A career can happen before one even realizes it, leaving one to look back now and then to wonder how they got this far, only to realize that they know very well and are grateful for everything that happened from one point to the next. It’s a sure bet that some folks need to be reminded that James Gunn helped bring the live-action Scooby-Doo movie to life, but it’s pretty easy to see how his career changed in a big way after that. While it didn’t happen overnight, Gunn did come back for the next Scooby-Doo movie and did all the writing apparently, and then wrote the script for the reboot of Dawn of the Dead. From there he eventually went on to his directorial debut with Slither, and the rest, as many have said, is history. It’s kind of a tired saying, that anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it, but the truth of that saying lies well beneath the words since those that are willing to keep pushing and not settle are bound to do whatever it is they have their heart set on since these are the folks that aren’t going to be satisfied with ‘good enough’.
Let’s be fair and say that being good enough is definitely great for some folks that don’t aspire to as much and enjoy leading simple lives that don’t depend on reaching one peak after another in terms of their career. There are those that love living the simpler life that gets them paid and keeps them content. But then there are those that are seeking something bigger, better, and are trying to expand their skillset and create something that people may or may not have seen before, but will react to all the same. Throughout his career thus far things haven’t been perfect for James Gunn since he was at one point an unknown filmmaker that hadn’t really stepped into the spotlight yet. There was also the snafu with Disney after he’d been let go following the resurfacing of a few tweets he’d released years ago, which is a bit ridiculous to be certain but was enough to get many of his peers in the business and several actors on board to support him.
It’s a bit difficult knowing which way to turn these days when something that was said years ago could get a person in trouble, but Gunn was reinstated and his career has been back on track for a little while now. As to how he’s been doing it’s been evident that he’s doing pretty good since he’s the executive producer on Thor: Love and Thunder, is going to be responsible for the new Suicide Squad movie, and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. One could really ask for much more than the career he currently has, but it’s easy to think that he’ll continue with his career as long as he can in order to bring to life more Marvel and DC characters if he’s given leave to do so.
Out of all the things that Gunn has proven in his career is that he’s not a shy person when it comes to defending what he does since over the last few years the comic book movies have come under fire for a number of things, but one of them is that they’re stupid, foolish, childish, and as Martin Scorsese announced they’re akin to amusement parks, all flash, and little substance. Granted, Scorsese didn’t say it quite like that, but the sentiment was there, and it was quite a bit more polite than Francis Ford Coppola and a few others that decided to chime in. Gunn fired right back with his own statement that said that anyone thinking they put more heart into their characters than anyone creating a comic book movie did were mistaken, which is more or less true since taking the time to criticize another person’s work without being constructive about it usually means that a person is either somehow threatened by the work itself, or is simply too stuck in their own ways and can’t accept that something else might be just as popular as anything they might do.
Gunn has obviously had to deal with his fair share of controversy over the years and has managed to come through it with his career intact, but taking a look at where he started and comparing it to where he is now is rather impressive, not to mention inspirational in its own way since it does feel that it’s another lesson for many that great things can be accomplished when one sets their mind to it. No matter what anyone says about Gunn the truth is that as an educated filmmaker he is one of those that has been revered in recent years, and it’s bound to happen that he could go down as one of the greats.
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