Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have revealed the reasons behind abandoning their Gorillaz film project with Netflix. The collaborators described lengthy delays and lost interest as key factors. The experience instead inspired their album Cracker Island.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, creators of the animated band Gorillaz, discussed the scrapped Netflix film in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. Plans for a full-length movie surfaced in 2020, with work beginning the following year. However, the project stalled after two years of delays, and Albarn confirmed in 2023 that it would never happen, citing cutbacks in Netflix's animation division to Belgian publication HUMO. Netflix had offered substantial funding with few restrictions, Hewlett recounted, but progress slowed dramatically. A key collaborator left, prompting further postponements, leading Hewlett to declare, 'The idea of doing a movie now? I just have no interest in it whatsoever.' Albarn echoed the frustration, describing it as 'hanging around for what seemed an eternity.'
