James Gunn: director, bully, cinephile and parodist

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The path to phenomenal success and recognition always starts with the first step. If an individual has a desire to achieve a goal, then no obstacles can prevent him. A striking example confirming this statement is the career rise of the director with permanent tousled hair - James Gunn.

American screenwriter, director of two parts of the perfect modern blockbuster began his career as an animator. Now few people will remember that from the pen of the cinephile parodist came out the scripts for the free adaptation of the classic work of the comedy "Tromeo and Juliet" (1996), the mystical comedy films "Scooby-Doo" (2002) and "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters on the loose.”

Early creativity

James Gunn was born in the last month of the summer of 1966 in the town of St. Louis, Missouri, although he later moved to Manchester with his family. As a child, Gann did not have to be bored, because besides him, four fidget brothers and a sister who did not lag behind the boys in pranks grew up in the family. In his youth, the future director was an ardent fan of low-budgethorror, read thematic magazines, regularly attended screenings of genre films, among which was the cult Dawn of the Dead. At the age of twelve, the boy tried to create a zombie horror on an 8mm camera, using his brothers as actors.

James was educated at St. Louis University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He tried to comprehend the wisdom of cinema at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), but soon dropped out of school. He received his Master of Arts degree much later - at Columbia University.

Debut horror

Director James Gunn, now known as the creator of Guardians of the Galaxy, began his ascent to fame with hard work at the Troma thrash studio. In order to surpass Lloyd Kaufman, he relentlessly sought out opportunities to direct the author's project, pure mainstream horror, which became the film "Slug". Gunn, who has remained a fan of such film productions as The Drop and Night of the Reptiles since his turbulent youth, saturated his offspring with canonical genre clichés and elements such as slug-like parasites introduced to Earth after a meteorite fall, mutating infected local residents, etc.

Critics have often compared the director's debut work to the cult thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But the director managed to turn a familiar plot into a rollicking black comedy. Slug is not original like other James Gunn films, but it contains a lot ofwitty quotes and a great cast (N. Fillion, M. Rooker and E. Banks). Add to that decent special effects for a film with a budget of fifteen million dollars and a high IMDb rating for horror: 6.50.

In a good way - a bully

Despite the fact that "Slug" performed poorly at the box office, James Gunn did not remain without work. With renewed vigor, the director took on the creation of the crime comedy Super, which is a caustic parody of comics and newfangled superhero films. In the film, close in spirit to the film "Kick-Ass", the author literally ruined the image of a respectable citizen who decided to put on a ridiculous suit and fight evil. Also, the track record of the director includes the YouTube series "Family Porn".

Overall, James was not the most obvious choice to direct a film identified as a potential outsider to the MCU. But, having been approved as a director on the Guardians of the Galaxy project, he worked as if he had realized his childhood dream. In his interpretation, "Guardians" turned out to be a dashing space opera, an adult version of Disney's "Treasure Planet", a vigorous mixture of "Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars", without unnecessary pathos and romantic sighs.

Thus, ruffian James Gunn managed to avoid the mistakes of Green Lantern and create the most lively and lively film for the Marvel and Disney duo.

To be continued

In 2017, the director who suddenly broke into the big mainstream confirms that he has come in earnest and for a long time. He takesdirector's chair of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Part 2 . And the sequel, when released, proves that the success of the original tape is not to blame for guest superstars and not for the surprise effect, but only for James Gunn.

But in 2018, an unfortunate incident occurs in which the director of the franchise, who had the imprudence to make immoral jokes on Twitter, was fired from his position. To date, the company's management does not intend to return it to work on the third part of the Guardians.

Outside the film industry

Photos of James Gunn are decorated not only with posters of famous blockbusters, but also with bookends of novels. From his pen in 2000 came out an opus with the innocuous title "Toy Collector", the plot of which is just right to be the basis of a shocking horror. Also, based on his joint work with Lloyd Kaufman, the film "Unlimited Terror" was made.

James Gunn was married to actress Jenna Fischer, but after seven happy years of marriage, they decided to remain friends and filed for divorce. Since then, Gunn has only taken care of his pet dog named Dr. Wesley von Spears, occasionally distracted by short-lived hobbies, either violinist Mia Matsumiya or model Melissa Stetten.