An animated movie from Gorillaz creators Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn is in limbo after Netflix chose not to move forward with the project, Albarn has said. The feature film starring the animated band was a victim of cutbacks and staff shuffling, Albarn claimed in an interview with the Dutch-language Belgian magazine Humo (via Stereogum and Deepl). A source close to the situation told Pitchfork that the project had not gotten out of the script development stages.

In the interview, Albarn said he and Hewlett have been concocting a movie of some sort since 2002, and recently spent time in Los Angeles working on it in earnest. In previous interviews, the pair had described the film as an “in-depth kinda epic story with the [Gorillaz] characters and music” and “a slightly obtuse story that only sometimes makes any sense.” The cancellation, Albarn said, led them to make new album Cracker Island, which is out this Friday, February 24.

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