When we last heard about Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie, some exec was bullying bloggers for printing the insider info that Rocket Raccoon would be in the film. Now Heat Vision reports Marvel is negotiating with James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy. You may remember Gunn from Super, Slither, Lollipop Chainsaw, and his enormous loads.
Marvel is also considering Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson) and Peyton Reed (Bring It On, Yes Man) if James Gunn doesn’t sign. In other words, they’re following the trend of Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers of hiring a director who usually works with a smaller budget. Heat Vision says Marvel likes Gunn’s “sensibility and his ability to mix comedy elements with action and horror.”
The movie will reportedly follow a “U.S. pilot who ends up in space in the middle of a universal conflict and goes on the run with futuristic ex-cons who have something everyone wants.” As Russ noted, it seems likely that the astronaut in question is Peter Quill, aka the character Star-Lord pictured in the Guardians concept art released at Comic Con. ([…] described recently as “a gun-toting half-human/half-alien inter-galactic vigilante.”) And is the “something everyone wants” is probably the Infinity Guantlet, or the gems that go on the gauntlet. [/film]
Heat Vision runs down the rest of the cast:
While there have been several incarnations of the Guardians team in the comics over the years, the movie’s lineup will include Drax the Destroyer, a human resurrected as a green warrior with the sole purpose of killing Thanos (the villain in the Avengers final-scene tease); Groot, a giant tree-man; Star-Lord, a gun-toting half-human/half-alien intergalactic vigilante; Rocket Raccoon, a genetically engineered animal with a knack for guns and explosives; and Gamora, the last survivor of her species who was saved by Thanos to be his assassin but now battles him. [Heat Vision]
Guardians of the Galaxy is expected to release on August 1, 2014. I’m wondering how they’re going to make a CGI Rocket Raccoon work, and just how insane it would get if James Gunn directs. I believe this (like all situations) calls for Rocket Raccoon gifs.
[Banner picture courtesy Marvel Comics, .gifs via Angelophile]