James Gunn blasts studio executive in Facebook rant; praises Deadpool
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has never been shy of sharing his feelings about the studio process. Using his Facebook page as the springboard for his latest passionate rant about Hollywood, he goes into why it shouldn’t take the wrong lessons away from the huge success of Deadpool, which has so far made a worldwide total of $282,100,000 on a budget of $50 million. The quote in question, from an anonymous Hollywood ‘suit’, is this:
‘The film has a self-deprecating tone that’s riotous. It’s never been done before. It’s poking fun at Marvel. That label takes itself so seriously, can you imagine them making fun of themselves in a movie? They’d rather stab themselves.’
Gunn’s retort is swift and blunt. ‘This quote has to have been said by the dumbest fucking Hollywood exec in the history of dumb fucking Hollywood execs,’ he says, before going on to explain his vitriol: ‘Let’s ignore Guardians for a moment, a movie that survives from moment to moment building itself up and cutting itself down – God knows I’m biased about that one. But what do you think Favreau and Downey did in Iron Man? What the fuck was Ant-Man??!’
He then compares how when anything even slightly original does well at the box office, the studios mistake that originality for mere quirks and tone: ‘After every movie smashes records people here in Hollywood love to throw out the definitive reasons why the movie was a hit. I saw it happen with Guardians. It “wasn’t afraid to be fun” or it “was colorful and funny” etc etc etc. And next thing I know I hear of a hundred film projects being set up “like Guardians,” and I start seeing dozens of trailers exactly like the Guardians trailer with a big pop song and a bunch of quips. Ugh.’
‘For the theatrical experience to survive,’ he continues, ‘spectacle films need to expand their definition of what they can be. They need to be unique and true voices of the filmmakers behind them. They can’t just be copying what came before them.’ He predicts that we can expect big studios to begin churning out fare that’s like Deadpool: ‘They’ll be green lighting films “like Deadpool” – but, by that, they won’t mean “good and original” but “a raunchy superhero film” or “it breaks the fourth wall.” They’ll treat you like you’re stupid, which is the one thing Deadpool didn’t do.’
We have to agree with him. Gunn’s full rant is definitely worth a read, and it’s always refreshing to actually hear this kind of thing from the mouth of a big name, successful Hollywood director.