NS: James Gunn to co-run DC studios

[cyberghostface]

Big, big news. James Gunn is going to be co-running DC Studios with Peter Safran. Gunn will be handling creative development. More info here. I bet Disney really regrets firing him at this point. Looking forward to seeing where things go from here…

(There’s also a trailer for the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special.)

Comments

[angelophile]

He's done some pretty shitty things and there's a tone to his work I really don't like, so I think the only thing Disney should regret is caving in and taking him back tbh.

[cyberghostface]

Are you referring to the offensive jokes he made over a decade ago? Because by all accounts he’s a nice person, which is why everyone involved with the GotG films rallied behind him.

[angelophile]

Amongst other things, include the barely disguised misogyny in many of his films.

[windleopard2]

Weren't some of the jokes as recently as during the first Guardians movie?

[shakalooloo]

Wow, that's pretty big, indeed. Hopefully this puts the final nail in the coffin of the Snyder-verse and its yucky style.

[werehawk]

Amen!

[windleopard2]

The Snyder-verse has been dead for years. It's only relevant due to people constantly talking about it and even Snyder has moved on. People keep acting like WB hasn't made any DC content since BvS (which isn't even that dark anyway).

[shakalooloo]

You still get 'restore the Snyder-verse' people, and look what happened at the Oscars. Maybe officially naming someone as being 'in charge' of the DC movies will get it through people's heads that Snyder is as likely to return as JFK Junior.

I find it extra funny that after the effort the pro-Snyder faction of the 'DC vs Marvel' divide put into demonising Gunn as the epitome of everything opposite of Snyder, now he's in charge of 'their' universe.

[zachbeacon]

He's not my favorite director and he's done some real damage to the GotG franchise but The Suicide Squad was one of the few remotely watchable DC movies in recent years and this is going to really tick off a certain type of "fan" that I don't mind ticking off.

Honestly I think the bigger deal is that he's also overseeing DC Animation ...which means Discovery hasn't completely abandoned cartoons.

[cyberghostface]

On one hand I think Snyder was fucked over by DC and he was ultimately vindicated by the Snyder Cut. But at this point Snyder fans need to move on. It’s getting really ridiculous. I don’t think Snyder even wants to come back.

[zachbeacon]

I'm of the opinion that Snyder isn't a particularly great director, is an absolutely terrible superhero director, and his diehard fans are batshit crazy.

But NO ONE deserves what Warner Bros did to him.

[b_i_beast]

I should probably take care to not wander to the Snyder-verse parts of Twitter then.

[justsotired]

It's a land where the people are crazy, stupid, and religiously obsessed with something absolutely banal.

[numeronone]

So, twitter.

[goattoucher]

They've been looking for their Feige.

[zachbeacon]

Also the leadership situation reminds me of a quote from the Office

"Look it doesn't take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn't have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the Popes?"

[kjn]

I think that's a limited outlook that sounds good but breaks down in reality.

If one looks at ships (or military organisations) they often have two leaders: one decides what the ship will do, and one who manages the crew and the individuals in it. Having a creative boss and a people-managing boss each doing what they are good at can be a great boon. Less so if they do the things they are not good at, but that would be true even with a single boss.

[blueprintstyles]

I certainly don't want him writing every movie, but if he's laying out the creative direction I'm into that

[werehawk]

I hope this gives DC the guts to do more with lesser known characters (like GOTG for Marvel). I now have hope that one day a Booster Gold time travel film will be a reality. One day...

[pyynk]

Honestly I think we're closer now to Booster and the JLI than we were previously. I can't imagine Booster Gold existing in the previous takes of the DCU, but if Starro can exist, who knows?

[werehawk]

Yes! Starro is actually the second favorite character of mine that Gunn brought from obscurity to "reality". Javelin is a minor one. My shortlist of (mostly) obscure DC characters I'd love to see Gunn bring to life:
Booster Gold of course
Infectious Lass
Count Vertigo (next Suicide Squad?)
Cranius
Sword of the Atom
Superwoman (Kristen Wells version)
Kole (any hope for her in Titans?)

[zachbeacon]

I feel like Disney made movies like GotG because so many of the bigger Marvel characters were tied up in other studios.

WB would probably be happy to just make Batman movies forever...and they can.

(Which really makes Discovery killing the Batgirl movie even more baffling)

As cool as it would be to see The Question or some other lesser known (to the mainstream) character on the big screen, I'm not holding my breath... especially because recent news shows they can't even decide to do with Green Lantern.

This does give me a little hope because Gunn is one of the few people making comic movies for DC that doesn't seem embarrassed to be making comic movies.

[beyondthefringe]

Well, this ought to be interesting.

[huntleyhaverstock]

Gunn seems to do all his work in opposition to a standard, rather than as the enforcer of it. It'll certainly be interesting to see him become the authority that his entire career has found him in opposition to.

I've enjoyed his work on the Guardians films; thought he got an astounding comedic performance out of Elliot Page in Super; found The Suicide Squad funny, empathetic, and honestly moving; and thought Peacemaker was the pretty good result of his puerile side just barely being conquered by his thoughtful, self-aware side. But he definitely has that puerile side. And being able to effectively and intelligently critique stunted man-children who pine after women way, way too good for them doesn't seem to stop him from continuing to center many of his stories around such characters.

I can see why Gunn would take the job, and the dump truck full of money that doubtlessly comes with it. I'm not sure his sensibilities will translate as well to spotlight characters as they do to the fringe folks he clearly has great affection for, but I can certainly believe that he cares about telling good stories.

Problem is, David Zaslav, his boss, has now repeatedly demonstrated that he emphatically does not. So this is gonna be interesting!

[pyynk]

There are plenty of takes above for Gunn's new role, and some undoubtedly for the Holiday Special so I'll instead mention that one of my favorite bands has a confirmed cameo in the Holiday Special and I'm pretty excited about that.