I feel like I’ve got sunshine in a bag after hearing that a Gorillaz movie is in the works at Netflix. At least that’s the story according to the band’s frontman, Damon Albarn. Albarn recently spoke with Radio.com, saying “I’m at Netflix because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix. 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.”
Albarn says that the band “signed contracts” with Netflix in 2020 and that the project is now in the scripting phase. “Making an animated film that’s kind of abstract is quite a big risk for a movie studio because they’re very expensive,” Albarn added. “I see a lot of people doing animated videos these days, but I don’t think they really touch the quality of ours. We’re more in the world of Studio Ghibli.”
The Gorillaz is an English virtual band created in 1998 by musicians Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Each band member is represented by animated characters, including 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Russel Hobbs (drums). Throughout the years, the Gorillaz have appeared across music videos, interviews, and short films as their animated counterparts. Even when the band is performing in front of a live crowd, they do so as 3-D renderings of their animated characters. Some of the band’s biggest hits include songs like “Feel Good Inc. ft. De La Soul”, “Clint Eastwood ft. Del the Funky Homosapien”, “19-2000”, “Rhinestone Eyes”, and “Dirty Harry ft. Bootie Brown”, just to name a few.
Gorillaz released their most recent album, “Song Machine: Season One”, in October of last year. The Gorillaz movie is still in its early stages of development, though it sounds as if things are progressing nicely. What the plot of the film will be is anyone’s guess. However, I’m sure it will have a bangin’ soundtrack that fans will have no problem leaving on repeat. We’ll be sure to bring you more news about the Gorillaz movie as it develops.