Brad Bird’s Long-Awaited Ray Gunn Finally Lands on Netflix This December

Brad Bird has been trying to make Ray Gunn since the late 1980s. The wait ends this fall: the animated noir premieres at the BFI London Film Festival on October 10, plays select theaters from December 4 and streams on Netflix from December 18.

Sam Rockwell voices the title detective and Scarlett Johansson voices Venus Nova, a pop star facing a career-ending scandal. Skydance Animation produced the film for more than $150 million.

The story

In Metropia, a retro-futurist city shared by humans and aliens, Ray Gunn is the last human private eye in business. Venus Nova’s husband hires him to make her scandal go away. Bird pitches it as The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers, “but hopefully with a bit more action and funnier.”

The voice cast

• Sam Rockwell as Ray Gunn;
• Scarlett Johansson as Venus Nova;
• Tom Waits as Eyera;
• Matt Berry as Francis “Slugsy” Xavier;
• Bobby Cannavale as Arnold Dom;
• Alan Tudyk as Barry Vogel;
• Kathryn Hunter, Michael Chernus and Patton Oswalt.

Bird also voices a pair of Slugsy’s henchmen.

From Turner to Netflix

The project first took shape at Turner Feature Animation in the 1990s, then stalled after the Time Warner merger, leaving Bird to make The Iron Giant while hanging on to the rights. Skydance signed him in 2021, switched the film from hand-drawn to CG animation in 2023, and Bird handed off Incredibles 3 to stay on it.

Bird wrote the script with Matthew Robbins. Longtime collaborator Michael Giacchino composed the score, Kimbra wrote three songs for Johansson to perform, and Darren Holmes edited. The film runs 119 minutes.

Release

After London, Ray Gunn reaches theaters on December 4 and Netflix on December 18. Annecy audiences got a seven-minute preview in June.