Having teased the project back in October 2020, it seems as though Damon Albarn is indeed planning to make a Gorillaz film, releasing the project on Netflix at an undisclosed date.
Revealing the news on an Apple Music podcast, the creator of the band and frontman of Blur, Damon Albarn revealed his excitement at the brand new project. “I’m at Netflix because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time,” the artist added,
Continuing, Albarn added: “But Netflix, I don’t know. Apart from them kind of running this city now, I mean — it’s just extraordinary to see how ubiquitous they are now. They just seem like they’re a good creative team, you know?”. A project that has long been in the pipeline, Albarn previously stated in 2020 that contracts had been signed and script work had been started, though since then, fans haven’t been given a morsel of information.
Telling Radio.com’s New Arrivals show last year, the singer stated: “Making an animated film that’s kind of abstract is quite a big risk for a movie studio because they’re very expensive”. Continuing, he even added that the Gorillaz were, “more in the world of Studio Ghibli”, after explaining: “I see a lot of people doing animated videos these days but I don’t think they really touch the quality of ours”.
Whilst we’ll have to wait a little longer to experience Albarn’s creative vision, Gorillaz will be releasing a repeat of their recent livestream event in cinemas on Wednesday, 8th December.
A press release regarding the film, states, “The glorious, star-studded virtual experience Gorillaz present Song Machine Live From Kong, captured at the band’s Kong Studios HQ in London, will come to cinemas globally via Trafalgar Releasing. It will include the cinema-exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette, Live From Kong with unseen interview footage and commentary from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett”.
Take a look at the trailer for the event, below.
