Raye to Voice Role and Write Music for Benny Safdie's 'Lizard Music'

Raye will voice a character and write original music for Benny Safdie's upcoming film Lizard Music, which is set to reach theaters on Dec. 25, 2027, according to Deadline. The Grammy winner joins a cast that already includes Dwayne Johnson, Theo Leber, Alicia Silverstone, Tim Heidecker, Arya Parvathi, Regina Hall, Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Rachel McAdams, David Krumholtz and Andrew Dice Clay.

What is 'Lizard Music' about?

The film adapts Daniel Pinkwater's 1976 novel of the same name. Pinkwater is a wildly prolific author of children's and young adult fiction. Safdie wrote the script himself, based on Pinkwater's book.

The story follows a boy named Leber who discovers a late-night broadcast of lizards playing unearthly music. He teams up with an eccentric old man nicknamed the Chicken Man and the Chicken Man's confidante, an octogenarian chicken named Claudia, as they nose around the universe for answers.

The movie will blend live action with CGI, per Deadline. That hybrid format is a departure for Safdie, whose previous work has been rooted in gritty live-action realism. How the lizards and Claudia will look on screen remains an open question.

Who is producing?

The production roster stacks several companies behind the project:

• Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for UA
• Safdie for Out for the Count Productions
• Johnson for Seven Bucks Productions
• David Koplan for Magnetic Fields Entertainment

Johnson is listed as both star and producer, a dual role consistent with his Seven Bucks output.

Where does this leave Raye's acting career?

The announcement marks a fast escalation for Raye on screen. In May, after her acclaimed second album, This Music May Contain Hope, she was cast in Lineage, a London-set crime feature directed by Yann Demange. That role was her first scripted dramatic part; she had previously played herself in an episode of Netflix's Black Rabbit.

• Lizard Music* now adds voice work and a songwriting commission to a film résumé barely six months old. Her hit "Where Is My Husband!" from the latest album is considered a major contender for Song of the Year at the upcoming Grammys.

The gap between the May casting and this announcement is short. A caveat follows the promise: writing music for a live-action/CGI hybrid is a different craft from pop songwriting, and Deadline's report does not specify how many songs Raye will pen or which character she will voice.

What does this change for the film?

The Dec. 25, 2027 release date puts Lizard Music in the holiday corridor, where Safdie's oddball source material and a Grammy-winning composer will meet family-audience expectations. Whether Pinkwater's cult novel can survive that translation is the question the credits cannot answer.