Source of the image: https://twitter.com/jackposobiec/status/1020229342549413890?s=21 Disney fired writer-director James Gunn from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise on Friday after old tweets surfaced of him joking about rape and pedophilia. “My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” Gunn said in a statement. “I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.” “Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then,” he continued. “All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all.” Online sleuths began digging up tweets that Gunn admitted were “offensive,” many from between 2008 and 2011, after right-wing provocateur Mike Cernovich posted a series of old tweets by Gunn, in which he made offensive jokes about taboo topics like rape and pedophilia. Many of the tweets have since been deleted. Gunn apologized in a series of tweets late on Thursday and tried to explain and defend himself. On Friday, Disney dropped Gunn from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise. “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” said Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, in a statement. Source: https://www.thewrap.com/james-gunn-understand-accept-disneys-move-drop-guardians-galaxy/
That “Harvey Weinstein effect” has actually gotten everyone, and I mean everyone, in Hollywood doing a turnaround over past and previous social blunders...but this is Hollywood, where a quick buck and a movie role demands some form of personal backlash into past acrimony...nowadays agents have to let their stars sign so much forms on non-harassment, non-sexual iverture, non-equality of roles, non-equality of payment, etc. it’s a wonder if these stars even had time to read over their scripts in the course of fitting in for their roles... But that’s Hollywood...liberal, non-plussed, angry, Democrat...
I have mixed feelings about this. His opinions he expressed before were never meant to be taken seriously. However, they were offensive despite the humurous inclincation. His script will still be used for the third installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I hope he continues making movies as I am a fan of his lesser works, “Slither” being an example.
Mm...proves that social media posts are forever. He is a sicko. He needs psychiatric help. That kind of posting is not acceptable even in the raunchiest comedy club.
Wow. Last year it was John Lassetter now James Gunn. Disney’s cleaning up. I understand Disney firing Gunn. Disney’s just doing what’s best for its business. But that statement by Alan Horn that they just discovered Gunn’s Twitter post, that’s BS. The posts were public. Besides, Gunn apologized for those twitter posts years ago. Have some balls Disney and own up.
Shouldn't Disney/Marvel have discovered James Gunn's previous "works" before hiring him to direct the first GoTG? Why they do this only now?
They were already aware of those posts. Gunn already admitted this a few years back and apologized. Disney just couldn’t handle the bad PR.
Exactly. Gunn is a guy who brings in truckloads of money. Disney was betting that this will not explode.
at first i was of the opinion that firing him was too harsh a consequence - but that was before i read the tweets. after reading the tweets, nope. completely unacceptable - you'd have to have a pretty numbed sense of humanity to find those statements funny. i can take this style of humor, but this subject matter is too sensitive to mess around with.
50,000 sign petition for Disney to rehire James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. I don't think Disney will rehire him in the foreseeable future.
It's already at 200,000 plus. But yeah you're correct they probably wont rehire. Although there's this bizarre conspiracy theory that's been floating around ( too bizarre that it might actually be true. ) that Disney masterminded all this all along and that Disney will rehire him in a few months.
Mm...What if Gunn is actually/secretly a pedo? Dinadaan lang niya sa jokes. What if Disney did nothing about the offensive (clearly over the red line/line on the desert) tweets then, boom, child victim after victim suddenly surface accusing Gunn, that son of a Gunn, of fondling them? What do you think will happen to Brand Disney, one of the world’s most valuable brands? What if there is a morality clause in Gunn’s contract with Disney and Disney’s lawyers are just exercising the option to terminate employment? See why Disney fired Gunn? (Pun intended).
Hmm. There are no allegations yet, If there were such allegations then I can understand Disney firing Gunn. Gunn was fired because of twits he made a decade ago. Here's Alan Horn' statement. : "The offensive attitudes and statements DISCOVERED on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him. " Yeah right. So are Disney Execs expecting us to believed that they didn't do a background check on James Gunn before hiring him to direct a full length film with a budget of USD200M+. Nope. They were already aware of these posts. Gunn already admitted this and apologized years ago. They just couldn't handle the bad PR.
mm...point is there might be more to this than just those tweets. We don’t know everything that Disney management knows. It could be part of a pattern. Are you absolutely sure that he is not a pedo or child molester? Sure na sure ka ba? In any case, he made those tweets. Sorry na lng siya. He is just a small cog in a very big money-making machine called Disney. Unfair? Sure but Disney just cannot risk reputational damage if things goes south with retaining Gunn. He is expendable. Look at what happened to the Weinstein Company after the Harvey allegations first surfaced. It is down the tube.
Hmm. I'll just say a person is innocent until proven guilty. Sure ka rin ba that he's a pedo or child molester? Whatever the Disney management knows they already knew about it even before they hired him. Besides Disney isn't really new to controversies. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/disney-sexual-messages_n_6452666.html
I read somewhere that Thor Ragnarok's director could be tapped to replace Gunn for GOTG3. Seems ok because they have a similar sense of humor, in fact when Ragnarok came out, I felt like it was emulating the GOTG movies, with the jokes and 80s soundtrack. I think Taika Waititi is good... bastos lang nga sa atin apelido niya.
I believe Taika can more than adequately take over the GOTG franchise. He can inject his own deep, dark, wittingly funny style of humour and storytelling and depart from the usual Guardians humor that's sometimes too American. He already did well in Rangarok. You only need to watch "What We Do in the Shadows" to see just what kind of crazy-funny this guy is capable of.
