Music Interview

Gorillaz movie cancelled in Netflix animation purge, says Damon Albarn

February 21, 2023

Damon Albarn has confirmed that a feature-length Gorillaz film that was in the works at Netflix, has been cancelled.

READ MORE: Soundtrack Of My Life: Russel from Gorillaz

The frontman first announced the film in October 2020 before confirming the band were working with Netflix on it just over a year later.

“I’m at Netflix because we’re making a full-length Gorillaz film with Netflix,” he said at the time. “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.

“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?”

But due to a cut back in the streaming platform’s animation division, Albarn has now confirmed that “it will never happen.”

Gorillaz at London’s Piccadilly Circus. CREDIT: Press

In a new interview with the Belgian publication HUMO, he added: “The streaming platform for which we were making the film has withdrawn. They started to panic because they were making too much content and decided to cut back on their movie offerings.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Gorillaz are set to release ‘Cracker Island’, their eighth studio album, this Friday (February 24) via Parlophone (pre-order here).

A new Gorillaz music pack to accompany the debut of the upcoming PlayStation VR2 headset was also recently announced and the band shared a new animated video for their recent single ‘Silent Running’ featuring Adeleye Omotayo.