Marvel’s latest blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy is almost upon us and it’s safe to say that it may have become one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Despite Star-Lord and his band of misfits originally being fairly obscure characters in the Marvel Universe, once the first trailer dropped everybody and their grandmother was hyped for this flick, which has since been dubbed the Marvel “pulp space opera”. None of this would’ve been possible without James Gunn. Speaking exclusively to IGN, Gunn opened up about what it was like directing a movie for Marvel.
“When Marvel came to me and pitched the idea…at first I thought, this is kinda a strange idea…and then as I was driving home it just sorta hit me that this was my opportunity to do the movie that I’ve always wanted to do.”
Gunn then went on to say that his vision for the movie came almost instantly:
“I saw the whole movie visually, the way the colours mixed, you know the grittiness and the griminess of the world.”
He also admits how he pitched his concept to the studio and how daunting it was:
“I went in and I drew a bunch of storyboards, and came up with how I would approach the movie. I wrote a lot of documents and I really fought for the gig. In this case I was very lucky to be creating a whole new branch of the Marvel galaxy…not only new characters but a whole new set of worlds and planets…”
Gunn concluded by talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the tone of all the different films:
“The Marvel Cinematic Universe is based on the Marvel Comics…they had all sorts of writers and artists who had very different types of comic books…some were dark, some were light…funny…simple…complicated, and I think that’s true of the Marvel Universe movies too. If all of theses movies are tonally exactly the same it becomes a little boring, but to have them connected yet still very different in an expression of the filmmakers who are making them and the actors…I think that’s something that’s important to Marvel.”
Every time James Gunn talks about this movie it’s so clear how much he loved making it. How can you not love the guy?
Guardians of the Galaxy hits theatres July 31st and stars Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie) as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana (Avatar) as Gamora, Dave Bautista (Riddick) as Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious 6) as Groot, Benicio Del Toro (Sin City) as The Collector, Lee Pace (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) as Ronan the Accuser, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) as Nebula, Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) as Korath, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Rhomman Dey, Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) as Yondu, Glenn Close (Damages) as Nova Prime Rael and Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) as Thanos. Watch the latest trailer here and read our reviews here and here.
Originally published July 30, 2014. Updated February 28, 2020.
