1st Look at Brad Bird’s Star-Studded ‘Ray Gunn’ Sci-Fi Noir

In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder, and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.

Skydance Animation and Netflix have unveiled a trio of first-look stills for Ray Gunn, a long-gestating passion project from two-time Academy Award winner Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille), and announced a high-profile voice cast led by Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits.

Bird explains the convoluted path the film took to get to its intended audience:

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.

The director also emphasized his broader ambitions for his film and the larger medium:

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.

First announced in February of 2022, and set for release later this year, the film is Skydance’s most hyped to date and one of Netflix’s biggest-ever animated releases.

Animated at Skydance and Cinesite, the film’s producers include John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison, and Dana Goldberg.