Far too often, blockbusters fall flat because they’ve been over-tweaked or straight-up reassembled in post-production. While reshoots had always been a common part of the filmmaking process, they’ve now sort of become this ‘crutch’ for productions that hadn’t figured out a concrete plan before heading into principal photography. More specifically, many comic book movies have been affected by this approach, yet James Gunn’s efforts, both for Marvel and DC, haven’t been hurt by it.
According to the writer-director, on Threads (via Variety), behind three Guardians of the Galaxy movies, one miniseries (I Am Groot), one holiday special, a Suicide Squad ‘requel’ of sorts, and a spinoff series (Peacemaker), the secret is to simply… make sure that as much as possible is up to snuff before shooting. Sounds simple, right? Well, it seems like not everyone can or wants to figure that out.
The filmmaker, who’s now busy with post-production on both Peacemaker season two and his Superman reboot for the new on-screen DC continuity he’s shepherding, simply stated he’d “done a total of one day of reshoots on my past two films combined.” Considering Superman is still in the early post-production part of the process, we think he’s just referring to the Guardians of the Galaxy threequel and The Suicide Squad, the movie that earned him (alongside Peacemaker) the role of head of DC Studios.
About his creative process, he added: “1) Over-prepare…, 2) Don’t start shooting until I have a finished script my whole team is happy with, 3) Hire actors and department heads I know can do their jobs, 4) Surround myself with people who will challenge me and not just ‘yes-sir’ everything, 5) Ask myself daily – are there any small imperfections in the script or what we’re shooting that might end up feeling like huge imperfections when we cut the film together?, 6) 1 and 2 again!” That’s a concise game plan, you have to admit.
Whether they’re your cup of tea on a conceptual level or not, it’s hard to watch those movies and come out saying they’re creatively chaotic or disjointed. Gunn’s vision is crystal-clear and felt throughout their entire runtimes, and the same can be said about his recent efforts in the TV space too. This isn’t really news either, as he adapted to the ‘big studio system’ remarkably well with the first two Guardians movies, making the jump from low-budget features such as Slither and Super. The fact he’s managed to retain that level of control and creative clarity over all his productions while greatly increasing his output and cadence is nothing short of impressive and makes us very hopeful about the rebooted DCU.
But of course, having a ‘clear’ vision while working on such gargantuan productions is easier said than done, and then there’s the added difficulty of ‘playing nice’ with the studio, producers, and other creatives involved. Even the biggest directors around often stumble due to a ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ situation. In the case of Gunn, it simply seems that he’s great at internal politics and adapting to feedback, while staying true to the stories he wants to bring to the screens.
