‘Ray Gunn’: Brad Bird’s Announced Sci-Fi Detective Movie Finally Gets an Update!!

Brad Bird is one of the most recognizable and beloved animated filmmakers of our time, and according to a longtime Pixar collaborator, his next animated project may finally be gaining momentum. Starting with 1999’s The Iron Giant, which is often considered an all-time classic for its powerful story, lovable characters, and culturally relevant themes, Bird has solidified himself as an incredible creative force, particularly thanks to his time with a little animation company you may have heard of called Pixar. There, Bird brought to life the first two Incredibles movies and Ratatouille, both of which are considered to be Pixar‘s most beloved and influential IPs. While he has dabbled in live-action projects like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Tomorrowland, fans have been eager to see Bird‘s next animated project. However, his most recent endeavor has proven to be difficult to get off the ground.

In 2022, it was announced that Brad Bird would direct Ray Gunn, a high-concept sci-fi detective movie produced by Skydance Animation, overseen by former Pixar executive John Lasseter as well as Top Gun: Maverick producer David Ellison and World War Z producer Dana Goldberg. Despite some huge names attached to the project, updates on the film have been all but non-existent since the 2022 announcement… until now. During a recent A Bug’s Life reunion panel at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention, for which Collider‘s Maggie Lovitt was in attendance, voice actor John Ratzenberger (who has appeared in almost every Pixar project since the original Toy Story) revealed that he has indeed started recording dialogue for the upcoming sci-fi movie. It’s a minor update to be sure, but it, at the very least, proves that Ray Gunn is still in active development. Details on Ray Gunn‘s plot are relatively sparse, other than that it will be a sci-fi detective story centered on a human investigator in a world populated almost exclusively by aliens. It’s a story Bird has wanted to tell for quite some time, but as with many animated passion projects for even the best animated filmmakers, it’s taken a long time to get made. Ray Gunn is expected to debut on Netflix, given Skydance Animation’s distribution deal with the streaming giant. Apart from Ratzenberger, a full voice cast for Ray Gunn has not been revealed, although composer and frequent Brad Bird collaborator Michael Giacchino is reportedly attached to the project as well.

Is Brad Bird Making ‘Incredibles 3’?

Fans were ecstatic to hear Pixar boss Pete Docter announce that Incredibles 3 was officially in development at Pixar during the 2024 D23 Expo, including that Brad Bird had already begun writing the script. However, while Bird is still attached as a writer, it was announced earlier this year that he would not be returning to the director’s chair, with those duties being passed along to frequent Pixar voice actor and filmmaker Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur, Elemental). It’s more than possible that Bird took on a reduced role for the Pixar prequel due to his commitments to Ray Gunn, which should give even more hope that this long-developing passion project will finally take flight soon.