James Gunn is a brilliant director. His unorthodox direction style has made headlines numerous times. But what many people may not know is that the man was a writer before he became a director. He served in the writing room of some of our favorite movies, and even acted as head writer for some of them. Before his big break with Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn had the chance to direct a couple of other big titles. But for one reason or the other, certain James Gunn movies were not made. Here are all the James Gunn Movies that got cancelled.
The third Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2 we’re both strange additions to the movie universe. They did not have the same flavor of movie-making as other films of their time. In hindsight, we realize this was because James Gunn was in charge of the screenplay in these movies. Regardless, the movies bombed at the box office but found a cult following within the fandom. Given the positive response to the first movie, the studio had already planned to make the franchise into a trilogy.
After the second movie was produced (and before it was released) it was even decided that James would be promoted from screenplay writer to Director and writer. James Gunn even came up with a complex plot for Scooby-Doo 3. Alas! The second movie made even less money than the first, leading the studio to cancel their plans for a Scooby-Doo live-action franchise.
Spy vs Spy
Everyone knows the classic comic Spy vs Spy, where two identical spies try to one-up each other. The comic is a satirical stereotype of the espionage culture. Before James Gunn was a director or a writer, he tried making a movie on the Spy vs Spy comic. Along with Jay Roach, Jamea Gunn pitched a movie based on the comic starring Eddie Murphy and Nicholas Cage to Warner Bros. The studio was not interested in the movie but they were more interested in hiring Gunn.
This allowed him to work on Scooby-Doo. After Gunn debuted as a director with Slither, he once again tried to pitch Spy vs Spy. Unfortunately, another project was under pre-production based on the comic. It is a real shame, since Gunn’s version, had a whole sequence dedicated to the spies battling it out with each other like cats. It would have been fun to see but you don’t get everything that you wish for.
Creature from The Black Lagoon
Universal has made some classic movies throughout the years. One of their 1950s project stands out in the form of Creature From The Black Lagoon. Apparently, Gunn tried to remake this classic by pitching a revamped version to Universal. Unfortunately, the studio turned it down because, in James’ words, “They didn’t want me to do it”. Quite absurd, but seeing as Universal has been on a kick of remaking horror properties maybe we will see a James Gunn version yet.
Pets
After Gunn’s horror stint with Slither, he began work on a project called Pets. The movie was supposed to be a dark satire based around a group of aliens who abduct humans to make them their pets. It even went into pre-production and stayed there for a couple of years with Ben stiller joining the project as a producer. But Gun left the project in 2009 due to “creative differences”. The comment he made was that the difference in visions would have made the finished product unsatisfying.
It’s Alive
It’s Alive is a classic when. It comes to horror movies. The 1974 film featured a mutant baby who goes on a murder rampage. Quite scary for the time. Although it received a lukewarm reception from the audiences, it still spawned a sequel and the remake. Reportedly Gunn wanted to remake the property too but could not get it off the ground because of lack of funds. Gunn did not have enough money to buy the rights to the movie so this horror never received the trademark Gunn flair.
Silver Surfer
When Gunn first came to LA in 1999 he wrote a screenplay where Silver Surfer turned on Galactus. This was an intriguing script and Fox wanted to make a movie out of it. But Gunn decided not to do it as he had already made a lot of headway in the Spy vs Spy script. Alas! Neither movie end up getting made, although we would have certainly enjoyed James Gunn as an old Marvel figure, maybe the MCU would have been completely different if that had been the case.
So these were the James Gunn movies that got cancelled. Would you like to see him make a Silver Surfer movie in the MCU? Let us know your thoughts.
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