Netflix and Skydance Animation announced today that Ray Gunn, their new animated feature from two-time Academy Award winner Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), will feature the voices of Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits.
The streamer also unveiled first look stills, which you can view above and below.
A longtime passion project for Bird, Ray Gunn is set In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, where private eye Raymond Gunn (Rockwell) is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova (Johannson).
“Ray Gunn has been in my mind for over 30 years,” Bird said in a directors’ statement. “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 added, “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.”
Coming off box office success with Jurassic World: Rebirth, with roles in the new Exorcist and more coming up, Johansson said on joining the project, “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.”
Bird directed Ray Gunn from a script written with Matthew Robbins, based on his own original story. John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg produced the pic for Skydance Animation. It’s slated to release sometime this year.
Skydance Animation/Netflix
Skydance Animation/Netflix