Bong Joon Ho's animated feature Ally has assembled a voice cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Ayo Edebiri, Dave Bautista, Finn Wolfhard, Rachel House and Werner Herzog, producers announced Tuesday on the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival. Newcomer Alex Jayne Go led the announcement, suggesting she may be voicing the film's title character.
The project marks Bong's first foray into 3D animated filmmaking. Set deep beneath the South Pacific, the family adventure follows a curious piglet squid as she journeys from the ocean's uncharted depths to its surface after a mysterious aircraft sinks into her habitat. Bong has been developing the film since 2019.
Neon has signed on to distribute Ally in North American theaters in 2027, reuniting the indie label with Bong following its release of Parasite in 2019. That film became the first non-English-language film to win the Oscar for best picture. Outside North America, Pathé will handle France, Benelux, Switzerland and West Africa, while CJ ENM and Penture Invest will cover South Korea, Vietnam, Turkey and Indonesia.
For Cooper, a 12-time Oscar nominee, the project marks a return to animated voice work after his run as Rocket Raccoon in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Edebiri, meanwhile, will also premiere the Arie and Chuko Esiri drama Clarissa in the Directors' Fortnight section at Cannes this week. Bautista, House and Wolfhard each bring franchise familiarity to the cast, with credits spanning Dune, Moana and Stranger Things, respectively.
The 3D animation is being handled by VFX studio DNEG, whose credits include Inception and Dune. The creative team draws from 12 countries and includes animation supervisor Jae Hyung Kim, whose prior work spans Toy Story 4 and Inside Out, as well as Shrek franchise veteran David Lipman as supervising producer and production designer Marcin Jakubowski from the Klaus production. Bong co-wrote the screenplay with Jason Yu, the South Korean filmmaker behind the 2023 horror feature Sleep.
Korean industry sources have reported the film's budget could reach $60 million, which would make it the most expensive feature ever produced in South Korea. Ally is produced by Seo Woo-sik, a frequent Bong collaborator who also produced Mother in 2009 and Okja in 2017. The film is targeting completion in the first half of 2027, ahead of a global theatrical release later that year.
