Although habitual sexual assaulters who actually harm people’s careers as often considered to return, or not even dismissed at all, James Gunn’s transgression of making horrible jokes and then criticising his president has proven to be too much for Disney to forgive.

Variety reports that the GUARDIANS director who was fired from Disney after 10 year old tweets of his with offensive jokes were discovered by right wing activists – met with Disney chairman Alan Horn, but it was only to clear the air, and Gunn remains fired. Kevin Feige supported his return but left town, knowing there was nothing he could do. Many had thought Gunn’s misdeeds were relatively minor and that he would be reinstated after a suitable length of time. But nope.

There’s been an outpouring of support for Gunn from the Guardians cast and even fans, but Gunn remaining on would seem to be enough to cause a ruckus with right wing elements. As Disney president Bob Iger weighs a political career, perhaps that was also a factor in the decision. Also, the Disney-Fox deal could still be sidetracked by the Justice department, and I’m sure they didn’t want to rock the boat on that.

Also of note: Disney chairman Ike Perlmutter was recently revealed to be running the Veteran Administration along with a few of his friends from a Florida resort, despite not being an officially appointed government official. Perlmutter is an old friend of Donald Trump, and the two are said to frequently speak. So don’t tell me politics aren’t at the root of all this.

It’s a very sad situation. I didn’t like Guardians 2 but there’s no question that Gunn is the auteur of the trilogy, and people have been welcomed back to work arms after doing far worse things that did far more harm to real people. Gunn had recently completed the GOTG Vol 3 script and hopefully some of it will make sense when a new director is hired.

Also don’t cry too much for Gunn – word is he’s highly sought after at other studios, and WB would be wise to snap him up for something, maybe that Tom Cruise Green Lantern movie. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

It’s also likely that Gunn will get a good payout on his contract, since the offensive actions took place before he was fired by Disney.

This is the first ripple in the MCU since Edgar Wright left Ant Man, and may presage a crack in the hitherto unassailable march of the greatest film franchise ever.

Or maybe Alan Horn is right, and the Marvel movie franchise is an unstoppable pop culture juggernaut that is bigger than any one creator. Still, I wouldn’t want to see Kevin Feige walk away.

 

 

 

 

 

14 COMMENTS

  1. Please do Suicide Squad 2. Or Outsiders. Or Justice League internatonal. Or, maybe the best – Teen Titans movie.

  2. “It’s also likely that Gunn will get a good payout on his contract, since the offensive actions took place before he was fired by Disney.”

    I believe this is a typo, and you mean “before he was HIRED by Disney”.

  3. This is how Disney as a corporation has acted historically and there is no aberration here. And they risk nothing because exactly no-one will boycott their product of family-valued, no-risk, pedestrian shit.

    As for comics, Disney had to rely on the fan interest from the founders of Gemstone to pursue a license to publish ducks and mouse books; and Disney was surprised at that interest to do so.

    Currently Disney is acquiring media whose commitment to Art far exceeds it. You cannot acquire artistic talent and keep it going sustainably (you can ride Deadpool like a bitch, into the ground, but then what?). There is nothing to suggest Disney will expand (or knows how to) expand its horizons.

    I’m looking and hoping for success with ANY projects that aren’t Disney. It would be good if the new capital from Netflux and Amazon would pony up for diverse and theatrical release product

  4. Ummm… the guy made a bunch of jokes about raping children… I am pretty sure that isn’t going to fly with anyone. And he posted it on a PUBLIC PLATFORM!!! His homey was a child pornographer and they had sleazy interactions! This is the #metoo era where everyone is a victim and you have a movie that is aimed at kids (animated series, toes, underoos). Then photos from a child abuse themed party show up? That is CRAZY!!!

    100% agree with Disney on this. I understand jokes, but making one about child rape and porn IN PUBLIC seems like a bad move. I do not think I have ever done this, but maybe I am the exception.

  5. Guess I am going to sit out for watching the next GotG movie! Thankfully, I have the first two on Blu-Ray to watch instead!

  6. As someone who has had people very close to them who are the victims of both rape and child abuse, I’m glad to see he isn’t getting a second chance.

  7. The folks at the Mary Sue are dancing in the street. Meanwhile, Kathryn Bigelow and Jessica Chastain are still allowed to work after knowingly inserting pro-torture propaganda into “Zero Dark Thirty” BECAUSE THE CIA ASKED FOR THEIR HELP IN SAVING THEIR TORTURE PROGRAM. The pro-torture scenes were completely fabricated, but Bigelow and Chastain played along because they supported the Iraq War.

    The blood of 700,000 dead Iraqi civilians is dripping from the fingers of Kathryn Bigelow. She should be blacklisted, not James Gunn.

  8. If I had to hazard a guess — and I don’t, but I will anyway — I’d have to say that this is purely the psychotically vindictive Ike Perlmutter c***blocking Kevin Feige. I mean, that Trumpie made Marvel cancel the Fantastic Four and cut them and the X-Men out of all merchandising for several years as a hissy fit over Fox owning the movie rights to them. And he embarrassed himself by trying to make the Inhumans into an X-Men-level franchise. And the Sony hack exposed him as a misogynist. Blocking Gunn over politics just to spite Feige is well-within Perlmutter’s wheelhouse.

  9. “The blood of 700,000 dead Iraqi civilians is dripping from the fingers of Kathryn Bigelow.”

    It’s actually dripping from the fingers of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who made the idiotic decision to invade and occupy Iraq.

  10. Heidi wrote:

    “would seem to be enough to cause a ruckus with right wing elements.”

    Coming down on sexually explicit jokes would seem to be as much, if not more, a preoccupation of the left wing as the right wing. Or did the right wing *force* the lefties to throw Al Franken under the bus?

  11. Mike Cernovich, the troll who got Gunn fired, is a far-right figure who promoted “Pizzagate,” the conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton and John Podesta running a child sex ring out of a Washington pizza restaurant. That insane theory prompted an idiot to show up at the restaurant with a gun.

    Cernovich also tweeted that “diversity is white genocide,” but later deleted several such tweets. He has also claimed that most people employed by the news media and the movie studios are pedophiles.

    He was charged with rape in 2003, but the charge was reduced to misdemeanor sexual battery of a woman. He has also endorsed choking women during sex, and wrote that men should masturbate in front of women who aren’t interested in having sex (in a blog post called “When In Doubt, Whip It Out’).

    https://www.thewrap.com/mike-cernovich-who-got-james-gunn-fired-over-rape-tweets-has-history-of-rape-tweets/

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