‘Wildwood’ and ‘Ray Gunn’ to premiere at London Film Festival

The animation movies Wildwood and Ray Gunn – both with Tom Waits in the voice cast – will celebrate their world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Travis Knight's Wildwood premiere is scheduled for October 11 and hits theaters October 23. Brad Bird's Ray Gunn premiere is scheduled for October 10 and streams on Netflix from December 18. 

According to the American Film Institute, the US premiere of Laika Studios’ Wildwood  will open the AFI Fest on Wednesday, October 21.

New version of ‘Fall of Troy’

An acoustic version of The Fall of Troy has surfaced on YouTube. This recording was made during the sessions for the Italian television program Ultima Fermata, but didn't make the final cut. 

Ultima Fermata (The Last Stop) is a documentary by Angelo Loy, Martino Mazzonis and Luigi Montebello about homeless people in the US and was the final episode of last year's Italian series The Human Factor on RAI3. It is available to watch online. In the documentary, Waits talks about homelessness in the US, cites from his bundle Hard Seeds and performs an acoustic version of Tom Traubert's Blues.

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Tom Waits added to ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ voice cast

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Tom Waits has been added to the voice cast of the upcoming stop-motion animation and live-action film Lincoln in the Bardo. The cast of director Duke Johnson’s film also includes Meryl Streep, Colman Domingo, Bill Hader, Tom Hanks and Willem Dafoe.

The screenplay by George Saunders is adapted from his best-selling book that examines the death of the politician’s son, 11-year-old Willie Lincoln.

Waits will voice Jaspar Randall, the ghost of a former dancehall performer and one of the Demons trying to capture Willie Lincoln.

‘Boots on the Ground’ available for pre-order

 Tom Waits’ collaboration with Massive Attack — a 12” ‘eco-conscious’ vinyl pressing titled Boots on the Ground that comes in three different colours (red, white and blue) — should ship somewhere this week and is still available for pre-order. Side A has the title track, side B is a spoken word piece, called The Fly. 

50th anniversary reissue of ‘Small Change’

Last month, ANTI- records announced a reissue of ‘Small Change’ to commemorate it's 50th anniversary. This release doesn't appear to have any extra's or doesn't look like a remastered version, but it does come in ‘Sky Blue 180g’ vinyl and is limited to 1.000 copies (so the US shop says). It ships around October 2nd and is available for pre-order now.  

Tom Waits to star in animation movie ‘Ray Gunn’

According to Animation Scoop, Tom Waits has been added to the voice cast of Ray Gunn, an animated feature directed by Brad Bird. The cast also includes Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson. Ray Gunn will stream in 2026, only on Netflix.

Animation Scoop: 

“Set in Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, the film follows private eye Raymond Gunn as he is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.”

Netflix: 

“Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Tom Waits plays Eyera, Ray’s most trusted compatriot, who also happens to be a one-eyed alien. ‘I've long admired [Tom] on several levels,’ says Bird. ‘He's one of these multi-talents like Scarlett who does music and acts. And he's always interesting on screen. It was a blast to work with him.’”

Extract from ‘The fly’ online

The Tom Waits social media accounts have shared a 'voice note - extract' from The fly, the b-side on the upcoming single in collaboration with Massive Attack Boots on the ground.  The track features Waits’s “trademark droll and sardonic spoken word”.

Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan are donating proceeds from the vinyl sales to local organizations funding essential mental health resources for veterans and vital legal advocacy for immigrant communities; NAMI and VIDAS. 

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