Brad Bird brings 30-year passion project Ray Gunn to London
It took 30 years to reach the screen. Director Brad Bird told a packed room in London's Soho on Thursday how his animated sci-fi noir Ray Gunn finally made it, two days before its world premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bird was speaking at a Screen Talk, a public interview event, at the 70th BFI London Film Festival. The talk drew a jam-packed audience at a Curzon cinema in Soho and took place ahead of the film's Saturday premiere.
Ray Gunn is Bird's long-gestating noir sci-fi film. It is set in an alternate 1939 Metropia, a retro city where private eye Raymond Gunn is pulled into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova, according to Netflix.
The film stars Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson. Netflix describes it as a grown-up animated sci-fi noir and says it will debut globally on the streamer on 18 December 2026, according to Netflix.
Bird traced the project back to a childhood spent drawing. He said he started at age three, making sequential drawings meant to be viewed in order while he told the story. He made his first film at 14, work that impressed Disney executives, who offered him an informal apprenticeship.
That early break came with a lesson. Bird said Disney at the time made only one film every three years, and that when he arrived the studio felt political. He said he was essentially fired for defending what older animators had taught him to value.
He pointed to The Jungle Book as possibly his "spider bite moment" for discovering creativity. He called it probably the best Disney film for pure character animation, where no two characters move alike.
After studying at CalArts, a California arts school that feeds much of American animation, Bird worked for Disney and for Steven Spielberg's Amblin. He then served as an executive consultant and occasional writer and director on the first eight seasons of The Simpsons before directing The Iron Giant as his first feature film.
The London festival, which runs from 7 to 18 October, lists Ray Gunn among its screenings, according to BFI. Its world premiere slate also includes Wildwood from director Travis Knight, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
For fans, this means a very long wait is almost over. A story Bird first imagined before The Iron Giant will move from a festival stage in Soho to living rooms worldwide in December.
