James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy for the big screen is a gritty, colourful world
AS a director/screenwriter, James Gunn is known for his quirky sensibility and offbeat humour, both of which have led to a devoted following for his films, such as Dawn Of The Dead, Slither and Super.
Besides being a fan of the horror and comedy genres, Gunn is also a comic book reader, so he was aware of the different incarnations of the Guardians Of The Galaxy comics before signing on.
Commenting on the influence of the comic books on the film, Gunn says: “The writers (Dan) Abnett/ (Andy) Lanning run on Guardians Of The Galaxy is the one that’s the closest in tone to what we’re doing in the film. There’s something about their tone that is humorous yet dark in places. Very big but also light at the same time. It’s a very interesting mix of tones and we do that same thing with the film.”
MORE FREEDOM
Although Gunn was familiar with the Guardians Of The Galaxy comic books, the characters are not widely known to a broad audience, which Gunn says gives him “a little more freedom”. He explains: “There aren’t as many rabid fans of the Guardians as there are of say, The Avengers. “And there are only so many Guardians comic books whereas for something like The Avengers, they have 500-plus comics that people can look back on. So that gave me a lot more freedom to create these characters for the screen.” After a meeting with producer Kevin Feige and other Marvel filmmakers, Gunn went home and thought about the idea of helming Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy.
“I could really see the movie in my head,” says Gunn. “I could see what it was visually — not so much from a story standpoint but visually. I just started writing how I saw this movie, what the visuals would be like, what would it look like, what would the shooting style be, and I wrote 10 pages and I sent them back to them that night. That’s really when the ball started rolling about me, actually being the guy that would direct this film.”
Once Marvel and Gunn were in sync on the vision for the film, Gunn took the reins and began to rework the original script written by Nicole Perlman, a Marvel Writing Programme alumnus, and bring his ideas to life.
“From the beginning, one of the driving forces for me was to be able to create a gritty world that was still very colourful,” says Gunn about how he envisioned the look of the film. “There have been a lot of science-fiction movies that have come out over the years, but I think that when Blade Runner came out in the 1980s, it changed everything in terms of making science-fiction movies very dark.
That was really a great thing at the time, but I miss some of the colour palettes of the ‘50s and ‘60s science-fiction films when things were much brighter. “To be able to intermingle those different looks from the past and create our own look was very important from the beginning.”
TALENTED ENSEMBLE CAST
Pulling the cast together was “incredibly exciting” for Gunn. He informs, “Chris Pratt was exciting because I never thought we’d find the right guy. We screen-tested many people before we came to Chris and then, boom, I knew within a minute of his audition that he was the guy. Michael Rooker as Yondu was exciting because he’s my good friend. He’s been in all my movies. I wrote the role for him to play and I’m really excited to have him around.
“Benicio Del Toro is truly one of my favourite actors and to be able to get him to come in and do The Collector was exciting. Same thing with Glenn Close and John C. Reilly; these are actors whom I’ve liked and admired for a long time and the reason they’re in this film is because I was fans of theirs and I had never met them. I was fortunate to get them to do this film.”
Finding actors whose voices would breathe life into Rocket and his friend Groot, a humanoid tree, was a challenge. “We auditioned many voice actors, all of whom were either too cartoony or couldn’t pull off the dramatic points in Rocket’s story. Bradley Cooper is able to do both comedy and drama and able to create a character both real and unique. Once he was interested in the role, I felt strongly he was the one. The first time I heard him do Rocket, I knew he was our guy.”
Although the Groot character only says three words, Gunn feels that Vin Diesel, the ultimate choice to voice Groot, brings as much to his role and to the movie as any other performer.
“With just a handful of lines and hundreds of grunts he creates a character completely out-of-this-world that we still love,” explains Gunn. “I can’t imagine anyone able to balance gruffness and sweetness like Vin — and that’s really what’s at the core of Groot. Sometimes I watch Groot on screen and — even though I stood beside Vin through every moment of his recording — I can’t believe the voice is coming out of a human being. He truly channels the character in an almost supernatural way.”
EPIC SPACE ADVENTURE
Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy may be more of an epic space adventure than the other Marvel films, but it takes place at the same time as Marvel’s The Avengers — just in a completely different universe.
Gunn explains how the movie connects with the other Marvel films, noting: “We see Thanos at the end of Marvel’s The Avengers and then Thanos is in our film as the boss of our group of bad guys. He’s very important to our world in that way, and he’s the one who everyone is trying to impress.” Tied to the story line in an integral way, music also plays a very important role.
As Gunn explains, “One of the main story points in the movie is that Quill has this compilation tape that he got from his mother before she died that she made for him. It was of songs that she loved, all songs from the 1970s, and that’s the only thing he has left of his mother and of his home on Earth. He uses that as a connection to his past, and to the sadness that he feels of having left all that and lost all that.
“At the same time, it also works for the audience as being that thing that connects this outlandish universe to something that’s very us and very modern and very current. The music plays a very important part in bringing us back to what we all know and are familiar with.”
Gunn is looking forward to audiences enjoying Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy. “I hope that we can affect people in the same ways that movies affected me as a kid. And I don’t just mean kids; I mean adults and everyone. That somebody can go into the theatre and experience magic, a little bit of hope. This is a movie about a bunch of losers who think they’re bad and realise along the process that they’re good.
“If people can go see this movie and realise that they’re like these people and can find a little bit of goodness in themselves through watching this movie, that’s the greatest thing I can really hope for.” Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Malaysia
The story
MARVEL’S Guardians Of The Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan (Lee Pace), a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe.
To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits — Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a gun-toting raccoon, Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista). But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand — with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.
It also stars Michael Rooker (Yondu), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Djimon Hounsou (Korath), with John C. Reilly (Rhomann Dey), Glenn Close (Nova Prime) and Benicio Del Toro (The Collector).
NOW
SHOWING
Guardians Of The Galaxy opens today in cinemas nationwide.