Gorillaz Netflix movie has been cancelled, according to Damon Albarn
The band’s new record, Cracker Island, is due for release this Friday (24 February)
Image: Gus Stewart / Getty
A Gorillaz Netflix movie has been cancelled, according to Damon Albarn, due to “cutbacks and staff shuffling” at the streaming service.
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Back in November 2021, Albarn revealed on Apple Music that writing had begun on the project with Netflix and said “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.”
Now, over a year later, the brakes have been put on the film once again. The band are set to release their new record, Cracker Island this Friday (24 February, and according to Pitchfork, Albarn told Belgian magazine Humo that the cancellation was the result of “cutbacks and staff shuffling” at Netflix.
According to Humo, Albarn and fellow Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett had been working on the movie as far back as 2002. It also reports that the cancellation was actually what led Gorillaz to make their new album.
“It will never happen,” Albarn told Humo. “The streaming platform for which we were making the film has withdrawn.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.”
He added, “And, as has been classic Hollywood practice for decades, the guy we were working with has moved on to another company,” he added. “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.”
