored the following year's sleeper hit Stargate, giving birth to an ongoing collaboration between Arnold and the director of that film, Roland Emmerich. Though Arnold would continue to work with the blockbuster maven on such efforts as Independence Day and Godzilla, he also staked his claim on the Bond franchise by providing the score for the martini-sipping super-spy's 18th outing -- Tomorrow Never Dies. As with his continuing work with Emmerich, Arnold would remain with the Bond franchise in the following years. A fruitful collaboration with filmmaker John Singleton followed when Arnold penned scores for Shaft and Baby Boy. In addition to his work in features, Arnold moved into small-screen territory with work on both UC: Undercover and the U.K. comedy Little Britain. Equally adept no matter how big the screen may be on his current project, Arnold's work on such blockbuster features as 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Stepford Wives virtually ensured that viewers would be hearing plenty more from the versatile composer in the years to come.