Brad Bird's 'Ray Gunn' Premieres at London Festival — SkimNews
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- Ray Gunn had its world premiere Saturday at the London Film Festival, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) as a mashup of 1940s Bogart-style film noir and sci-fi.
- Sam Rockwell voices Ray Gunn, an analog private detective in a digital planet called Metropia (channeling 1939), while Scarlett Johansson plays Venus Nova, a pop superstar accused of murdering an ex-husband; Tom Waits co-stars as cyclopian alien partner Eye Ra Kadock.
- Skydance Animation produced the film under its original deal with Netflix, with producers including John Lasseter, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg.
- Deadline's review frames Ray Gunn as a potential Best Animated Feature contender, calling it 'smart, visually sumptuous' and praising Bird's success merging noir and sci-fi worlds through 'vibrant CGI techniques.'
- Netflix has scheduled a theatrical release for December 4, 2026, followed by streaming on December 18; the film is rated PG with a 1 hr 59 min runtime, scored by Michael Giacchino.
- IndieWire's review calls Ray Gunn a 'Retro-Futurist Detective Story with a Muddled Message,' a notably cooler take than Deadline's rave — the dominant rave framing overlooks that at least one major outlet saw narrative murkiness.
- Commenters on Deadline's review argued the film was originally planned in 2D and was changed to CGI, a behind-the-scenes dispute the premiere coverage largely glosses over.
Why it matters: Deadline positions Ray Gunn as Netflix's strongest Oscar bet for Best Animated Feature this awards cycle, a Skydance Animation title with David Ellison among its producers — a notable framing given the review's opening suggestion that Ellison's Paramount and Warner Bros slates lack clear Oscar vehicles this year.
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