Skydance Animation and Netflix have shown the first images of Ray Gunn, a personal project of director Brad Bird. The film will premiere this year and will feature the voices of Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits. The plot follows detective Raymond Gunn in Metropia, a futuristic city imagined from 1939, as he investigates a case that mixes aliens, murder, and a media star. Bird defines the film as a fusion of classic film noir and science fiction.
The technical challenge of building a retrofuturistic city 🏙️
The creation of Metropia, the main setting, represents a complex visual design exercise. The team must build a city that reflects the vision of the future from 1939, combining art déco and streamline moderne elements with imaginary technology. This process requires extensive conceptual art work and consistent art direction to make the genre fusion believable. The animation must convey the gloomy atmosphere of film noir without losing the detail and scale of science fiction.
A tough detective in a world of drawings? That's the future 🕵️♂️
The idea of a detective in a trench coat and hat solving an interstellar crime has its appeal. In a genre where fast spaceships are the norm, Bird bets on a guy who probably prefers a strong whisky to a hyperspace journey. It's curious to think that, in this vintage future, the most advanced problems are solved by someone whose procedure manual was written before television. At least the aliens won't complain about not being treated with classic style.