James Gunn

James Gunn
Gunn in July 2016
Born	August 5[n 1] St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Saint Louis University (B.A.) Columbia University (M.F.A.)
Occupation	Screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, actor, musician
Years active	1995-present
Spouse(s)	Jenna Fischer (m. 2000; div. 2008)
Relatives	Sean Gunn (brother) Matt Gunn (brother) Brian Gunn (brother) Mark Gunn (paternal cousin)
Website	jamesgunn.com

James Gunn (born August 5)^{[n 1]} is an American screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, actor, and musician. He started his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, writing the scripts for Tromeo and Juliet (1996), Scooby-Doo (2002) and its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. He then started working also as a director, starting with Slither (2006). He subsequently wrote and directed the web series James Gunn's PG Porn, and the superhero films Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).

Early life

Gunn was born in St. Louis, Missouri.^[1] He was raised between St. Louis and Manchester, Missouri.^[4][5] His brothers are actor Sean, actor and political writer Matt, screenwriter Brian,^[6] and former Senior Vice President with Artisan Entertainment Patrick.^[7] He also has a sister named Beth.^[8] Their parents are Leota^[9] and James F. Gunn, who is a partner and corporate attorney with the law firm Thompson Coburn in St. Louis.^[3] Gunn's surname is derived from the Irish name MacGilGunn, meaning "sons to the servants of the god of the dead".^[10]

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.^[11]

Gunn and his brothers all attended the Jesuit St. Louis University High School, where he graduated in 1984.^[2][3] He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Louis University.^[12] While at Saint Louis University, Gunn created political cartoons for the school's student weekly, The University News. ^[13] 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."^[14] He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1995.^[15]

Career

Music

Gunn started a band in 1989 while he still lived in St. Louis called The Icons, an alt rock, gothic rock, and new wave group in which he served as the lead vocalist.^[16] The group achieved some regional success with the 1994 album Mom, We Like It Here on Earth, and their 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 promoting Guardians of the Galaxy at San Diego Comic-Con, 2013

Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma Entertainment in 1995, for which he 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.^[11] 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.^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19] In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall Show, Gunn described "Sparky and Mikaela" as being "about a human [and] racoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world".^[20] 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, where he directed contestants during acting challenges.^[21]

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.^[22] 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."^[23]

In 2010, Gunn released the film Super, a dark comedy and superhero satire starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page.

Gunn co-wrote and directed the Marvel Studios adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released on August 1, 2014.^[24] His brother Sean Gunn 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 movies based on comic books,^[25] Gunn responded in a Facebook post, saying in part, "[P]opular fare in any medium has always been snubbed by the self-appointed elite. ... What bothers me slightly is that many people assume because you make big films that you put less love, care, and thought into them then people do who make independent films or who make what are considered more serious Hollywood films. ... If you think people who make superhero movies are dumb, come out and say we're dumb. But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a 'serious' filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken."^[26]

Gunn wrote and produced the horror film The Belko Experiment, which was released in 2017.^[27] In 2016, he directed three Stan Lee cameo scenes in one day, for the film Doctor Strange and two unrevealed projects.^[28][29][30]

Gunn wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).^[31][32][33] In April 2017, Gunn confirmed he will return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.^[34]

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 also wrote the story for Grasshopper Manufacture's video game Lollipop Chainsaw.^[35]

Personal life

Gunn married actress Jenna Fischer on October 7, 2000, in an event that Gunn's hometown paper said was officiated by Lloyd Kaufman,^[3] but which Gunn later clarified had not been: “They said I was married by Lloyd Kaufman, which is not true. He was at my wedding and he gave a speech.”^[30] The two had originally met in the St. Louis area through Gunn's brother Sean, who had acted in plays alongside Fischer in high school.^[11] After seven years of marriage, Gunn and Fischer announced their separation in a joint statement on September 5, 2007.^[36] They divorced less than a year later.^[37] They remain friends, and in 2010 Fischer helped Gunn with casting Rainn Wilson, her co-star on The Office, in Gunn's film Super.^[11]

As of late 2015, he is in a relationship with actress Jennifer Holland.^[38]

Gunn was raised in a Catholic home, but has said that he is "in some ways, antireligion",^[39] although he later clarified,

My personal take is that there is a role for spirituality in some people’s lives and I think that a belief in God can be a good thing for a great amount of people. I do not like any sort of faith or religion that is based on exclusivity, meaning any sort of religion that says you’re damned to hell or you’re not going to be saved because you don’t believe the same thing I do. I believe faith and spiritual belief is a very, very personal thing and if I started applying what I believe to everybody else it would be unfair to everybody’s individuality and I really hate that.^[40]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

Footnotes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Gunn.

• James Gunn official website
• James Gunn on IMDb