SIGGRAPH 2026: Looking Forward to Brad Bird's "Ray Gunn"
At SIGGRAPH 2026, many fans turned out to see and hear more about the latest film from acclaimed director, Brad Bird. Ray Gunn, the film in question, has long been a passion project of Bird - who is widely known for his films The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille among others. While the last two (along with Incredibles 2) he developed at Pixar Animation Studios, Bird has branched off for this project - which he is described for a more mature audience than what typical animated fare might be considered for.
Set in Metropia—a dazzling retro-futuristic metropolis imagined as the future through the lens of 1939, Ray Gunn follows Raymond Gunn, the last human private detective, as he becomes entangled in a mystery involving aliens, murder, and a celebrity whose fame may conceal dangerous secrets. Described by Bird as The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers, the film blends classic detective storytelling with expansive science-fiction world-building.
For decades, Bird has pushed the boundaries of what animation can achieve, creating richly realized worlds that are as emotionally engaging as they are visually groundbreaking. With RAY GUNN, he is bringing that signature style to an ambitious new universe, combining noir atmosphere, Art Deco-inspired design, and cutting-edge animation to create a world unlike anything seen on screen before.
As Bird explained to the crowd, the inspiration for the film dates back decades. Before even The Iron Giant according to the filmmaker. It was driving in the car when the idea first hit him.
Bird explained that there was music playing that, at first, sounded like Henry Mancini’s Theme from Peter Gunn. When he realized it was different, he thought something along the lines of, “what is this, Ray Gunn?” Then, the drive (and apparently decades after) served as time to think about what a story based around a Ray Gunn would look like.
The song he actually heard? “Planet Claire” by the B-52s.
As he explained the story and its setting - describing it as “the 1930s and 40s, but still in the future,” he also shared a common phrase he has heard - especially when pitching this idea. “If you can do it live action, don’t do it in animation.” Sharing more of the stigma that surrounds the art form. The panel, largely filled with a crowd of those who don’t need to be told this twice, kept hitting the fact that Ray Gunn is not a movie geared toward the children, despite the reputation that animation has as being just for kids. “Too often things are dumbed down for what they think kids are going to like,” he said, “and there’s a patronizing quality to that”
Later, Bird would add that we’re beyond the CG movies of another era (without naming names, you can likely figure them out), saying that Ray Gunn doesn’t need to be “the one where they made fur,” or “the one where everything was underwater.” Now, the story wasn’t about what new tricks they can do with the computer, but rather a showcase of brilliant character animation.
At one point, Bird mentions that animation is often seen as caricature, itself with a negative connotation. “There’s a good side to caricature,” he explained, “good animators will capture the essence of something - not just style or design, but with the movement itself.” As such, he has always pictured doing this film in animation. The character animation though had to be just right. “Good character animation is not more movement,” Bird says, “it’s specific movement and that can be either more or less.”
Using an example of a moment in another production where everything is still until one character simply raises an eyebrow and the dramatic effect it had, Bird went on to explain (without giving much details) about a scene where a character had to make a gesture with their face alone, and inevitably opened up the shot to the entire animation team to get it just right as they needed for the story.
While the animation is the visual performance, one must also credit the voice performance to bring these characters to life. A simple glance at the IMDB page for the film reveals a stacked cast. Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Waits, from what we know so far. While other studios, as Bird says, cast based on who would be great at appearing on talk shows and pushing the movie to audiences, he casts with good voices that would inspire the animators. After all, the actors themselves take seconds to actually record the line that ends up in use. An animator has to hear that line over and over and over again, with something so simple perhaps taking up to a month or more for some animators. Bird also shared a big reveal of someone who is in the cast of Ray Gunn - his son’s basketball coach. “He has an amazing voice,” Bird said.
This long-gestating project has not been something he has been actively working on for 30 years. Bird describes a Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque storage facility of dreams and ideas where the film has been stored, only actively developing it and producing it recently.
The key to making it (and any film for that matter), as Bird explains, is making it something that he himself would want to see. Something like Ray Gunn, with more mature themes and story points has a fine line to walk. You don’t want it to be patronizing, like he mentioned earlier, but you can’t be over the top or overly gritty considering the story. The important part is loving the idea yourself. “You’re dead if you aren’t invested,” he explained, “If you’re making it for them, you’re dead. You need to be part of the audience.”
And the production features a lot of collaboration with new and familiar faces. One of those frequent partners is composer Michael Giacchino, who Bird says is like a “co-storyteller.” In fact, as Bird explains, Giacchino was quite the collaborator on the story, which Bird said he laid out for him not too long after they worked together on The Incredibles. While he was writing the story for Ray Gunn, he would talk to him and ask for his notes, which were all good story notes.
“It’s always great with Michael,” he says, with Ray Gunn marking the sixth film the duo have done together.
Some audience members were also quick to point out that making Ray Gunn with Skydance also marked a return to working with former Pixar head John Lasseter. When brought up during a Q&A moment, Bird drove the point home that collaboration isn’t always just one person. Yes, John is at Skydance where they are doing the movie after spending time at Pixar, but he’s also working with David Ellison again, who he worked with on Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Michael Giacchino, and a number of others, saying there’s always a certain amount of “getting the band back together again.” He went on to credit Cinesite’s animators, saying they had a lot of cool, young talent that he was excited to work with, and was impressed with how well they handled all the pressure. “[Ray Gunn] is a project where its easy to go too far, or not far enough…it’s easy to undercook and easy to overcook,” Bird said.
Bird, and the Cinesite team for that matter, went all in on Ray Gunn, ready to bring that more mature story and hopefully broaden the scope of the reputation of animation. The famed director told the crowd, if its something you consider good taste - go for it. “If I’m gumming something rather than biting it, I’ll stay away from it.”
While the team on stage is rooting for a theatrical release, Ray Gunn is currently slated for a debut on Netflix on December 18, 2026.