|
 Disney
has removed James Gunn as writer/director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
after comments he made years ago about rape and pedophilia were brought up on
social media. Gunn told The Wrap, "My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the
time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. 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. 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." The
comments made between 2008 and 2011 were discovered by some of right-wing
detractors and sent back out by alt-right troll and conspiracy theorist Mike
Cernovich. He posted that the comments were evidence of a network of pedophiles
operating in Hollywood, which is total bull but they made Disney blink. Walt
Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn releases the following 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." Gunn and Disney have been silent since then and
there has been no comment from Marvel Studios at all. Gunn had turned in a first
draft of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which would have begun production in
January. The fallout from the firing has been decidedly anti-Disney. Dave
Bautista has been most vocal about the dismissal and is as of this moment
extremely unhappy with Disney. He believes the entire thing is a witch hunt and
even though he is contractually obligated to return for the sequel the
relationship between him and the studio is broken. Chris Pratt posted a passage
from the New Testament asking for understanding. Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan
have posted in social media that they love every member of the GOTG family.
Michael Rooker and his representatives have left Twitter altogether. Comedian
Bobcat Goldthwait has asked Disney to remove his voice from a theme park ride.
Thanos’ creator Jim Starlin thinks the whole thing started with the firing of
Rosanne Barr which led to the right wing attacks. Gunn had apologized for the
tweets before Marvel signed him and so it’s not as if the studio didn’t know
they were out there. An online petition to have Gunn reinstated has garnered
almost 400, 000 signatures. In a related note Amazon Studios had decided not to
move forward with James Gunn’s Starsky & Hutch reboot but they passed on the
project months before the scandal arose. Amazon’s policy has never been to
announce what projects they have decided to not go forward with. My take on all
this is 6 or so months from now Gunn will be reinstated after some press release
that he went to counseling or after an internal investigation. |
