Thirty-five years is a long time to keep a film idea alive. Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn has finally reached London audiences, and one of its most intriguing ingredients is something you cannot see: a big orchestra recorded with decidedly old-fashioned microphones.
Bird and composer Michael Giacchino discussed the animated sci-fi detective film at Deadline’s Contenders London event on 10 October, according to the report syndicated by WorldNL. BFI also listed a London Film Festival screening that afternoon.
A futuristic city with a taste for the past
Netflix describes a world combining science fiction with the atmosphere of a 1940s detective story. Sam Rockwell voices private investigator Raymond Gunn, Scarlett Johansson plays Venus Nova and Tom Waits supplies the voice of a one-eyed alien called Eyera.
Bird’s long attachment to the project does not mean the film spent thirty-five uninterrupted years in production. The idea survived financing difficulties and periods on the shelf while he went on to make other films, including The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
That history makes its arrival rather more interesting than a routine new-title announcement. It is a story a filmmaker kept returning to across a substantial part of his career.
The music mixes an orchestra with unusual textures
Giacchino described recording an eighty-piece orchestra at Abbey Road using microphones associated with the 1920s and 1930s. Vintage synthesisers contribute another layer, while Kimbra provides original songs, according to the London event report.
It is an appealing match for a film that looks ahead while borrowing the mood of old detective cinema. The soundtrack choices give that combination a sound of its own rather than relying solely on the futuristic setting.
For viewers in Malaysia, Netflix has announced a streaming release on 18 December 2026. The London festival appearance is an earlier screening, so it should not be mistaken for the film already being available in your Netflix account.
Until December, there is one particularly good reason to keep an ear out for the next preview: hearing what an eighty-piece orchestra, vintage recording choices and a city full of humans and aliens sound like together.
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