Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn is finally coming to fruition, 30 years after Bird himself penned the original story. The film will come from Netflix and Skydance Animation, with news just releasing that Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits will lead the voice cast.
This is Brad Bird’s first film since directing 2018’s Incredibles 2. Bird won two Academy Awards, both for Best Animated Feature, for The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). He was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for both of these films. Bird has been sitting on this story since the 1990s, putting it off to direct The Iron Giant, before moving on to The Incredibles at Disney/Pixar. The director describes the project and its goal as follows:
“The film is a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s…it’s Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers. I’ve been a fan of both of those sort of genres, and blending them together seemed fun, and a chance to play with a lot of very cinematic elements, and extreme characters… There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation. That’s a group I’m anxious to persuade because it’s an amazing art form that is way too limited in people’s minds. Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told.”
The story will take place in a major futuristic city known as Metropia, following private eye Raymond Gunn. Gunn will be pulled into a case that weaves together aliens, murder, and star of the times Venus Nova. Gunn will be voiced by Rockwell and Nova will be voiced by Johansson. Johansson describes this endeavor as a milestone in her career, pointing to her longtime fandom of Bird’s work and appreciating the opportunity to take on a role in a project that will be very unique from an artistic perspective.
Bird helmed the script for Ray Gunn alongside Matthew Robbins. Attached as producers are: John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg. Stay tuned into MXDWN to find out when the film will hit Netflix later this year.
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