YEAR OF THE GUNN
Guardians of the Galaxy director gets his mojo back with latest flick
James Gunn isn't a possessive guy. But when he heard Warner Bros. had tapped David Ayer to direct a feature film version of DC'S Suicide Squad, he admits he was envious.
“I've always loved The Dirty Dozen and I always loved the John Ostrander Suicide Squad comic books,” Gunn says in a video call. “I remember being reinvigorated by (Adam Glass's) New 52 Suicide Squad. I read those comics and thought, `Boy, would this make a great movie.' ”
That was before the big wave of superhero extravaganzas hit cinemas, the filmmaker adds.
“This was back when the convention was, only big superheroes can star in big superhero movies,” he says. “I thought this could be a great movie even for people who don't know these characters ... So when it came up that David was doing the first Squad movie a number of years ago, I was very jealous, admittedly.”
His entry, opening in theatres today, has no story ties to Ayer's critically reviled 2016 effort. But he retained several characters from the earlier film — including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) — who are tasked by the nefarious Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a suicidal mission to save the world.
The trio are dispatched alongside a new roster of absurd D -list supervillains — including Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by the hilarious Sylvester Stallone), Polka-dot Man (David
Dastmalchian), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Javelin (Flula Borg), and more — to destroy a Naziera jail that happens to house a marauding alien starfish known as Starro the Conqueror.
Infused with the lighthearted humour comic-book movie fans have come to expect from Gunn's films, this rule-breaking Suicide Squad is decidedly more violent and foul-mouthed than any other entry in the DC Extended Universe of movies.
“The biggest thing is the fact that it's R-rated,” when he's asked what sets this film apart from DC'S previous films. “That makes it a little bit more different. It's an edgier film.”
But it's also his most creatively fulfilling project.
Q I think one of the things that is going to shock and awe fans right off the bat with The Suicide Squad is the crazy beach assault that opens the movie. Where did that come from?
A It was one of the first things I thought of that made me want to write the rest of the film. Who died and who lived has changed a lot since I first started writing it, but at the beginning that opening was one of the first things I imagined. Being able to do a Saving Private Ryan opening with superheroes was exciting.
Q The Suicide Squad has had a lot of members over the years. How did you go about assembling your team?
A A lot of these guys have never been in the Suicide Squad; they're just crappy supervillains. When John Ostrander was writing the comics, it really
was taking supervillains that were considered completely disposable who could be put into a dangerous mission that was likely going to result in their death and no one would care about them. When John was first writing the books, he was not allowed to use Catwoman or the Riddler or Lex Luthor. He had to choose from the s--ty supervillains, but he found a great strength in unknowns like Captain Boomerang, Deadshot and whomever else. I basically did the same thing with characters like Polka-dot Man, Ratcatcher and Javelin ... even I didn't know who Javelin was.
Q Of course, Harley Quinn is a fan favourite, but there are a lot of characters we could consider the centre of this movie. Who is at the heart of The Suicide Squad?
A I think in many ways Ratcatcher 2 is the heart of this movie. She comes in and is like, `Who are these insane people?' She's pure of spirit and young and idealistic. So we see things through her a lot. But I think we see a lot of things through Rick Flag as well. He's done missions for many years that are questionable, but he believes in the United States and he believes at the end of the day they're good and he comes to face some things in this movie that are heartbreaking in a way. Then there's Bloodsport, and he's on a journey to find out what it means to be a man and a leader. Then there's Harley and she's on a journey to do what God brings her to do. So it is a multi-protagonist film. You can see it through each of them in different ways.
Q How did you land on Sylvester Stallone to voice King Shark?
A I wrote the character for Sly, and I thought he would be great for King Shark. But when it came time to cast (the voice) we weren't sure. I didn't want to have it not work out, so we tried some different voice actors, and we couldn't find the right person. So I went back to Sly. I called him up and asked him, I told him, `It's a big, dumb talking shark.' And he came in and did it. He was much more animated than you might imagine Sylvester Stallone being. But this dude has life in him that most 22 year olds don't have. He just turned 75. The guy's incredible.
Q How did the experience change what we can expect from Guardians 3?
A The shooting style definitely affected me a lot. On Suicide Squad we used a (Stabileye)
Nano camera. It allows you to get in close to actors and move back faster. It allowed me to shoot the movie using shots I'd envisioned in my head, but had never been able to do because we didn't have the technical capabilities. That is definitely going to affect everything I do going forward. But the Guardians films are different types of movies. There's more quiet in a Guardians movie. It's more of a fable. This is more of a Jackson Pollock thing — but both those things are great.