Since his directorial debut The Iron Giant in 1999, Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Simpsons) has been difficult audiences’ expectations of what animated movies can do … and who they are often for. “There’s a big chunk of people who don’t watch animation,” Bird tells Tudum. “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.”
Bird’s newest, Ray Gunn, which is able to beam onto your screens later this yr, is probably the two-time Academy Award–profitable director’s boldest play at blasting via these limitations. Ray Gunn has been percolating within the director’s thoughts for greater than 30 years — since even earlier than The Iron Giant — and in these a long time, regardless of the numerous transformations in animation expertise and the movie business at massive, the basic idea has by no means modified. “It was always meant to be a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s,” says Bird. “The elevator pitch I came up with is The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers.”
Although there’s nonetheless loads of motion that’ll enchantment to viewers of any age (“It’s a good popcorn movie,” Bird guarantees), Ray Gunn can be a unique form of providing, proving that animation isn’t only a children’ medium. Read on for extra.
What is Ray Gunn about?
In Metropia, a big metropolis in an alternate future as seen from 1939, personal eye Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) is drawn right into a case involving aliens, homicide, and a multimedia star named Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson).
In visualizing Metropia, Bird tapped into an Art Deco-inspired, pre-World War II imaginative and prescient of the longer term — optimistic and upward reaching. “What if cities just kept getting taller and taller and more streamlined, and cars could fly, and people had jetpacks as an alternative form of getting about?” says Bird.
Who is within the Ray Gunn voice forged?
Oscar winner Rockwell (The White Lotus, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) voices Ray Gunn, a small-time personal eye in a time when most detective work has been taken over by machines. “Sam is a wonderful actor, and he does a fantastic job giving the animators a bar to reach in terms of performance,” says Bird.
Academy Award nominee Johansson (Jurassic World Rebirth, Marriage Story) voices Venus Nova, the world’s most well-known pop star whose scandals threaten to destroy her profession — and might even value her her life. Johansson says, “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.”
Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Tom Waits performs Eyera, Ray’s most trusted compatriot, who additionally occurs to be a one-eyed alien. “I’ve long admired [Tom] on several levels,” says Bird. “He’s one of these multi-talents like Scarlett who does music and acts. And he’s always interesting on screen. It was a blast to work with him.”
More casting bulletins are nonetheless to come back, however the voice expertise all have one thing in frequent. “The main thing is, in animation, you want a voice cast that animators can listen to over and over again,” explains Bird. “A line that takes an actor five seconds to say may take an animator three weeks to animate, and they will listen to a line hundreds of times in order to get the cadence in order so that their gestures support what’s happening, and keeping them inspired is a huge win. All the best voice actors do that.”
When is the Ray Gunn launch date?
Ray Gunn’s future is nearer than ever — the movie’s lengthy journey to screens will lastly be full later this yr. “It’s been a challenge to do something new and get it made on a big scale, so I was really happy that Netflix saw potential in this,” says Bird. “Animation as a medium is too interesting to limit what kind of stories can be told.”
Ray Gunn will stream in 2026, solely on Netflix.
