The partnership between Netflix and Skydance Animation is looking to end on a high note as the first trailer for Brad Bird's Ray Gunn has been released.
The multi-year output agreement between Netflix and Skydance Animation is being concluded early by mutual agreement after first being announced in 2023.
Both entities issued a joint statement confirming they "mutually agreed to conclude their animated film agreement" ahead of schedule after Paramount and Skydance announced their merger on July 7, 2024.
But before they go their separate ways, Ray Gunn will be released in select theaters on December 4, 2026, before it starts streaming on Netflix on December 18, 2026.
The early December limited theatrical run will qualify the film just in time for the upcoming 99th Academy Awards.
The footage seems to be a mix of The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc. and Meet the Robinsons, which was a Pixar film in development (Bird was at Pixar from 2000 to 2018) before the studio was acquired by Disney.
In a press statement, Bird revealed that Ray Gunn is a film that has been on the award-winning director's mind for nearly 30 years.
“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.”
“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?” he went on to add.
The A-list voice cast for the film features Sam Rockwell (The White Lotus, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Scarlett Johansson (Jurassic World Rebirth, Marriage Story), singer/actor Tom Waits (The Book of Eli, Mystery Men), Matt Berry (IT Crowd), and Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch).
In a press statement, Johansson remarked, "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."
Also voicing characters are Alan Tudyk, Patton Oswalt, Michael Chernus, and Bird himself.
Academy Award winner Brad Bird, the visionary director of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant, brings you a whole new world to investigate…
In Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, private eye Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova (Scarlett Johansson).
Watch Ray Gunn - in select theaters December 4 and on Netflix December 18.