James Gunn

James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1996). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film '' Slither'' (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with ''Super'' (2010), '' Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014), '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017), '' The Suicide Squad'' (2021), and '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' (2023).

In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery hired Gunn and his longtime producer Peter Safran to become co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios. Under DC Studios, Gunn will co-produce and executive produce every film and television series under the upcoming DC Universe (DCU) media franchise alongside Safran, which will act as a soft-reboot of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). In the DCU, he is the creator of the series ''Creature Commandos'' (2024) and the writer-director of the upcoming film ''Superman'' (2025).

He also wrote and directed the web series '' James Gunn's PG Porn'' (2008–2009), the HBO Max original series '' Peacemaker'' (2022–present) and the Disney+ original special '' The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special'' (2022). Other work for which he is known include writing for the 2004 remake of George A. Romero's '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978), writing the live-action adaptation of '' Scooby Doo'' (2002), and its sequel '' Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'' (2004), writing and producing the horror-action film '' The Belko Experiment'' (2016), producing the superhero-horror film '' Brightburn'' (2019), and contributing to comedy-anthology film '' Movie 43'' (2013) (directing the segment "Beezel") and the 2012 hack-and-slash video game '' Lollipop Chainsaw''.

Early life

James Francis Gunn Jr. was born on August 5, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents James F. Gunn, an attorney, and Leota "Lee" (Hynek).Additional on May 5, 2017. He was raised Catholic in the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri. He has five siblings — actor Sean, actor and political writer Matt, screenwriter Brian, Patrick, and Beth. Gunn is of Irish descent his father coming from an Irish immigrant family. Gunn has stated that his family's surname was originally the Irish name MacGilgunn and that it means "sons to the servants of the god of the dead"; it actually means "son of the brown youth."

Growing up, Gunn was influenced by low-budget films such as '' Night of the Living Dead'' and '' Friday the 13th''. He read magazines like '' Fangoria'' and attended genre movie screenings, including the original '' Dawn of the Dead'' at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. At the age of 12, he began making 8 mm zombie films with his brothers in the woods near their home.

Gunn and his brothers all attended the Jesuit St. Louis University High School, where he graduated in 1984. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Louis University. While at Saint Louis University, Gunn created political cartoons for the school's student weekly, ''The University News''. Gunn said that, at an unspecified time in his college education, "I went to two years undergraduate film school at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. But I was pretty screwed up at the time, and had to leave. Years later I went to graduate school at the Columbia University School of Fine Arts but I studied prose writing, not film writing." He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1995.

Career

Music

While living in St. Louis, Gunn founded a band, The Icons, in 1989, serving as lead vocalist. The group released the album ''Mom, We Like It Here on Earth'' in 1994, and its songs "Sunday" and "Walking Naked" were featured in the film ''Tromeo and Juliet''. The Icons disbanded in the mid-1990s. Gunn has continued to work in music, composing songs for ''Scooby-Doo'', '' Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'', and '' Movie 43''.

Film and television

Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma Entertainment in 1996, for which he co-wrote the independent film ''Tromeo and Juliet''. Working alongside his mentor Lloyd Kaufman, the co-founder of Troma, Gunn learned how to write screenplays, produce films, scout locations, direct actors, distribute films, and create his own poster art. After contributing to several other Troma films, Gunn in 2000 wrote, produced and performed in the superhero comedy ''The Specials'', directed by Craig Mazin and featuring Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden Church, Paget Brewster, Judy Greer and Jamie Kennedy.

Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was ''Scooby-Doo'' in 2002. In 2004, he wrote the screenplays for the remake of '' Dawn of the Dead'' and the sequel ''Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed''. With these films, Gunn became the first screenwriter to have two films top the box office in consecutive weeks. That same year, he executive produced and starred in the mockumentary '' LolliLove'', directed by and starring his then-wife Jenna Fischer. His film directorial debut was the 2006 horror-comedy '' Slither'', which was included on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 50 Best Ever Reviewed Horror Movies.

Gunn's next projects included the comedy short film "Humanzee!" which was originally intended exclusively for the Xbox Live's ''Horror Meets Comedy'' series of short comedy films by horror directors, it was replaced with "Sparky and Mikaela" which debuted on Xbox Live on December 31, 2008. In an April 2009 interview on ''The Jace Hall Show'', Gunn described "Sparky and Mikaela" as being "about a human ndracoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world". Gunn also has a short-form web series for Spike.com titled '' James Gunn's PG Porn''.

In 2008, Gunn was a judge on the VH1 reality television show '' Scream Queens'', where 10 unknown actresses compete for a role in the film '' Saw VI''.

In 2009, Gunn announced he was going to write and direct ''Pets'', a comedy about a man who is abducted by aliens who want to turn him into a household pet, with Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer producing. However, by March 2009, Gunn announced, "''Pets'' unfortunately, is done. I'm gone. I left the project for various reasons. I hope it sees the light of day somehow, but it won't be with me attached as director."

In 2010, Gunn released ''Super'', a dark comedy and superhero satire starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page. He also directed a segment of the 2013 comedy anthology film '' Movie 43'' (2013); the segment starred Elizabeth Banks and Josh Duhamel. The film was critically panned.

Gunn co-wrote and directed the Marvel Studios adaptation of '' Guardians of the Galaxy'', which was released on August 1, 2014. His brother, Sean, has a role in the film. Gunn has appeared as an actor, mostly in smaller roles or uncredited appearances in his own projects. After Dan Gilroy and Jack Black separately lamented the proliferation of superhero films, Gunn responded in a Facebook post, saying in part:

Gunn wrote and produced the horror film '' The Belko Experiment'', which was released in 2017. In 2016, he directed three Stan Lee cameo scenes in one day, for the film ''Doctor Strange'' and two unrevealed projects.While ''Doctor Strange'' director Scott Derrickson believed Gunn directed four cameos, Gunn said on social media, "To be honest, I think I only did THREE cameos — one was shot by someone else. And my third probably isn't what you think it is….": Additional on May 5, 2017.

Gunn wrote and directed '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017). Gunn was slated to direct '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' in July 2018, but before the project started, Disney severed ties with Gunn as the director amid controversy over off-color jokes he had tweeted. Gunn was rehired in March 2019 after a mass public appeal, many saying he was the reason of the previous movies' successes.

In October 2018, Gunn was hired to write a completely new script for the DC Extended Universe film '' The Suicide Squad'', with the intention of also serving as director, after its original director Gavin O'Connor left due to scheduling issues. In January 2019, he was officially confirmed to direct ''The Suicide Squad''. He also wrote, directed, and produced the spin-off television series for the film centered on the character Peacemaker played by John Cena for Max. Gunn also co-wrote and co-produced a live-action/animated film titled '' Coyote vs. Acme'', based on the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote, for Warner Bros. Pictures Animation.

Other media

Gunn wrote a novel in 2000, '' The Toy Collector'', a story of a hospital orderly who steals drugs from the hospital which he sells to help keep his toy collection habit alive. In 1998, he and Troma's President Lloyd Kaufman co-wrote '' All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from The Toxic Avenger'', about his experiences with Kaufman while working at Troma.

He wrote the story for Grasshopper Manufacture's video game '' Lollipop Chainsaw'', working with game designer Suda 51.

Firing from Disney and reinstatement

In July 2018, in reaction to Gunn's public criticisms of President Donald Trump, commentator Mike Cernovich drew attention to controversial jokes that Gunn posted on social media between 2008 and 2012 involving pedophilia and the Holocaust. Amid criticism of the tweets, Disney severed ties with Gunn as the director of the upcoming ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' film at the time; Gunn responded: "I have regretted hose jokesfor many years since. ..Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now s offermy sincere and heartfelt regret ..To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies."

Walt Disney Studios's decision received criticism from many entertainers and journalists, including actors Dave Bautista, Selma Blair, Patton Oswalt, David Dastmalchian, Michael Ian Black, Mikaela Hoover, Mike Colter, Alex Winter, David Hasselhoff, directors Joe Carnahan and Fede Álvarez, comics artist Jim Starlin, musician Rhett Miller, comedian Jim Jefferies, ''Rick and Morty'' creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, journalist David A. French and Troma Entertainment founder and president Lloyd Kaufman. Bobcat Goldthwait, who worked as a voice actor on the 1997 Disney film ''Hercules'', responded to the incident by asking Disney to remove his voice from an upcoming park attraction based on the film.

A number of media outlets criticized Disney's decision, including '' Collider'', '' Cartoon Brew'', ''The Daily Dot'', ''The Independent'', ''National Review'', '' MovieWeb'', and '' Vulture''. An online petition urging Disney to re-hire Gunn received over 400,000 signatures. On July 30, 2018, ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker released a joint statement through social media expressing their support for Gunn.

Because of the situation, Sony Pictures decided to not promote the horror film '' Brightburn'', which Gunn produced, at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. However, when the first trailer for the film was released on December 8, 2018, Gunn's name was prominently featured. The film opened in May 2019.

In March 2019, Gunn was reinstated by Disney as director of the film after meeting with Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Gunn started production on ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'' in October 2021, after ''The Suicide Squad'' had been completed.

DC Studios

Gunn and frequent producing partner Peter Safran had advised David Zaslav, the CEO of the newly created Warner Bros. Discovery, during his search for a new head of DC Films. The duo impressed Zaslav who decided to appoint them as the co-chairpersons and CEOs of DC Films, rebranded as "DC Studios", with control over films, animation and television projects based on characters from DC Comics. Gunn was to oversee the creative aspects and will be exclusive to Warner Bros. Discovery during his tenure, except for his prior commitments to Disney. The two had first worked together on the 2000 superhero comedy film ''The Specials'' written by Gunn with Safran as co-executive producer, with subsequent collaborations including Gunn's 2008 short films ''Sparky & Mikaela'' and ''Humanzee!'', the television series '' James Gunn's PG Porn'' (2008-2009), '' The Belko Experiment'' (2016) and the DCEU film '' The Suicide Squad'' (2021). The two assumed their positions on November 1, 2022.

In December 2022, Gunn announced that he was writing a film about a young Superman during his early years in Metropolis, later revealed to be titled ''Superman'' and scheduled for release in July 2025; in March 2023 it was confirmed Gunn would also direct the project. In January 2023, Gunn and Safran revealed their plans for future DCU films, with the first chapter being titled "Gods and Monsters". Gunn also wrote a seven-episode animated series titled ''Creature Commandos'', based on the comic book team of the same name, and also worked on the HBO Max series ''Waller'', a spin-off of '' Peacemaker'' focusing on the character of Amanda Waller, with Christal Henry writing and Viola Davis reprising her role from previous DCEU projects. Gunn is also involved in multiple other DC projects, including producing ''Supergirl'' due for release in 2026.

Personal life

Gunn married actress Jenna Fischer on October 7, 2000. After seven years of marriage, Gunn and Fischer announced their separation in a joint statement on September 5, 2007, divorcing in 2008. The two remained friends. In 2010, Fischer persuaded Gunn to cast Rainn Wilson, her co-star on ''The Office'', in Gunn's film ''Super''.

Gunn has been in a relationship with actress Jennifer Holland since 2015. In February 2022, Holland and Gunn became engaged, and were married at the end of September 2022.

He has a dog named Ozu, adopted from a shelter in 2022. Gunn has regularly shared photos of the dog and promoted #AdoptDontShop. For that reason as well as his CGI work on ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'', PETA declared Gunn to be their 2023 Person of the Year.

Gunn was raised in a Catholic family and has mentioned how prayer continues to play an important role in his life, but has also said that he is, "in some ways, anti-religion".

Filmography

Film

Executive producer

Other roles

Short films

Acting roles

Television

Acting roles

Video games

Theme parks

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

See also

* James Gunn's unrealized projects

Notes

References

External links

*
*
James Gunn at The Filmaholic

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1966 births
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