The “Sing” gang is returning, but probably not in the way you’d expect.
“Sing: Thriller,” an all-new, original short film set within the world of Illumination’s popular features – 2016’s “Sing” and 2021’s “Sing 2” — premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Writer/director Garth Jennings returns for the short, which features voice work by Matthew McConaughey, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton and Jennings himself.
The logline reads: “After staging a spectacular version of Thriller at the New Moon Theatre, Buster Moon and the cast of ‘Sing’ leave to celebrate at Clay Calloway’s Halloween party. But when our heroes arrive at the party they discover a mysterious, multi-colored ooze has transformed Clay and his guests into dancing freaks.”
The press release notes that the new short is based on the original short film “Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” which was directed by John Landis and written by Jackson and Landis. The original, nearly 6-minute song featured music and lyrics by Rod Temperton. The video is often cited as the greatest music video of all time and helped propel the album (also called “Thriller”) to become the greatest-selling album in the history of music publishing. An accompanying making-of documentary also aired alongside the video and was sold on VHS, becoming, at the time, the best-selling VHS tape ever with 1 million tapes sold. It was also up for a best live-action short Oscar but failed to secure a nomination.
Illumination’s next features include a sequel to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” scheduled for summer 2026, and a third “Minions” movie, due for summer 2027. Their most recent film, “Despicable Me 4,” was released this past summer and made $961.3 million globally.
Netflix has memorably used “Thriller” before, in the outstanding, still-goosebumps-inducing trailer for the second season of their popular TV series “Stranger Things.” The clip that accompanied their Comic-Con panel in 2017 featured a remix of the song that was outstanding and helped with that season’s Halloween-set vibe. Nothing beat the “Stranger Things” logo accompanied by Vincent Price’s menacing laugh.
“Sing: Thriller” premieres tomorrow, exclusively on Netflix.
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