Gorillaz shelved plans to make a movie for Netflix because the project was moving so slowly.
Frontman Damon Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett have lifted the lid on why they walked away from a big money deal with the streaming service which would have given the animated band the chance to appear in a full-length feature, but the project was taking a huge amount of time so they poured their “frustration” into 2023 album Cracker Island.
During an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Damon said: “Cracker Island was a strange beast because it was literally made predominantly here in Los Angeles while we were waiting around inbetween meetings with Netflix [about the film] … We were waiting for something that didn’t happen … It’s a record about … It’s a frustrating record because it’s a frustrating time you know.”
Jamie went on to explain: “It moves too slow the film industry, it’s very slow. Everything takes so much time. We were working on a script and we were on the second draft of a pretty good script idea when Cracker Island kind of became the movie …
“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.
“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’ and we had some brilliant ideas.
“But it was moving so slow and 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.”
Damon went on to add: “I just felt like I was hanging around for an eternity … [So we made an album while we were waiting] about hanging around for eternity. That’s what that album is about.”
Jamie then said: “I love that album. It’s a great album.”