Director of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, James Gunn, is worried about the future of Hollywood after the success of Deadpool.
Deadpool is coming off a massive, record-breaking opening weekend, which is enough to make Hollywood to create dozens of R-Rated superhero movies. And to that James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, says, “Enough.”
“After every movie smashes records people here in Hollywood love to throw out the definitive reasons why the movie was a hit,” Gunn wrote in a Facebook post. “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. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.”
“Deadpool wasn’t that. Deadpool was its own thing,” Gunn continued. “THAT’S what people are reacting to. It’s original, it’s damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers, and it wasn’t afraid to take risks.” Gunn, currently hard at work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, was particularly upset by a quote from a Hollywood executive, who said in a Deadline post that the Ryan Reynolds movie succeeded by “poking fun at Marvel.” Gunn wrote in response: “What do you think Favreau and Downey did in Iron Man? What the fuck was Ant-Man??!”
Whether you like it or not, the imitators are coming to movie theaters near you, Gunn wrote, “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.”
James Gunn is currently filming Guardians of the Galaxy 2 in Atlanta, Georgia. If you’re interested in saving Hollywood alongside James Gunn by working as a background extra, check out the latest casting calls here.