Oscar winner and legendary director Brad Bird has made audiences laugh, cry and shriek excitedly with his contributions to TV and cinema, cementing himself over the last four decades as a go-to name for Tinsel Town’s biggest export, whenever a multi-million animated project needs a lead. With director credits for some of the best of the bunch — The Iron Giant and Pixar’s Incredibles franchise, to cherry-pick just two — a Bird-led story is almost guaranteed to be a treat for cinema-goers.
Earlier today, Deadline reported that Skydance Animation has acquired the rights to Ray Gunn, with Bird himself set to direct and produce the film based on an original story. Unsurprisingly, Bird is eager to get stuck in, especially as he’ll be reuniting with several colleagues to bring the project to life. Per Deadline, he said:
“[I have] had some of my best filmmaking experiences with Skydance and Pixar, so it’s wonderful to be working with David [Ellison], John and Dana [Goldberg] again under one roof on Ray Gunn, a film I’ve wanted to make for a long time. We all love movies, and are crazy excited to create something new, thrilling and intensely cinematic.
As for what Ray Gunn is actually about, we haven’t the foggiest. Presumably, Skydance and Bird will share further details once production gets off the ground, but for now, all anyone can do is speculate.
Outside of animation, Bird’s directing credits include Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and 2015’s Tomorrowland.