Drama: Guardians of the Galaxy director fired
over tweets about rape and pedophilia
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Disney Studios immediately fired James Gunn, who directed the first two blockbusters in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie franchise, after a series of foul tweets was revealed, including jokes about rape and pedophilia. It's not yet clear what the future holds for the 3rd part of the series, which Gunn was also going to direct.
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We're all too used lately to hear about celebrities from the American show-business that are being laid off over offensive remarks on social media. Today (Friday night, Israel time) another such story emerges, this time especially dramatic, both for the celebrity in question as well as what he said.
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Well, this time it's James Gunn, who wrote and directed the first two movies in the Guardians franchise, one of the biggest hits of the last few years, was involved as a producer regarding other Marvel projects, and was also supposed to direct the series' 3rd part – but was laid off today by Disney Studios.
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The reason: a series of off-putting tweets published a decade ago, among them jokes about rape and pedophilia, gags regarding sex with babies and so on. Those sickening jests were forgotten within the Internet's void, yet dedicated 'Tweeters' drew them straight from the abyss to be used vengefully against Gunn, who regularly attacks their beloved President Trump. This move proved effective, as the filmmaker paid a heavy price following the reveal.
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Gunn was lightning-quick to delete his Twitter account, and before doing so stated – "People who are familiar with me know that early on I was a provocateur, and I took pleasure in tackling topics considered Taboo. As the years passed by, I evolved as a person, and so have my work and humor." Later he added: "I deeply apologize to everyone. Much love to all." This apology proved to be too late, and didn’t stop Disney from throwing Gunn down the stairs.
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It's important to stress the fact that this drama genuinely came as a surprise: just this month Gunn was spotted at the premiere of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Marvel's new movie, and he was also supposed to shoot the 3rd installment of Guardians next fall. Now, Disney Studios will have to come up with solutions if they still wish to pursue the big-budget project.
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Also noteworthy is that Gunn started his Hollywood career two years ago on Hollywood's trashier side, at Troma Entertainment among others, infamously known as the 'bad-boys' of American show-business. It wasn’t far-fetched to assume that at some point in time, a collision between his early days and the Hollywood mainstream will lead to an outburst, which eventually did happen.
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Original link to the article by Avner Shavit from www.walla.co.il