An animated feature adventure starring groundbreaking virtual band Gorillaz is not going forward at Netflix, co-creator Damon Albarn revealed in an interview with Belgian publication HUMO. While discussing the band’s imminent new album Cracker Island, Albarn explained (according to a Google translation from Dutch), “The new record came about because [co-creator Jamie Hewlett] and I were often in Los Angeles. We were working on a Gorillaz feature film, which will never happen.”
The album and its series of hybrid animated/live-action music videos produced by Nexus follow a musical storyline where the Gorillaz relocate to a hillside mansion in Silver Lake, and frontman Murdoc becomes a cult leader seeking to heal the world and stave off a day of reckoning.
Albarn elaborated to HUMO: “… Without naming names, because the whole matter has not yet been settled: The streaming platform for which we were making the film has withdrawn. They started to panic because they were making too much content and decided to cut back on their movie offerings. And, as has been classic Hollywood practice for decades, the guy we were working with has moved on to another company. From then on you have lost your guardian angel, and there seems to be a bad smell hanging on you.”
Despite not “naming names,” it is assumed that the project was underway at Netflix Animation, which has recently canceled fan-favorite and critically acclaimed series Dead End: Paranormal Park and Inside Job and backed away from Klaus director Sergio Pablos’ hand-drawn feature project Ember, on top of a raft of cuts to its slate in 2022.
After years of the creators hinting at an animated movie, Albarn revealed in a November 2021 interview with Apple Music that he was in L.A. “because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix,” adding with a smile, “We’re having a writing session in Malibu this afternoon.” However, the studio has not to date made an official announcement about the project.
The feature, which had earlier been explored as a partnership with DreamWorks Animation, seemed to be moving ahead of a 10-part animated series teased by Hewlett in an interview with Q back in 2017, ahead of the album launch for Humanz.
Cracker Island will be released this Friday, February 24. You can pre-order and digitally pre-save the album at gorillaz.com
[Sources: Stereogum, IGN]
