events (2019–present) Bird has expressed interest in developing an animated Western or horror film. In 2019, Bird announced he was developing an original musical film that would include music by frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino and contain about 20 minutes of animation in it. In 2022, it was announced that Bird had signed a deal with Skydance the previous year to revive his long-dormant project Ray Gunn and reassembled frequent collaborators Michael Giacchino, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Darren T. Holmes and Jeffrey Lynch for the film. Style and themes Bird says he was influenced by dozens of filmmakers, singling out early moviemakers Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd, to mid-twentieth century auteurs like David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney, and Akira Kurosawa. More contemporary directors like Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Hayao Miyazaki, and the Coen brothers have inspired Bird as well. His passion for the medium was evident even in his college years; friend John Lasseter remembered, "Brad would hang out all night talking about Scorsese and Coppola and how he could do what they did in animation." Bird's career trajectory has been considered somewhat unusual: he did not direct his first film until he was in his forties. Bird himself has observed that his career was "very long, very delayed and full of disappointment," mainly because he aspired to "lofty" self-set expectations. He has been characterized as controlling with an exquisite attention to detail. His "demanding, often punishing" direction which has prompted some to consider him difficult to work with. Bird is outspoken about the potential of the art of animation, and has asked the public not refer to his films as cartoons. In the audio commentary for the home release of The Incredibles, Bird joked he would fight the next person to refer to animated movies as a "genre", as opposed to art form. He has also taken exception to the classification of modern animated fare as solely for children or families; suggesting it discriminatory and belittling. He has expressed a love for hand-drawn animation and lamented its current absence from the industry. Many critics have analyzed his films and suggested they reflect Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy, which Bird vehemently denies, suggesting it a monumental misreading of his work. Though he claims he was drawn to Rand's work in his younger years, he offers, "Me being the Ayn Rand guy is a lazy