Pharrell, Lil Wayne to Headline Doodles NFT Animated Film

Ethereum NFT-driven property Doodles announced Thursday that it is developing an animated film called “Dullsville and the Doodleverse,” featuring contributions from prominent musicians Pharrell Williams, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter, and Coi Leray.

“Dullsville and the Doodleverse” is being produced internally at Golden Wolf, the veteran animation studio that Doodles acquired in January 2023, and will be directed by Doodles co-founder and illustrator Scott “Burnt Toast” Martin.

Billed as a “groundbreaking animation and music experience,” the film will feature music from Williams, who was named Chief Brand Officer of Doodles back in June 2022.

The project will release a soundtrack via Doodles Records, a sub-label established with Columbia Records, and launch a trio of music videos alongside the album. Lil Wayne and Leray will both feature on the soundtrack, as well as voice characters in the film—Lil Wayne as Captain Stoke and Leray as Deysi.

“Dullsville and the Doodleverse” will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September following an associated “Project Gray” campaign beginning in early summer. In a tweet thread, Doodles CEO Julian Holguin reflected on the path to the film’s release.

“Two years ago, we were in talks with the biggest animation studios in the industry to adapt our IP into a global entertainment franchise,” he wrote. “After countless meetings, with offers on the table, we decided to pivot.”

Holguin wrote that maintaining creative control was paramount, and that’s why Doodles instead acquired Golden Wolf and developed the project internally instead.

“Give up control of our own destiny?” he added. “Not on the table.”

Doodles launched as a 10,000 NFT project on Ethereum in 2021 and has since generated nearly $650 million worth of trading volume to date, per data from CryptoSlam. The project has since expanded to the Flow blockchain with the larger-scale Doodles 2 project, which includes avatar customization and gaming and metaverse integrations.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.