Update on Director Brad Bird's Upcoming Live-Action Musical/Animation Hybrid Movie Project

Just over a year ago, we reported that director Brad Bird is working on a new project. It’s a live-action/animation hybrid musical that he is creating alongside composer Michael Giacchino. Bird is known for writing and directing Ratatouille and both The Incredibles films (in which he also does the voice for Edna Mode), and Giacchino worked on each of these films with him, as well as many more.

We hadn’t heard much over the year about the film, but Giacchino recently chatted with Collider and talked a bit about the untitled Bird project, confirming that the ball is still rolling.

“We are in the early stages of doing that, working on ‘Ok, what is this thing gonna be? What’s it going to sound like. Let’s come up with at least one idea we can start bouncing around and seeing how we feel about it.’ So that’s where we are. It is still early stages. But the idea is great, and, you know, it’s pure Brad Bird. It’s just really fun and emotional and exciting and silly – all those great things you expect from his movies. I am looking forward to that. I don’t know when it’s coming out… but yeah, we’re working on it!”

Good enough for me. If there was ever a time for projects to be moving slowly, this is that time. Maybe quarantine will get Brad and Michael’s creative juices flowing. When the project was first announced, Bird said:

“Well it’s a musical, actually. I don’t know anything about musicals so I figured I should do this, because I’m deathly afraid of it and it seems like a cool thing. It’s a project I’ve been wanting to make for a long time, it’s got about 20 minutes of animation in it. It’s an original project, I assure you you don’t know.”

Yay for original projects! I have a feeling this is going to be a movie that is worth waiting for. What do you think?