Annecy 2026: The streamer also unveiled new images and a release date for the retro sci-fi noir
Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn” made a splash at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with it taking center stage at Netflix’s big Next on Netflix presentation, with the streaming giant sharing new footage from the hugely anticipated sci-fi noir, revealing the movie’s release date and distributing some fresh images to the hungry masses, all of which we can share with you.
First things first – Netflix revealed that “Ray Gunn,” a Skydance Animation co-production starring Sam Rockwell, Tom Waits and Scarlett Johansson, will hit Netflix on December 18. That’s right – get ready to spend Christmas with your new favorite private detective. Not only does the date position the film to do big numbers over the holiday corridor (historically one of the most-watched periods for the streamer) but it also allows for the movie to be a potential awards heavy-hitter, since films released later in the year tend to do better in the hearts and minds of voters.
Now, for the really exciting bit – as part of the presentation, Netflix screened the first seven minutes of “Ray Gunn” along with an additional clip. And judging just by this small sliver, it seems like Bird’s commitment to the project, which pre-dates “The Iron Giant,” was very much worth it. This is a bold new vision, made by one of the world’s most acclaimed filmmakers.
The opening of the movie sets up the world beautifully. The film opens in the city of Metropia, where cars can fly, people fly around on jetpacks like we jump on a for-rent scooter, and aliens from countless galaxies mingle among us common humans. (In an early version of the “Ray Gunn” screenplay, a note from Bird read, in part, “I wanted to do a detective story set in the future, but I wanted that future to be seen from the same time period during which the detective story was at its peak – the thirties, generally speaking – before World War II and the atomic bomb made the world a smaller place, and the future less than rosy.”)
This is the art deco version of the future described in that screenplay but now moving brilliantly and scored by some truly fabulous music from composer (and close Bird collaborator) Michael Giacchino. It’s a place where a black-and-white hologram welcomes you to the future – literally, that’s what it says – and trains ride on monorails with giant, spinning rotor blades.
We soon center on some aliens, clearly part of the city’s vast melting pot but maybe not the most well-regarded, since they seem to be relegated to menial chores and more lowly positions. Eventually we zero in on one alien, with a single eye and three legs. He’s not really a custodian because he paid for the uniform and he seems a little uncomfortable in the rocket-powered elevator that everybody else is okay with.
Soon, we find out why – he’s Eyera (voiced by Tom Waits), who is the Watson to Rockwell’s Gunn’s Sherlock. Gunn pops out of a trashcan. They start snooping around an office (Patton Oswalt, who memorably starred in Bird’s “Ratatouille,” pops up as another hologram) and find some documents they need, only to be bombarded by a pair of other, shiftier-looking alien detectives. Of course, this being a Brad Bird movie, complications start to pile up – it’s not just the other detectives searching for the same documents that Gunn needs to worry about, there’s also an insect-like spying robot and the person who’s office they’re in, who happens to be a towering alien with multiple arms and legs with the gravelly voice of the great Kathryn Hunter.
There’s a moment towards the end of the scene where Gunn stops and looks back at the office manager. He’s frozen her solid in a block of ice from a faulty air conditioning unit (hey, it’s the 1930’s – not everything is worked out). Gunn sees her gasping for air. Eyera urges him to leave her; they’re in enough trouble. But Gunn can’t. In the morally nebulous world of the film noir, he has a compass. He stops to break her out of the ice. Then Gunn and Eyera finally flee.
It’s enough to layout everything you need to know about “Ray Gunn” – a hero with a heart of gold, a world filled with colorful creatures and jaw-dropping architecture, and a tone that truly feels like a film noir. This isn’t just some story with a film noir skin, this is part of its DNA. The mystery feels rich and deep and we can’t wait to dig into it further.
Netflix did show part of an additional scene, with Gunn in a gun shop trying to find the perfect – you guessed it! – ray gun. He does. And this gun has some very unique properties. But the details of the scene are honestly too good to give away and we’re unsure where the scene falls, exactly, in the movie.
But hey, December 18 isn’t that far away right?
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