Animation director Brad Bird’s new film “Ray Gunn” premiered at the London Film Festival this past weekend, ahead of a limited theatrical run in December and a Netflix streaming debut later that month.
The sci-fi noir stars Sam Rockwell as the title character, a private detective working in a retro-futuristic city filled with jetpacks, hologram advertisements and black-and-white televisions. Tom Waits voices his alien partner, Eyera. The story follows Gunn after he’s hired by a character named Arnold Dom, played by Bobby Cannavale, to spy on his wife, pop star Venus Nova, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, who is known for her volatile public temper. The simple surveillance job pulls Gunn into a wider plot involving deception and crime.
“Ray Gunn” will open in select theaters on December 4 before arriving on Netflix on December 18. Bird, known for directing “The Incredibles” films, “Ratatouille” and “The Iron Giant,” originally wanted to make the film using hand-drawn animation before it was produced with computer-generated imagery instead.
Notably for residents of New York and California, the studio is striking 70mm prints of the film, meaning moviegoers in New York City and Los Angeles will have a particular opportunity to see it projected in that analog format during its brief theatrical window before it moves to streaming.
A review of the film published by Decider called it “enormously fun to watch” and praised Bird’s handling of action sequences and the film’s visual world-building, including its depiction of aliens living as second-class citizens alongside humans. The review noted that Johansson performs her own singing for the character of Venus Nova.
The film’s theatrical release will be brief before it transitions to Netflix, where it will be available to subscribers starting December 18.
