Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn” is nearly here.
The sprawling sci-fi mystery, produced by Skydance Animation, arrives on Netflix later this year. And now we finally know who will star in the film. Sam Rockwell will star as the title character, a private eye in a futuristic, alternate 1939, with Scarlett Johansson appearing as “multimedia star” Venus Nova (in the original script she was named Venus Envy, which wasn’t going to fly in 2026), and Tom Waits as Eyera, Gunn’s alien sidekick.
Set in the gargantuan city of Metropia, Gunn is drawn into a case that involves murder, mayhem and Johansson’s seductive femme fatale character.
“’Ray Gunn’ has been in my mind for over 30 years. 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,” Bird said of the project. “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.”
Johansson added in a statement: “Having the opportunity to collaborate with Brad Bird is a career milestone for me; I have loved his work my entire life. This project is so uniquely special because it is a total realization of where Brad is currently on his artistic journey. I can’t wait for audiences to see this extraordinary animation that looks like nothing else out there.”
Streaming later this fall on Netflix, “Ray Gunn” is one of the movie events of the year. The concept pre-dates Bird’s work on “The Iron Giant” and was initially meant to be a 2D, traditionally animated feature (at the time it was meant to be produced by Turner Feature Animation, later Warner Bros. Feature Animation). But with Bird’s move to Pixar with “The Incredibles,” his work on “Ratatouille” and then expansion into live-action (with “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “Tomorrowland”), “Ray Gunn” fell by the wayside.
It was resurrected a few years ago by Skydance Animation, which acquired the rights from Warner Bros., and is now finally here. It marks Bird’s first truly from-the-ground-up original animated feature since “The Incredibles” more than 20 years ago, and his first film since “Incredibles 2” in 2018. In other words, it’s a big deal.
The screenplay for “Ray Gunn” is by Bird and Matthew Robbins, who has worked with Guillermo del Toro on “Pinocchio,” “Crimson Peak,” “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” and “Mimic,” and was a contemporary of Bird’s on Steven Spielberg’s anthology series “Amazing Stories.” (Bird co-wrote an episode called “The Main Attraction,” which Robbins directed.) John Lasseter, Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg produced “Ray Gunn” for Skydance Animation, and Bird’s frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino provided the score.
“Ray Gunn” blasts off on Netflix later this year.
