James Gunn Discusses His Childhood and Says Comic-Con Experience Was the Best Weekend of His Life
James Gunn has had quite an awesome career as a filmmaker making some great movies over the years. As you know, he’s starting a big new chapter in his life as he is now heading up DC Studios for Warner Bros., and earlier this week the first wave of film projects were announced.
The fan’s reactions to these film and TV projects have been mixed. Some people are optimistic about the future of DC films, and some think that Gunn is already dropping the ball. I’m personally looking forward to what Gunn is going to deliver! I’ve enjoyed his past films, he has an understanding of what makes great movies, and he’s a huge fan like the rest of us.
When Gunn was recently asked about why he took this job to co-lead DC Studios, he discussed his childhood, his love for comics, and shared a Comic-Con experience that he calls one of the best experiences of his life. He explained:
"People have been asking me a lot, why did I take this job? I knew that there was going to be a lot of hitches, a lot of problems, but as many of you know, comic books are in my blood. These characters are in my blood. I was sort of an oddball child who didn't really have many friends and loved comic books. Loved DC comic books, loved Marvel comic books. I didn't interact well with my peers and my parents sent me to a psychiatrist when I was 11 years old to try to figure out what was wrong with me because I never went to school. I just stayed home, read comic books, wrote and drew comic books. And the psychiatrist said to my dad, 'Why don't you take an interest in what your son does?' Because my dad's very much a St. Louis, Missouri guy. Loves Cardinals baseball, loves things that I didn't care about. And my dad did. And it was really the most wonderful thing my dad ever did was he started asking me about comics."
Gunn then went on to talk about spending a weekend at a Chicago Comic-Con and how it brought him closer to his dad:
"He drove me for the weekend to Creation Comic-Con in Chicago, which was probably the greatest weekend of my life, even still to this day I can say, because my wife isn't here. But it was amazing. We met Ernie Chan and talked to all these creative people, and it was just the best. We bought a bunch of comic books. Happiest moments of my life are walking upstairs and seeing my dad reading a copy of Superman. And I wanted to take care of these characters. And we all know it's been a f**ked up road for many of them for the past few years, and things haven't been together. And I really thought it is a challenge, but I think it's a possibility to create something really wonderful with these characters. I can't go into politics, I can't do anything with science. So the only thing I can do for this planet is to create stories about love. And that's what I think that we can do over the next eight to 10 years."
This is just another reason why I want to see James Gunn succeed at this! He’s a hardcore fan like the rest of us and he wants to do these DC characters justice. Let’s see what he does! Chances are when these movies actually start being released, fans are going to love what he and his creative teams deliver!