James Gunn has stressed from the minute he took over DC Studios that no superhero movie under his watch would go into production without a completed script. Now in a new interview with Rolling Stone, the filmmaker attributed the so-called dying film industry with Hollywood’s fatal mistake of always making blockbusters before their scripts are officially completed.
“I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies,” Gunn said. “It’s not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”
Gunn noted that DC Studios recently “killed a project” because the script just couldn’t get to the right place, explaining: “Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good. And we’ve been really lucky so far, because ‘Supergirl’s’ script was so fucking good off the bat. And then ‘Lanterns’ came in, and the script was so fucking good. ‘Clayface,’ same thing. So fucking good. So we have these scripts that we’ve been really lucky with or wise in our choices or whatever the combination is.”
Another thing Gunn said that is working in his favor is there is no corporate mandate from Warner Bros. to churn out a certain number of film and television projects at DC Studios. Gunn is an alum of Marvel Studios, having directed three “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and a Christmas special, and he noted that Disney’s mandate to increase Marvel’s output amid the launch of Disney+ had a negative impact on the larger universe. Disney CEO Bob Iger has openly admitted to making this mistake.
“That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them,” Gunn said of Marvel. “We don’t have the mandate [at DC] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”
With Gunn’s “Superman” arriving in theaters next month, his DC Universe is about to launch. Only one other movie in the new franchise has completed filming, 2026’s “Supergirl,” but the plan is to build out the universe on the big screen with movies about Batman (“The Brave and the Bold”) and Wonder Woman.
“Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally,” Gunn told Rolling Stone. “And it’s not — I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it right, because he’s incredibly important to DC, as is Wonder Woman. So outside of the stuff that I’m doing in the projects that are actively going, our two priorities are finishing our Wonder Woman and our Batman scripts.”
“Batman has to have a reason for existing, right?” he continued. “So Batman can’t just be ‘Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,’ which he is. But because there’s a need for him in the DCU and a need that he’s not exactly the same as Matt [Reeves’] Batman. But yet he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. So we’re dealing with that. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it’s — I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality.”
Gunn said developing a Wonder Woman movie is “actually easier for me, because there haven’t been so many infinite portrayals of Wonder Woman — definitely not in movies, but really anywhere — that there have been of Batman.”
“Every single Batman story has been told,” Gunn concluded. “It seems like half the comics that have come out of DC over the past 30 years have Batman in them. He’s the most famous superhero in the world and the most popular superhero in the world. And people love him because he’s interesting, but also having so much of him out there can also make him boring. So how do you create that property that’s fun to watch?”
Head over to Rolling Stone’s website to read Gunn’s interview in its entirety. “Superman” opens in theaters July 11 from Warner Bros.
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