The Guardians of the Galaxy for The Hollywood Reporter
“You’ve never seen a story quite like this,” I told the editor, my personal J Jonah Jameson. "And I hope I never see anything like it again," he responded. Several drafts later, the story came out. Check it out for the 1st time or read it again... https://t.co/U5VEFDxYzb
- Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) April 30, 2023
Since Vol. 3 is finally coming out The Hollywood Reporter wrote a cover story about the franchise and the whole James Gunn drama
quick recap: while this movie was in pre production in 2018 Disney fired Gunn over old tweets, the whole cast published an open letter asking the mouse to take him back, nothing happened for like a year, he got rehired but had to film The Suicide Squad first.
That and the pandemic delayed the movie by years.
the article is pretty long but has some interesting bits
After Gunn got fired Dave Bautista offered to fuck shit up, Zoe Saldaña and Karen Gillan visted him at home and cooked for him, and Chris Pratt was texting supportive bible verses
Beyond that Pratt did try tho, he called Disney execs, went to Feige in person (with Zoe) and had his mother in law Maria Shriver draft the cast open letter
why they went so hard for Gunn?
Saldaña: “This was a man who took chances on us, and it just made sense for us to have his back when he needed it the most”
inital casting:
Pratt only got the gig bc he had a great chemistry test with Bautista, he initially also bombed that audition
Glenn Howerton and Zachary Levi were the other final choices for Quill
Disney did not like Karen Gillan's real accent and only hired her after Gunn helped her come up with the Nebula one she uses now
some Russo bro slander:
the cast struggled with not being directed by Gunn in IW/Endgame
Pom Klementieff and Pratt did call Gunn while fiming
Klementieff: "I was being given directions, and I was like, ‘I think I’m going to call James."
Gunn thinks the "Quill hits Thanos" scene is dumb. He does agree with the shooting Gamora one tho (*Gunn almost already killed her off in Vol2)
the firing stuff:
Disney actually never looked for another director to take over
The cast found it pretts sus that Disney still wanted to use Gunn's script
Alan Horn, the person responsible for the termination, did not sleep well after it and praised Gunn's conduct after it
“Everything he did subsequently was first class. He was such a gentleman about it in the ensuing months that we just brought him back. It felt like the right thing to do. I hold him in absolute high regard.”
Horn now works at DC with Gunn
The article also notes that unlike other Marvel directors Gunn starts filming with a done script (they don't all do that?), keeps the budget down, finishes on time and only had 2 days of reshoots
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