Mike Lowery
Boom! here’s one that Shook the Room today!
In a welcome about- face, it was announced today that Disney had reinstated James Gunn as the director of the third “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie.
The filmmaker, who helmed the first two, very successful films in the franchise, was reportedly rehired by Disney chief Alan Horn – who Gunn had met with several times since getting pink-slipped last July. The big guy, happy with Gunn’s public apology over decade old social media missives that made light of pedophilia and rape, wants the former Troma boy to direct his own script.
Yep, Gunn is committed to directing Warner/DC’s “The Suicide Squad” but he will reportedly kick-off work on the third “Guardians” shortly thereafter. He had already completed the script before his pink-slipping and by all accounts, that’s still the one that’ll be going before the cameras.
I’d say Horn started to lean on rehiring the spiky-haired artist after Dave Bautista, who plays Drax the Destroyer in the “Galaxy” films, essentially threatened to quit the franchise unless Gunn was involved.
According to Deadline, where news of Gunn’s reinstatement originated, there’s also no truth to rumors that Marvel Studios were considering replacement directors like Adam McKay (“Vice”) and Taika Waititi (“Thor : Ragnarok”) so clearly Horn had been hoping he and Gunn could work things out so the derailed project could get back on the tracks.
A Disney contact today, confirming Gunn is indeed back on the job, said the agreement also involves bringing Mark Hamill – who had met with the filmmaker to discuss a possible part in the movie before his axing – back into the fold. Considering the latter actor’s pre-existing relationship with Disney on the “Star Wars” movies, no surprise they didn’t argue that small request.
Have been told to expect some bigger news on the project at Comic-Con.
Gunn posted the following ‘thank you’ on Twitter today.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 15, 2019
Welcome back, James.
