Skip to content

Guardians of the Galaxy

Who is James Gunn, besides the director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Director James Gunn with  his friend Mikayla Hoover

Director James Gunn with his friend Mikayla Hoover

For the last few weeks, I’ve been following Guardians of The Galaxy Director @jamesgunn on Twitter and as well as on Facebook. It’s been one series after another of great posts, behind the scenes photos, and a rare glimpse as a Director rises to whatever level super stars achieve in Hollywood. Yes, Guardians of the Galaxy is that good.

In an early profile FilmJournal interviewed Gunn about what it was like as he was competing for the director’s chair

“The more I talked about it, the more excited I got. I saw the opportunity to do the exact movie I’d always wanted to do and never thought I’d have the chance—a space opera. As we talked, I could see visually what I would do with the movie, like bringing back some of the colorful palettes of sci-fi movies like Forbidden Planet and Fantastic Voyage. So I threw my hat in the ring. At first it was me against five other directors; then it was me against three other directors; then it was me against one other director; and then it was just me.”

and on the challenges of creating a whole corner of the galaxy from the ground up

“On a normal movie, you’d set a scene in a kitchen and then go to the production designer and he’d say, ‘We can use this toaster or this toaster or this toaster.’ In this movie, if the characters are going to have toast, you’ve got to figure out how the process works. Are there toasters? Are they in the wall? You’re really creating everything from the ground up and I felt like I had a lot of freedom to create the universe I wanted.”

It really is a great interview, read the whole thing.

Another recent profile on Gunn was in the Los Angeles Times. Gunn talks about more about how much he’s enjoyed working on the projectRead More »Who is James Gunn, besides the director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel Set to Release Three Versions of Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

If you’ve seen any of the trailers for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ve probably noticed music plays an intricate part in setting the tone of the movie. Well, get your eardrums ready because Marvel, via Hollywood Records, will be releasing three versions of the movie soundtrack.

gotg-cdcover-awesomemix

The first is subtitled “Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 1” and features all of the classic 70s songs used in the movie and the trailers. The cover design even mimics a vintage cassette deck.

It may seem odd for the tunes to be in a movie that is supposed to be set in another galaxy, but director James Gunn says that because the setting and story of Guardians is so outlandish and strange, the familiar music will help the audience connect to the film.

This track listing would indeed make an awesome mix tape:

“Hooked on a Feeling” Performed by Blue Swede
“Go All the Way” Performed by Raspberries
“Spirit in the Sky”* Performed by Norman Greenbaum
“Moonage Daydream” Performed by David Bowie
“Fooled Around and Fell in Love” Performed by Elvin Bishop
“I’m Not in Love” Performed by 10cc
“I Want You Back” Performed by Jackson 5
“Come and Get Your Love” Performed by Redbone
“Cherry Bomb” Performed by The Runaways
“Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” Performed by Rupert Holmes
“O-O-H Child” Performed by The Five Stairsteps
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” Performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

The second soundtrack features the score (orchestral music) written for the film by composer Tyler Bates, who also scored Iron Man 3. Gunn says he asked Bates to complete some of the tracks for the movie before the start of principal photography so he could play them on set.

Read More »Marvel Set to Release Three Versions of Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Director on Filming for IMAX 3D

GOTG_Payoff_1-Sht

Earlier we heard from the editor of Guardians of the Galaxy on why you must view the film in IMAX format, now IMAX has released a short featurette with director James Gunn talking about how this film was planned from the start to maximize the IMAX 3D format.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a marketing piece, but what movie preview isn’t?

If you’re interested in the Director’s motivations behind making Guardians of the Galaxy, this piece in Film Journal really goes into the details. The movie premiere was last night in Los Angeles. I’m sure world will be out of this galaxy, Slashfilm has collected a bunch of thoughts from those who’ve already seen the movie. There was a live stream from the red carpet, which may still be viewable on YouTube.

I’m seeing it on Thursday and will have a full review shortly before the August 1st.

Bonus clip from the movie below the jump:

Read More »Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Director on Filming for IMAX 3D

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Update – Peter Quill Featurette, New Posters, and IMAX 3D

guardiansofthegalaxy-quill

Disney and Marvel have released three new character posters and a featurette for what could be the surprise hit of the summer “Guardians of the Galaxy. In the posters are Benicio del Toro as the Collector, Djimon Hounsou as Korath, and Lee Pace as Ronan. Previous character posters sets are here and here.

guardians-gotg-ronan

guardians-gotg-korath

guardians-gotg-the-collector

On Facebook, Guardians of the Galaxy editor Fred Raskin recently argued for why you should go out of your way to see the film in IMAX 3D:

Yesterday I watched the IMAX 3D version of Guardians of the Galaxy, and I can say without question that this is the ideal format in which the movie should be experienced. This is not some hastily-done 3D pass in which they’ve simply added a little depth to the 2D version of the movie. Many of the shots and sequences in the film were designed for 3D (read: this will not be subtle), and I was absolutely floored by how well our 3D team pulled them off. Additionally, in IMAX, there are a number of sequences in which we’ve removed the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen so that the image fills the frame, creating a fully-immersive 3D experience.

Having seen the 17 minute preview in IMAX 3D, I have to agree. I’m seeing the full film in faux-IMAX 3D. I’ll let you know if it comes a close or distant second.

Get your tickets from Fandango, enter the Guardians of the Galaxy sweepstakes, and help support The Disney Blog.

A new clip and featurette featuring Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, (Chris Pratt) is below the jump:

Read More »Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Update – Peter Quill Featurette, New Posters, and IMAX 3D

New Guardians of the Galaxy Details and Character Posters

milano-lee-pace-gotg

Director James Gunn continues to share new photos from Guardians of the Galaxy. Above is Lee Pace, who plays Ronan, on board the Milano space craft, aka Peter Quill’s ship, set. Gunn describes the concept behind the Milano:

The Milano, though hardly the biggest set in the film, was possibly production designer Charlie Wood’s most impressive. In person it seemed every inch a believable spacecraft. It was two levels high and inspired equally by the Apollo space program, the pulp art of Chris Foss, American muscle cars, and what we imagined was an older cousin Peter Quill idolized who had a 1980’s stoner van (some of the walls have shag carpeting). The Milano is a souped-up version of the Ravagers’ M-ships. Charlie Wood and I discussed early on that different cultures would have different cultural priorities. On Earth all of our technology is geared towards the priorities of ease and luxury. But other worlds could have other priorities – say, aesthetics or procreation. In the case of the Ravagers, what was most important was a tactile sense of control. Of course they had the technology for more automated crafts, but they wanted to be in control and totally feel the power of the engines and the gears beneath them. Touch is important. So all of their ships were designed around this one concept.”

Gunn also revealed four new character posters for Nebula, Yondu, Corpsman Dey, and Nova Prime:

Read More »New Guardians of the Galaxy Details and Character Posters

New Extended Trailer from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

GOTG_Payoff_1-Sht

If you weren’t able to make it out to the 17 minute IMAX preview of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, you really missed out. Consider yourself lucky that you won’t have to wait until August 1st to see some of the footage from that special event. Marvel and Disney have released the new trailer that has a ton of new footage from the film. It’s the same preview we saw at the end of the 17 minutes.

Get your tickets from Fandango, enter the Guardians of the Galaxy sweepstakes, and help support The Disney Blog.

This makes it a lot clearer that GotG is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,. which I think will help attract a lot of Marvel Avenger fans who just want to see what’s up.

Full plot synopsis below the jump:

Read More »New Extended Trailer from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy