James Gunn (born August 5, 1970) is an American writer, director, producer, actor, and musician. His siblings include Sean and Matt Gunn.
Gunn started his career as a screenwriter in the late 1990s, and has written the scripts for Tromeo and Juliet (1996), Scooby-Doo (2002), its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. He then started working also as a director, starting with Slither in 2006. He subsequently wrote and directed the web series James Gunn's PG Porn and the superhero films Super (2010) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
Early life
<p>Gunn was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised there and in Manchester, Missouri. His brothers are Sean, an actor; Matt, an actor and political writer; Brian, a writer and producer; and Patrick, a film and media professional, formerly a Senior Vice President with Artisan Entertainment. His sister, Beth Gunn, is an employment litigation attorney in Los Angeles, California.
Gunn's father, James F. Gunn, is a partner and corporate attorney with the law firm Thompson Coburn in St. Louis. Gunn's surname is derived from the Irish name MacGilGunn meaning "Sons to the Servants of the God of the Dead".
Growing up, he was influenced by low-budget films such as Night of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th. He read magazines like Fangoria and attended genre movie screenings including the original Dawn of the Dead at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. At the age of 12, he began making 8 mm zombie films with his brothers in the woods near their home.
Gunn and his brothers are all graduates of Saint Louis University High School, a Jesuit high school located in Kings Oak, St. Louis. James went on to attend Saint Louis University, also founded by the Jesuits, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology in 1992. He studied film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for 2 years but left before graduating. He later earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1995.
Music career
Gunn started a band in 1989 while he still lived in St. Louis called The Icons, an alt rock, gothic rock, and new wave group in which he served as the lead vocalist. The group achieved some regional success with the 1994 album Mom, We Like It Here on Earth, and their songs "Sunday" and "Walking Naked" were featured in the film Tromeo and Juliet. The Icons called it quits in the mid-1990s and its members went their own ways. Gunn has continued to work in music, composing songs for Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Movie 43.
Film and television career
Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma Entertainment in 1995, for whom he wrote the independent film Tromeo and Juliet. Working alongside his mentor Lloyd Kaufman, the co-founder of Troma, Gunn learned how to write screenplays, produce films, scout locations, direct actors, distribute films, and even how to create his own poster art. After contributing to several other Troma films, in the year 2000 Gunn wrote, produced and performed in his own superhero comedy, The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin and featuring Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden Church, Paget Brewster, Judy Greer and Jamie Kennedy.
Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo in 2002. In 2004, he wrote the screenplays for the remake of Dawn of the Dead and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. With these films, Gunn became the first screenwriter to have two films top the box office in consecutive weeks. That same year, he executive produced and starred in the mockumentary LolliLove, directed by and starring his then-wife Jenna Fischer. His directorial film debut was the 2006 horror-comedy Slither. Slither was included on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 50 Best Ever Reviewed Horror Movies.
Gunn's next projects included the comedy short film Humanzee! which was originally intended exclusively for the Xbox Live's Horror Meets Comedy series of short comedy films by horror directors, it was replaced with Sparky and Mikaela which debuted on Xbox Live on December 31, 2008. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall Show, Gunn described Sparky and Mikaela as being "about a human racoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world". Gunn also has a short form web series for Spike.com titled James Gunn's PG Porn, which made EW's The Must List.
In 2008, Gunn was a judge on the VH1 reality television show, Scream Queens where 10 unknown actresses compete for a role in the film Saw VI, where he directed contestants during acting challenges.
In 2009, Gunn announced he was going to write and direct Pets, a comedy about a man who is abducted by aliens who want to turn him into a household pet with Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer producing. However, by March 2009, Gunn announced, "PETS, unfortunately, is done. I'm gone. I left the project for various reasons. I hope it sees the light of day somehow, but it won't be with me attached as director."
In 2010, Gunn released the film Super, a dark comedy and superhero satire starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page.
Gunn co-wrote and directed the Marvel Studios adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released on August 1, 2014. His brother, Sean Gunn had an "integral part" in the film. With the successful opening of the critically acclaimed film, Gunn wrote an extended letter of thanks on Facebook for its supporters:
"Thanks to all of you who saw (and are seeing) ‘Guardians of the Galaxy' this weekend, from the bottom of my heart. The Guardians are a group of oddballs, outcasts, and geeks. The movie is for anyone who ever felt cast aside, left out, or different. It's for all of us who don't belong. This movie belongs to you. And, today, I think we're doing okay."
On July 26, 2014 at the Marvel Studios San Diego Comic-Con International presentation, it was announced that Gunn would assume the helm for the sequel of Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn has appeared as actor, mostly smaller roles or uncredited appearances in his own projects.
Other media
Outside of filmmaking and television, Gunn also penned a novel in 2000, The Toy Collector, a story of a hospital orderly who steals drugs from the hospital which he sells to help keep his toy collection habit alive. In 1998 he co-wrote alongside Troma's President Lloyd Kaufman All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, about his experiences with Kaufman while working at Troma.
He also wrote the story for Grasshopper Manufacture's video game Lollipop Chainsaw.
Personal life
He married actress and fellow St. Louis native Jenna Fischer on October 7, 2000, in an event officiated by Lloyd Kaufman. The two had originally met in the St. Louis area through James' brother Sean, who had acted in plays alongside Fischer in high school. After seven years of marriage Gunn and Fischer announced their separation in a joint statement on September 5, 2007. Fischer and Gunn divorced less than a year later. The two remain friends, and in 2010 Fischer helped Gunn with casting her The Office co-star Rainn Wilson in Gunn's film Super.
Gunn has since dated Kayo Dot violinist Mia Matsumiya and model Melissa Stetten.
Filmography
Collaborations
Cameos from filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman have been present in every Gunn feature film. Musician Rob Zombie has cameos in the same films as well, but in voice roles.