Damon Albarn has stated that the Gorillaz feature-length movie “will never happen” because of budget cuts at Netflix. Albarn had originally announced in 2020 that Gorillaz had “signed contracts” and “written scripts” for a movie about the virtual band. Since then, Netflix has made major cutbacks in their animation department, including mass layoffs and cancellations of popular shows.
Albarn implied in a recent interview, that Gorillaz were the subject of the Netflix axe. He stated, “The new record [Cracker Island] came about because Jamie [Hewlett, Gorillaz co-creator] and I were often in Los Angeles,” Albarn said, translated from Dutch via Stereogum. We were working on a Gorillaz feature film, which will never happen.”
Albarn concluded by saying, “That is to say, and without naming names because the whole matter has not yet been settled: the streaming platform for which we were making the film has withdrawn.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.”
Meanwhile, the Gorillaz 8th studio album, Cracker Island, releases in full on February 24th. The Gorillaz will also be performing at Coachella later on this year.
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