Guardians of the Galaxy: Marvel mess in the making?

lol'd for real at 01:45

You know there will be a scene where cute harmless Baby Groot kicks a lot of butt and people cheer.

They showed a bit of something like that in an earlier trailer already.

Tickets on sale, already snagged ours (Thursday early evening opening day showings at the local Alamo Drafthouse really are the best).

And glad to see someone picked up on the Tango and Cash possibilities.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/kurt-russell-and-sylvester-stallones-guardians-of-the-g-1793612515

Prophetic thread title after all

James Gunn has been fired as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” after a series of offensive tweets were unearthed that made light of such controversial topics as pedophelia and rape. Disney, the studio behind the comic book franchise, made the announcement in the midst of Comic-Con, the geek convention where Gunn is beloved for his horror work in films such as “Slither” and for the irreverent take he applied to the superhero genre in the first Guardians and its sequel.

“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, the studio’s chairman.

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-1202879817/

Ron Howard's Guardians of the Galaxy 3

xp. bari weiss opens up laptop

oh no

idgi does nobody read the Tweets for people they are hiring and then having direct multiple movies?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-gunn-exits-guardians-galaxy-vol-3-1128786

On Thursday Gunn tweeted in response to the tweets being resurfaced, "Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor."

He added: "It’s not to say I’m better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger. My days saying something just because it’s shocking and trying to get a reaction are over."

The offensive tweets came to light after conservative website The Daily Caller dug up the social media posts, which were mostly posted in 2008 and 2009. Soon after, conservative personalities were tweeting to followers to confront Gunn at Comic-Con. Gunn had been expected to be at Sony's presentation Friday. Insiders say Gunn is not expected to be part of the panel.

Ron Howard's Guardians of the Galaxy 3

Lol

Although would hope that Taika Waititi would be the obvious replacement

:o

I mean, wtf dude it was always bad to say those things

but at the same time, I instantly knew this was because some online dipshits decided Gunn is a SJW or some other crap, have beef with him, and decided to dig up anything he's ever said or done to try to get him fired

this sucks. i really liked those two movies. he seems like he is just doing transgressive South Park-style jokes that were a big part of his early work. still, you can't say this shit. people are saying "oh it was 10 years ago", but rape jokes are never ok. it is entirely unprofessional to leave that up there. at the very least the day he got hired at Disney he should have just deleted those jokes himself. problem solved.

the big issue now is that there are out there, regardless of intent, satire, bad faith or not. it is public record. you wouldn't want the local news anchor to be caught tweeting this stuff, or a sports broadcaster, or the head of the PTA. they would get fired. these are public spaces, don't act like a jackass.

So, since we're talking about this James Gunn situation. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the totally morally righteous Mike Cernovich: pic.twitter.com/1PDgne2N9n

— Shawn Madden @SDCC (@shawnxmadden) July 20, 2018

This seems to be in line with my belief that Disney is taking a zero tolerance stance on any potential controversy wrt their talent (please note, for example, how squeaky clean the massive MCU roster seems in comparison with the number of minor scandals that have cropped up among WB's much smaller DC movie cast). Although I figured that hardcore pre-vetting was a part of that and would've caught something as simple as old tweets before they became a problem.

Also odd as he apologized six years ago for similar stuff:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796f

*Erroneous f on end of link

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

the alt-right people on twitter are characterizing this as him being a paedophile and uploading child porn videos etc. i don't want to have to actually research this but what is the actual nature of the stuff that has got him canned?

didn't this guy already have a shadow over him related to sex with a minor or something

or wait was that some other guy

Bryan Singer! Different guy.

It's just offensive twitter shit from ages ago. Bad jokes.

“Expendables is so manly I fucked the shit out of the pussy boy next to me,” he wrote in one.

“The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not being raped!'” read a tweet from February 2009.

“I remember my first NAMBLA meeting. It was the first time I felt ok being who I am,” said another, referring to a notorious group for pedophiles.

And in a tweet from 2011, he teased fans, “I’m doing a big Hollywood film adaptation of The Giving Tree with a happy ending — the tree grows back and gives the kid a b–job.”

the only funny one is the giving tree one

oh so just transgressive shit that online conservatives are disingenuously taking literally

Those are all just slightly more edgelordy versions of jokes Star-Lord would make

Do I think these jokes suck? yes. Do I think this is a hit job from cernovich? Certainly. Do I think Gunn was an idiot for not thinking of deleting this shit sooner? Absolutely. Do I care that he got fired? Not really, he should have known better.

"unearthed tweets" is an amazing phrase - like they had to break into the Vatican basement to find them

So does this open the door for our western culture to realize that South Park was one long mistake?

i wish

Having alt-rightists pick through your online life is such a weird experience. Pro-tip: If you're really going off on someone, always include a quote of theirs in your tweets. They never screenshot quote-tweets.

Disney will walk this back, tail between legs. It's viral that this is Cernovich's doing, and there's vastly more ill-will towards Cernovich than towards Gunn in the world.

eh no they will not walk this back

Yeah I don't see how the Disney brand can walk back on pedophiles jokes.

I am so bummed... but sorta unsurprised ie unearthing tweets is never ends well for anyone. I have followed Gunn’s career since Troma days and esp during the Slither, Kickass years found him pretty offputting online & in interviews. I am a fan, for sure, but it shouldn’t have been any secret that he was a walking Cards Against Humanity deck.

Apt.

lmao Ted Cruz calling for this guy to get arrested

wtf

is there a reason why Gunn was targeted in particular? like has he been outspoken against the alt-right or something? or is it just good old opportunism?

lmao Ted Cruz calling for this guy to get arrested

Say what you will about Gunn, but at least he never left awkward MILF voyeur porn up on his Twitter for an extended period of time!

xp Apparently he was criticizing Trump. He was also involved in a squabble over Ben Shapiro a few days ago - I don't know if that directly lead to this.

He is very anti Trump on social media, so was targeted. The alt right crazies are taking his ironic pro pedophilia jokes as truth. I bet they are digging through Michael Ian Black posts now, but he is a less conspicuous target.

I thought MIB was best friends with tha McCain daughter

Cernovich already calling for Michael Ian black’s head today apparently

whoever’s been letting cernovich live in their basement and use their Internet has a lot to answer for

cernovich's ex-wife iirc

if it weren’t true I’d say it was too on the nose

Mike Cernovich saying the N word, using a homophobic slur, and talking about rape all in one video. pic.twitter.com/AKc8UIco7v

— John Kerr (@JohnnyHeatWave) July 21, 2018

For fellow PWB fans this is the first episode of a new podcast called How To Fail and it's excellent, especially the bit about ballsing up a Downton Abbey audition.

https://howtofail.podbean.com/e/how-to-fail-phoebe-waller-bridge-1531470141/