AceShowbiz - Ally marks the acclaimed director Bong Joon Ho’s first venture into 3D animated filmmaking, with an impressive voice cast announced during the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival. The film features Bradley Cooper, Ayo Edebiri, Dave Bautista, Finn Wolfhard, Rachel House, and Werner Herzog, alongside newcomer Alex Jayne Go, who is believed to voice the film’s title character.

The producers revealed the ensemble cast as part of the ongoing buzz around Ally, a family adventure set in the depths of the South Pacific Ocean. The story follows a curious piglet squid who embarks on a journey from the ocean floor to the surface after a mysterious aircraft crashes into her habitat. While Alex Jayne Go is presumed to voice Ally, specific roles for the rest of the cast have not yet been disclosed.

For Bradley Cooper, a 12-time Oscar nominee, this project represents a return to animated voice acting, following his popular portrayal of Rocket Raccoon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy series. Meanwhile, Ayo Edebiri, who has gained recognition for her breakout role in the TV series The Bear, is simultaneously premiering the drama Clarissa at Cannes, another Neon-distributed film.

Dave Bautista (known for Dune), Rachel House (Moana), and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) add further star power and franchise familiarity to the voice cast. The inclusion of Werner Herzog, famed for his distinctive Bavarian-accented voice, is expected to captivate cinephiles worldwide.

Neon has secured North American distribution rights for Ally, planning a theatrical release in 2027. This collaboration reunites the distributor with Bong Joon Ho, following their successful partnership on Parasite in 2019, which made history as the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Internationally, distribution will be handled by several companies: Pathé will cover France, Benelux, Switzerland, and West Africa, while CJ ENM and Penture Invest will manage South Korea, Vietnam, Turkey, and Indonesia. Pathé is also overseeing international sales at Cannes, excluding Japan and China, which are managed directly by CJ ENM and Penture Invest.

The animation production on Ally is undertaken by the visual effects studio DNEG, recognized for their work on Inception and Dune. The creative team boasts global talent, including animation supervisor Jae Hyung Kim, who has credits on Toy Story 4 and Inside Out, supervising producer David Lipman from the Shrek series, and production designer Marcin Jakubowski of Klaus fame.

Bong Joon Ho co-wrote the screenplay with Jason Yu, the South Korean director behind the 2023 horror film Sleep. The production is led by Seo Woo-sik, a frequent collaborator of the director, who previously produced Mother (2009) and Okja (2017).

Industry insiders in Korea suggest that the film’s budget could reach $60 million, potentially making Ally the most expensive Korean-produced feature to date. The project aims for completion in the first half of 2027, followed by a worldwide theatrical release scheduled for later that year.

Ally is highly anticipated as a unique blend of family adventure storytelling and cutting-edge animation, showcasing Bong Joon Ho’s distinctive cinematic vision in a new format. With its star-studded voice cast and significant production scale, the film is positioned to generate considerable excitement across global audiences.