Damon Albarn reveals why he stepped away from Gorillaz Netflix movie
An animated movie following the chaotic musical primates was previously in the works...
By Nick Reilly
Damon Albarn has revealed why a planned Gorillaz movie at Netflix was scrapped, while revealing it helped to shape the genesis of Cracker Island.
Albarn, who created the group with illustrator Jamie Hewlett, revealed in 2020 that a Gorillaz film was being discussed with the streamer and later said that Hewlett had begun work on the project.
The project was described as a “full-length movie” about the animated band, but Albarn admitted two years later that the project was no longer going ahead.
The two have now shared fresh insight into why the film was scrapped, and how the ordeal helped inspire their eighth album, Cracker Island.
“If we’d done a movie 25 years ago, fine… but the idea of doing a movie now? I have no interest in it whatsoever. No interest. It’s not an interesting idea, it’s not an original idea,” Hewlett told Zane Lowe on Apple Music.
“We had this moment with Netflix where we were literally told ‘You can do whatever you want and we’re going to give you as much money [as you need]’, and we were like ‘OK great,’”.
He went onto explain that he and Albarn “had some brilliant ideas”, but began to lose interest when they realised it was “moving so slow”.
“[Then] the guy we were working with just left, and [Netflix] said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find someone else’. It was like ‘OK there’s going to be another year of conversations before this starts again’. So we pulled out.”
Albarn added that the project felt like he “was hanging around for what seemed an eternity”. It was at that point, Hewlett added, that work started on their 2023 album Cracker Island.
“We made an album while we were waiting, basically,” he said.
Speaking in 2023, Albarn also told Belgian publication HUMO that Netflix, though he did not name them, had “decided to cut back on their movie offerings.”
The group’s latest album came in The Mountain, a frank look at mortality recorded in India, which was released earlier this year. They accompanied it with a UK arena tour which kicked off last month.