Netflix have been on an animation purge according to Gorillaz and Blur singer Damon Albarn. A feature-length Gorillaz movie had been confirmed at the streaming giant back in 2021, but now, according to Albarn’s recent remarks, it will likely never surface.
Back in October 2020, Albarn announced the film for the first time. Then just a year later, he confirmed he was making in it union with Netflix. “I’m at Netflix because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix. Yeah, we’re having a writing session in Malibu this afternoon. It’s really exciting to do that. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time.
“It’s been through so many incarnations… this Gorillaz doing a movie. Honestly,” he added, before going on to express his admiration for the streaming company. “But Netflix, I don’t know. I mean, apart from them kind of running this city now, I mean – it’s just extraordinary to see how ubiquitous they are now. Yeah. They just seem like they’re a good creative team, you know?”
However, now the offer of collaboration has been withdrawn, reportedly because Netflix had made cuts on their streaming division. “The streaming platform for which we were making the film has withdrawn,” Albarn recently told HUMO. “They started to panic because they were making too much content and decided to cut back on their movie offerings.”
Albarn continued to lament the decision: “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. Hollywood is quite territorial: if a new guy comes along, he must and will have a different opinion, even if he secretly agrees with his predecessor.”
