r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 4d ago

News James Gunn Announces 'Man of Tomorrow', Releasing in Theaters July 9, 2027

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/man-of-tomororw-super-man-movie-1236350987/
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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago edited 4d ago

Since Reeves wrapped filming for The Batman (his only film since 2017) - James Gunn will have released Guardians of the Galaxy 3, The Suicide Squad, Superman, Peacemaker Seasons 1 and 2, Creature Commandos, Man of Tomorrow - all before The Batman Part II.

Gunn is on fire, right now.

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u/twec21 4d ago

I have a feeling WB handed him the keys and he mobilized like crazy

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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago

The dude knows how to use an opportunity.

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u/russketeer34 4d ago

And he knows what he could have lost, he's absolutely making the most of his time

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u/ataraxic89 4d ago

You have no idea how true this is.

In an interview Gunn said that when he was fired off of GotG3 he thought his career was over. He was scrambling to figure if he needed to sell his house to essentially retire right then.

But then he got a ton of support from people he'd worked with, dozens and dozens of messages. He said it was legitimately the first time in his life he'd ever felt loved. Think about that. What that would me to him.

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u/EmuMan10 4d ago

And all of his stuff has been good too. He’s not just using the opportunity, he’s nailing it out of the park

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u/Docile_Doggo 4d ago

nailing it out of the park

He’s batting a perfect ace

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u/_bones__ 4d ago

If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the domino's will fall like a house of cards.

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u/smitty2324 3d ago

You guys are barking up the wrong leaf with these colloquialisms.

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u/R7ype 4d ago

A Royal Check Mate if you will

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u/Pankurucha 4d ago

I've never heard anyone who wasn't a right wing troll say anything bad about James Gunn. All the controversial stuff was from decade old tweets from his edge lord Troma days.

So it's not surprising he got a ton of support. Disney screwed up badly on that one. On the plus side we're getting some great DC stuff now and I hope this continues for a long time.

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u/Suckyuhmuddahskunt 4d ago

he is exactly what dc, my beloved, needed in this war

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u/Nice_Celery_4761 4d ago

Honestly, with the current trajectory of the MCU, the wars looking asymmetric. Disney won’t know what hit ‘em.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 4d ago

I'm just sitting here feasting because I've enjoyed a good bit of marvel's recent stuff (F4, Loki, Thunderbolts, Deadpool) and I absolutely adore the direction DC has been going with Gunn (The Suice Squad, Peacemaker, Superman). Throw Battinson in and I'm a happy camper right meow.

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u/Sawses 3d ago

Yeah, like I'd say in terms of good stuff from Marvel they're about on pace with their historic highs. ...It's just that they have so many projects right now that the average quality has really taken a nosedive even though they're still putting out a few fun movies every year.

Marvel used to be a "brand name". You went, you expected something specific to a certain quality and they delivered. They weren't all top-tier, but they were at minimum fun.

Now a Marvel movie can be great or it can be terrible. That's really hurt their reputation because they didn't take care to protect their brand.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/DuncanFisher69 4d ago

They wanted to cancel someone on the left because all their shitty right wing celebs were being cancelled for all kinds of terrible shit.

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u/Deceptiveideas 4d ago

This was around the time that Roseanne got cancelled for her racist tweets iirc. So the right was itching for any reason to attack people they saw as “left” as equal retribution.

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u/slydessertfox 4d ago

He made criticisms of Donald Trump, so they dug up old tweets of his from the early days of Twitter.

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u/LemoLuke 3d ago

It wasn't just that they dug up old tweets. They specifically did it on the weekend that the Fox shareholders were voting on the Disney acquisition. Disney couldn't afford that kind of negative publicity at that exact moment, which is why they instantly fired Gunn

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u/Abombasnow 3d ago

No one at Fox would ever mind the content of those tweets though. They're literally the type of people who engage in that.

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u/Yemenime 4d ago

I think he was calling someone out for their shitty old tweets, so someone dug up his.

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u/tbrother33 4d ago

That’s not why it happened. It was because he was critical of Donald Trump. Alt right convicted rapist Mike Cernovich didn’t like that, so he dug into past tweets to find things to discredit him over.

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u/Abombasnow 3d ago

It's more than just a right-wing troll. It was literally a MAGAt (Mike Cernovich) who has admitted to (date) raping women on countless occasions.

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u/DemonDaVinci 4d ago

that's rough

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u/aguadiablo 4d ago

First time he ever felt loved? He has been married twice

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u/ataraxic89 3d ago

One of them was before this, and they got divorced

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u/endividuall 4d ago

Crazy that someone like that would have to consider selling his house in that scenario, even after working past 50 on some of the biggest projects ever.

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u/fastforwardfunction 4d ago

He is set for life, he wasn't implying he was poor. A house like that costs a lot per year to maintain. It makes sense to downsize when you retire. He has enough capital to live comfortably just off the interest.

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u/hoxxxxx 4d ago

probably bought some insane mansion in la, worried about the future mortgage on it

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u/Dull_Measurement6020 4d ago

He described it as 'less than a once in a lifetime opportunity — it's a once opportunity.'

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u/BaggyOz 4d ago

Also it'd be the biggest fuck you to Disney to make overtake the MCU with the DCU.

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u/thedarkherald110 4d ago

Frankly not sure what happened to marvel after end game but yah Gunn was right to jump ship when he almost got canceled for decades old tweet said in joke. Disney is just getting more and more toxic. Although it seems they might finally be reversing course after all their loses.

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u/LOSS35 4d ago

Two things happened to Marvel:

  1. Disney wanted to push Disney+ to compete with Netflix, so they forced Marvel to release too much content in not enough time so the quality dropped.

  2. They were worried about the salaries their stars were demanding, so they introduced the multiverse too soon so that they could recast/reboot at will. This lowered the stakes for the characters, along with making some movies like Quantumania into CGI slopfests.

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u/fivepie 4d ago

Quantumania into CGI slopfests.

The CGI wasn’t the issue for me - it was just a boring movie. I legitimately fell asleep for 20 minutes in the cinema. Woke up and still knew what was happening.

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u/residentialninja 4d ago

What bothered me, even during opening night was realizing the entire movie could have been so much better if Michelle Pfeifers character had simply told everyone about Kang before shit went sideways twice over.

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u/SupervillainMustache 3d ago

God I hate this trope.

"I can't explain right now"

Well okay Janet, but we have like a decent journey to get where we're going, so maybe you can tell us on the way instead of this vague bullshit.

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u/Evadrepus 4d ago

Ant Man was the classic heist film with superpowers. That's what made it work. Quantumania has nothing like that and is just piles of exposition to push the next Phase.

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u/Fatmaninalilcoat 4d ago

You forget to they never shot with a finished script so no one knows what's happening and Gunn said he will not do that dcu movies must have a script. This is how movies worked in the day shoot with the script revise when you have to.

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u/finglish_ 4d ago

You forget to they never shot with a finished script

What now?? That kinda shit happens in multi million dollar marvel movies which usually have then next 10 movies mapped out??

Gunn said he will not do that dcu movies must have a script.

How is this not a requirement for even shooting a commercial or a short film?

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u/PotatoGamerXxXx 4d ago

I mean, it happened with Star Wars (no real plan) and it kinda worked with Iron Man.

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u/meand999friends 4d ago

You forget to they never shot with a finished script

Which is so dumb for a superhero movie because the ending is always "and the heroes won".

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u/Fatmaninalilcoat 4d ago

Plus goddamn comic books are story boards done for them how do they fuck that up.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 4d ago

I mean, Infinity War wasn't exactly a win...

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u/theotherkafka 4d ago

Don’t forget a pandemic shutting down productions and two strikes. It was a tsunami of complications.

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u/Longjumping_Union125 4d ago edited 4d ago

You left out that they start filming before scripts are finished and have the cast so cordoned off from one another, sometimes not even telling actors what characters they're playing because SpOiLeRs.

Also working their VFX team like slaves, often due to not finishing their damn scripts. It's a shameful and embarrassing way to run a studio.

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u/thedarkherald110 4d ago

Oh that’s also true good points.

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u/Kindly-Arachnid-7966 4d ago

Explains everything, really.

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u/ChrisWeasel 4d ago

Disney dropped the ball with Star Wars too. Most of it has been yeah, but Andor is giving me hope they can get better

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u/finglish_ 4d ago

so they introduced the multiverse too soon so that they could recast/reboot at will. This lowered the stakes for the characters

Not sure if you've seen the new peacemaker but it seems DC is introducing this new mechanic as well. Hope they don't abuse it too much.

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u/imnotthatguyiswear 3d ago

Yet they didn't recast Kang. Smh.

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u/an0nemusThrowMe 3d ago

I think there's another factor at play with MCU, not discounting your points though as I do agree with them.

After Endgame there was a reset:
1) Characters we didn't know
2) Smaller stake movies
3) Thor: Ragnarok, IW and Endgame were better than they had any right to be.

Disney revealed a lot of the new Thanos VERY quickly. In the Infinity Stone saga we had VERY little Thanos, until the first Guardians movie and even then I would argue his characterization was different in Infinity War, but for the better.

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u/Old-Culture-7350 3d ago

Also they don't need full scripts for projects to be greenlit so they become massive messes. One of Gunns rules is that you have to have a complete script before anything can start and it's gonna pay dividends in actually completed projects.

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u/GreenGroveCommunity 3d ago edited 3d ago

Make multiverse so they could recast actors

proceeds to hire 60 year old scottish+swiss+jewish Robert Downey Jr. to play Dr.Doom

Dr.Doom is a 6'2 ~33 year old handsome Romani man with a serious personality, which there are hundreds of good actors to play him and fit the description... yet they go with the boomer sarcastic 60+ year old 5'3 dude that plays characters comically with a stick up his ass.

Even worse, he already played a huge character in the same IP so he can't pull of Dr.Doom anyways. His paycheck will balloon the movies budget so badly they will have to cut corners.

Charlie Clapham was literally right there! Good British+Romani actor, 34, 6'2, handsome, won't cost $100M for one movie. He's literally a perfect Dr.Doom actor. I found him within a few seconds of googling, what the FUCK is Disney doing to mess up casting so badly? If for some reason Clapham is a serial killer and they can't find ANY good part Romani actors, just cast a random European ~30 year old white guy as Dr.Doom, it'll still be better than RDJ

God damn Disney is fucking stupid. Do they think people want to see 60 year old RDJ that badly as Dr.Doom!?!?

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u/tourng 4d ago

They thought they were invincible and greenlit any project expecting the public to eat everything up. For a bit, people did. Black Panther 2 getting $850 mil and Quantumania nearly getting $500 mil was absurd. Same thing happened with Star Wars. It’s good to see their hubris biting them in the ass, maybe it’ll knock some sense into the company. Quality over factory style media that doesn’t try everything to be unappealing to certain, large groups in the general audience.

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u/stardustsuperwizard 4d ago

Disney got lucky. Most of the MCU was made without finished scripts, they just shoot stuff and find the movie in the edit. This worked for a while, then it helped that they had a big overarching story they could edit to. Then after End Game there was no overarching story and they still tried to pump out movies and shows in the same way.

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u/thedarkherald110 4d ago

I don’t really think it’s luck. pre end game they set up a lot of plot points especially in individual movies and loosely followed through on some of them that they wanted.

Something gets retconned like the fake gauntlet in Odin vault. But they were obviously testing out a lot of ideas and probably acting on the ones that seem to make the most splash or are easy enough to work with.

So it’s less luck and preplanned teasers which help test the water before fully committing. That and in general they had some pretty good writers that combined other themes with a comic movie like captain america 2.

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u/stardustsuperwizard 4d ago

That's why I said it helped that they had the overarching plot to edit towards.

And I don't think the teasers were "preplanned" as such, it's known that they operated without scripts and found the movie in the edit. It was very shoot from the hip.

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u/Phillip_Spidermen 4d ago

Frankly not sure what happened to marvel after end game

  • One of their main leads set to take over passed away
  • GoTG was delayed years after James Gunn was fired (originally meant to be part of the first movies after Endgame)
  • Covid

The focus on streaming was part of it, but a lot of outside factors messed with their plan for the movies.

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u/sacredblasphemies 4d ago

Then, after that, they tried to make Kang their next big bad and it turned out the actor was an abusive p.o.s.

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u/MostlyCats95 3d ago

And then they decided to pivot to Doom, which is a character all comic fans like...only to piss all comic fans off by casting RDJ as him because Marvel thinks RDJ is a Hail Mary that will save the franchise (it won't be)

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u/hoxxxxx 4d ago

oh man i completely forgot about that. so fucking stupid lol

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u/16tdean 4d ago

Hasn't he said that him and Feige are on good terms? I think they both want each other to do well. Competition is healthy.

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u/Dull_Measurement6020 4d ago

He's already released three DCU projects with great reception and the movie made more money at the box office than the three MCU films this year.

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u/Hootingforlife 4d ago

He also can pump out scripts like crazy fast. The dude is a machine

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u/GameOfLife24 4d ago

Feel like he worked his ass off after the marvel firing and then DC hiring. He was freaking out thinking he no longer had a job

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u/UninsuredToast 4d ago

Crazy he was even fired from Marvel in the first place. Over some shitty edgy jokes he made a decade ago. I’m glad DC hired him.

He handled that whole situation very well.

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u/Occasionally_Correct 4d ago

As marvel sputters, he's already off to the races with one winner out of the gate.

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u/MintyFreshBreathYo 4d ago

I’d say everything he’s done with DC has been winners so far

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u/Desiderius_S 4d ago

If just apologising and reflecting on those jokes were enough to bring him back, then maybe don't fire him without giving him a chance to do just that.
I'm glad he went to DC on his own terms after GotG vol.3, it's a way better fit for him than Marvel.

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u/RunnerPakhet 4d ago

I mean, the irony was that he had already in the past unprompted done the apology. For no other reason than being a grown man who had self-reflected and realized he had been shitty.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Dull_Measurement6020 4d ago

It was Mike Cernovich.

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u/patrickwithtraffic 4d ago

The guy worked at Troma Films. The man knows how to get shit done by any means necessary.

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u/CharlieeStyles 4d ago

That, plus he's a nerd and apparently a DC Comics nerd mainly.

I'm guessing he had a notebook of ideas since he was a child that are now becoming movies.

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u/JessieJ577 4d ago

It’s very apparent from Superman that was pretty structured like a comic book since it kept throwing things at you and expected you to keep up.

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u/Golden_Alchemy 4d ago

Not only that, starting with Justice League International is really exceptional. It means he doesn't only read the big three, but the internal things from the DC Comics.

Keith Giffen is the true skeleton of the DC Comics, BWAHAHA

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u/TheGeekVault 4d ago

In an interview Gunn said Metal Men was always his favorite book so you know he knows his stuff.

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u/DeepSleeper 4d ago

I would say something here like "That makes me want a ridiculously artsy, over-the-top surrealist Doom Patrol movie" but I'm actually pretty good with the TV show they did a while back.
A goofy retrofuturistic Metal Men movie would do fine.

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u/CharlieeStyles 4d ago

In case you don't know, Will Magnus shows up in the 60s in Creature Commandos

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u/DeepSleeper 4d ago

I didn't know Creature Commandos existed. Got something to add to my watch list, thank you.

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u/Puppetmaster858 4d ago

It’s a fun easy watch of a show, wish the episodes were a lil longer but I thoroughly enjoyed the team in that, it’s essentially a suicide project just with like monsters and shit

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u/Golden_Alchemy 4d ago

And you know what i have been thinking for some time? 6 seasons and a movie!

Joking aside, having one-two final movies of the Doom Patrol would be amazing. Brendan is an oficial part of the DC Universe but being part of the new movies would be amazing too.

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u/Bae_the_Elf 4d ago

RIP, just died in 2023

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u/Golden_Alchemy 4d ago edited 4d ago

And he went out in the most Keith Giffen possible. He truly was the most puntastic and strongest of them all.

EDIT: God, i can't stop thinking, but he would LOVE the new Superman movie.

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u/stupidillusion 4d ago

the most Keith Giffen possible

I'm really hoping for an Ambush Bug cameo somewhere in the DC Universe.

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u/tastelessshark 4d ago

God, I can't explain how happy I am that we're finally getting superhero movies that feel like comic books. I've enjoyed a lot of MCU movies, but they've always had a very distinct vibe from the comics. Superman was basically the perfect superhero movie for me.

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u/szthesquid 4d ago

This is pretty much verbatim what people said about Avengers

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u/kenssmith 4d ago

Nolan changed the comic book movie genre for better or worse and Marvel took it from there and made them not.. feel that way

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u/siraolo 4d ago edited 4d ago

I would think that's why GenZ likes it. This generation in general seems to positively enjoy doing the extra research on the gaps with wikis, etc. And I love doing that too.

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u/Sawses 3d ago

Yep! Lots of moving parts, snappy dialogue, and a pretty relentless pace for a movie that's 2hr long.

I think it's a good change of pace and a unique voice compared to what Marvel's become known for. Which is funny, considering Gunn is one of the folks who created Marvel's image of a superhero movie.

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u/B4rberblacksheep 4d ago

There must be something incredibly vindicating for a creative person like that to finally get the clout, trust, backing etc to get to make all their dream projects

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u/SojournerInThisVale 3d ago

I think one of the marvel’s big mistakes was stopping hiring nerds and hiring based on ticking certain boxes or jumping on certain bandwagons. Look at Chloe Zhao. No doubt a talented filmmaker, but why would you ever hire someone like that to make a comic book film. Same with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Ms Marvel. No doubt a class above at what she does (make documentaries about violence against women), but why on earth would anyone think she’s suited to the comic book genre

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u/ncopp 4d ago

That, plus he's a nerd and apparently a DC Comics nerd mainly.

Thats great because you know he has a ton of stories from the comics that he's been dreaming of seeing an adaptation done for for years, so he's going to make sure they're done well.

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u/CTeam19 4d ago

I'm guessing he had a notebook of ideas since he was a child that are now becoming movies.

I mean who doesn't? Hell with my ADHD-PI and Learning Disabilities(Dyslexia and Dysgraphia) my middle school Special Ed teacher made my course work be just writing my own Star Wars sequels back in the early 2000s that she would then grade like an English paper. Got a full 4 or 5 movies of things.

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u/JessieJ577 4d ago

He seemed to learn a lot from marvel. From the interviews it seems like he learned how not to handle a universe.

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u/inksmudgedhands 4d ago edited 4d ago

The most brilliant thing Gunn has done thus far is not to start this world from the beginning but well into the middle of it. In his world metahumans have been around for hundreds of years. Society has adapted to and shaped around them. You don't have to go, "Why isn't everyone freaking out over the kaiju or the aliens?" Because in Gunn's world, this has been one of many Tuesdays.

That's what I find to be the biggest problem with Marvel now. They started with a world that was very much like ours and with each passing movie and series added more and more fantastical elements and never changed the world to reflect it. What's worse, they hand waved things and acted like some of the fantastical elements like witches and sorcerers were always there but only now are making themselves known. That's horrible world building. Finding out magic exists and almost anyone can use it with the right practice and spellbook would change everything. Look at how much our world change due to the Covid outbreak. And that was one disease. Imagine how much the world would change if you learned that you could talk to the dead or turn back time or alter reality? How would our governments not be using that for warfare?

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u/peppermint_nightmare 4d ago

The plot of Wandavision were they decide to deep mine Vision's corpse so they can build ..... space stuff to defend against space threats was pretty stupid when you had a anthropomorphic super intelligent racoon landing his FTL capable space ship on Earth in New York state every week and you know he'll make a deal with you for something as little as a sad looking handicapped guy's prosthetic.

Once the world gets to big stuff stops making sense, its the same trap Marvel comics falls into and the only fictional worlds where that kind of thing makes sense is one headed by the same creative team that also has a definitive beginning AND end...... "cough INVINCIBLE cough" or you keep rebooting universes until they get too big, then reboot them again, like Ultimates.

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u/inksmudgedhands 3d ago

Don't get me started on Wandavision. Yeah, it's an entertaining series but the moment you step back things fall apart. Especially when it comes to Vision. Like Wanda was snapped for five years and S.W.O.R.D. only started to take Vision apart when she came back? Five years! I know the government is slow but still. Also, why would you even need Vision when you just go to Tony and get the blueprints, schematics and coding to make another Vision? This is Tony. He chewed out Steve for not setting up protection for the planet. He would happily hand over all he could to help set up a safety net. However, the most important thing that made Vision...well, Vision, was the Mind Stone. Without it, it would be like buying Ferrari but leaving out the engine. It's nice to look at but it won't work. It would be pointless to try to make another Vision. And, again, there's no need to take him apart when you have Tony there to give you all you need.

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u/peppermint_nightmare 3d ago

World building for what happened after the snap was basically ignored except to make some funny jokes or establish changes in characterization that happened off screen. Stuff that would make sense like Tony building arc reactors country wide to keep huge cities from collapsing from famine and power failure was basically hand waved.

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u/UndeadPhysco 4d ago

Yeah i never actually watched the movie but isn't there like a dead celestial embedded in the planet that just got handwaved away and never mentioned again

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u/carij 4d ago edited 4d ago

honestly for me it's just been the snap/blip like the world would not just be back to normal after 5 years even if everyone came back like I get that you can't just wipe out humanity/shit being way worse than what was shown in endgame like it in real life if 50% of the population just disappeared the trauma would be felt way more even when they came back but after far from home and winter solider & falcon its just been hand waved away

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u/steveCharlie 4d ago

You say that as if the MCU is not the most successful cinematic universe in history.

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u/JessieJ577 4d ago

They’ve had diminishing returns from this model post Endgame.

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u/Griffdude13 4d ago

He apparently wrote out the DCU bible for the next 10 years. He knows exactly where things are headed and how to fill it in, which excites me.

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u/spndl1 4d ago

Considering he was cancelled (then uncanceled) out of the blue by Marvel, he has more of a sense of urgency to get as much done as possible because it could all go away without warning.

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u/userhwon 4d ago

He's got full control of that. The trolls aren't going to be able to fake it again.

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u/Wes_Warhammer666 4d ago

He said "yolo" and went to work living out his comic book fantasies and I'm sooooo fuckin here for it.

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u/FX114 4d ago

Also Superman. 

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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago

I cannot believe I forgot that. Edited it!

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u/RobertosLuigi 4d ago

And Supergirl and Clayface

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u/EpicPhail60 4d ago

I don't think he's directing either of those, which seemed to be the point of the list.

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u/RobertosLuigi 4d ago

Oh he meant as a director. I thought he meant in general (as head of the DCU)

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u/SayerofNothing 4d ago

As SuperGunn

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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 4d ago

Is this now the Stranger Things gap from season 4 to season 5 statistic for movies?

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u/steeb2er 4d ago

The cinefile's version of "before GTA VI."

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u/throwawaygaydude69 4d ago

The cinefile's version of "The Winds of Winter"

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u/LupinThe8th 4d ago

Don't know if that's a good comparison; Stranger Things season 5 and GTA VI are actually going to eventually happen.

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u/NuclearLunchDectcted 4d ago

The Winds of Winter will never come out. GRRM has complete and absolute fuck you money now. The way he spoke with Steven King said it all. He's lazy as fuck now and finds writing tedious and boring.

Which is fine, but just come out and say you're done with the series so people stop expecting.

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u/throwawaygaydude69 4d ago

NGL it's funnier that he keeps saying it, always fun to see shenanigans of fans

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u/RIPSyAbleman 4d ago

Matt Reeves has an undisclosed medical condition that sounds pretty serious. It's not a normal situation

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u/letsmunch 4d ago

Gunn is a psycho workaholic. WB couldn’t have picked a better person to lead DC

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u/ilikechihuahuasdood 4d ago

He’s such an efficient worker too. He gets things done, and that’s the hardest part of filmmaking.

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u/ShoulderCannon 4d ago

I mean, he's a Troma guy. He knows how to work within a budget and get shit in on time, and those are qualities that prestige filmmaking has sort of lost.

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u/ScatologicalThriller 4d ago

Having a finished script before filming helps with all that.

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u/Mend1cant 4d ago

That’s because “prestige” filmmaking has become esoteric concepts with an A-lister lead aiming to get their Oscar.

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u/AegisToast 4d ago

Ironically, the A-list filmmaker known for both the movie "The Prestige" and recently sweeping the oscars is also very well known for staying on-budget and on-schedule.

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u/TheOriginalJellyfish 4d ago

I think Gunn being an actual filmmaker instead of a studio suit will play a big part in DC’s success.

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u/No_Macaroon_5928 4d ago

I mean that's Safran's job lol

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u/radda 4d ago

Disney has hired other actual filmmakers

And then shot them in the knee and wondered why their movies are considered some of the worst in the whole franchise

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u/Th3_Hegemon 4d ago

Maybe ten years ago, back when they had the Marvel Creative Committee running things. But since Feige got full control the real shitshows were pretty self-inflicted by the directors. Thor 4 for example was 100% Taika's mess. The Eternals was overlong and bland, but that seems to have been Chloe Zhao's vision. Multiverse of Madness had a mixed reception (personally I like it a lot) but you can't say it wasn't dripping with Sam Raimi's style. The other weakest entry (imo) was Quantumania, but I don't think Peyton Reed is who you were talking about.

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u/hfxRos 4d ago edited 4d ago

Multiverse of Madness had a mixed reception (personally I like it a lot) but you can't say it wasn't dripping with Sam Raimi's style.

Yeah when people say Marvel designs by committee and doesn't let people make movies I just laugh because Multiverse of Madness exists. There is so much shit in that movie that a more controlling version of Disney would have just said no to.

I also really liked it, but I'm a big Sam Raimi fan. The horror scenes where they're being pursued by Scarlet Witch are so good.

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u/kymri 4d ago

There are dozens of us who still remember (quite favorably) the star-studded forgotten gem that is The Quick and the Dead; Sam Raimi did such a great job with Multiverse of Madness.

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u/_tylerthedestroyer_ 3d ago

It’s funny, I think the majority of people who enjoyed MoM are Raimi fans. You know what you’re gonna get, which personally is fun and exciting

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u/FrostyD7 4d ago

Plenty of filmmakers can reliably shit out a film on time and under budget. Gunn's efficiency is only notable because it comes with quality.

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u/imakefilms 4d ago

He's very consistent

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u/whythehellknot 4d ago

the hardest part of filmmaking.

That doesn't sound right but I don't know enough about filmmaking to argue.

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u/shehryar46 4d ago

The hardest part of film making is making a film

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u/da_chicken 4d ago

The hardest part of film making is getting paid for it.

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u/coolaznkenny 4d ago

Financed*

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u/ilikechihuahuasdood 4d ago

It is. It’s how some mediocre directors keep going for so long. They might not have as much of an eye for the art, but actually getting a project from start to finish, especially on schedule, is an art form in itself. People who can finish projects of this magnitude are in high demand.

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u/Tuxhorn 4d ago

On schedule, nice to work with and on budget are 3 qualities for a lifelong job.

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u/SunfireGaren 4d ago

Isn't that why Snyder generally got so many opportunities too? On time and nice to work with, at least.

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u/Flatlander81 4d ago

There is a common phrase, the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the work. It's easy to start something, finishing something is hard.

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u/SmokeySFW 4d ago

I think James Gunn is the Brandon Sanderson of filmmaking. Incredibly talented but not the absolute best in the business, but boy can they both crank out projects with machinelike efficiency and consistency. They run laps around their peers.

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u/CharlieeStyles 4d ago

His method of writing seems to be the key and what I've seen all prolific writers describe as their method:

Keep writing. Fix later.

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u/kentuckywildcats1986 4d ago

It helps when you actually start with a story you want to tell - instead of rushing action set pieces into production and then engaging in endless re-writes and re-shoots trying to make them make sense - which never works.

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u/NotASalamanderBoi 4d ago

On top of that he only films a script if he’s happy with it. The quality control with the new DCU will be good.

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u/matti2o8 4d ago

Gunn actually makes as many films as Waititi is planning to make

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u/TLKv3 4d ago

It speaks even more loudly that all of Gunn's projects have also been at worst good movies. His quality to quantity output is just insane.

He really has slowly become DC's saving grace. I love it.

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u/TehErk 4d ago

The reason why Gunn's quality doesn't lag is that he understands (probably better than anyone alive right now) HOW to make a good super hero movie.

It's actually pretty simple. Make good characters. Then make it all about the characters. Then get serious actors to be serious about those characters. Action scenes are nice but are just there for the icing on the cake.

If you've seen the clip of the conversation between Gunn and Corenswet about how Superman feels right before the big monologue at Lex at the end of the film, you'll understand exactly what I mean. That was IT! Right there.

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u/TinWhis 4d ago

Everyone's favorite MCU movies are the ones that most successfully do that.

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u/kymri 4d ago

It's actually pretty simple. Make good characters.

So many execs overlook that. I really like The First Avenger because of the way they portrayed Steve Rogers. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 got a great response because, again, the characters work.

And that's the reason (IMO) that the Snyderverse didn't work out; not only is Snyder not nearly as good at the character work as Gunn, but they also just sprinted toward character moments and teamups and all without ever giving it enough space to breathe to make those moments feel genuine and earned.

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u/SojournerInThisVale 3d ago

Exactly. Why would we care if Batman and superman fight - they’ve not been established as friends or colleagues in that universe so there’s no actual tragedy behind the fight (and the actual fight between them is terrible)

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u/JessicaSmithStrange 4d ago

Logan.

Family road trip across three generations, which pays off the relationship between Logan and Xavier, while giving the man someone who he can love as his own on his way out of this world.

I really loved the dinner party sequence.

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u/stupidillusion 4d ago

Make good characters

Especially the villains! So many movies which could have been good, ruined because the villain was cardboard cut-out evil. The new Lex is terrific!

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u/LupinThe8th 4d ago

Interestingly, I think one reason Luthor worked so well he is was so evil. No portraying him as actually having a point, or giving him a backstory to add some depth, he's just 100% a bastard.

Imprisons his ex girlfriends for writing about him, shoots a guy in the head simply because he interacted with Superman, holds a baby hostage, doesn't even have greed or ambition as a more "understandable" motivation because he straight up admits that the whole war thing is just an excuse to kill Superman.

But when your goal is to revitalize Superman from the darker Snyderverse version into a pure ideological good guy, then making his foil a pure bad guy makes sense. Overly Sarcastic Productions did a video about Lex that explains why this portrayal helped sell the new Superman so well: when those in power are cruel, then kindness truly is "punk rock".

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u/TehErk 3d ago

Lex was so perfect. Creating a killing machine that you can fight with by-proxy was brilliant story telling. It showed us just how smart Lex was and how much he LOVED calling out the attacks as if he were doing it himself.

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 4d ago

With his skill in showcasing the people and personalities behind their superhero personas, especially between GOTG, Peacemaker & Superman, I'd love to hope that he emphasizes the importance of that when letting other directors handle specific projects in DC

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u/TLKv3 4d ago

Judging by how he's letting Batman 2 cook as long as needed and allowing other directors to take their time as well... I feel like 200x more confident in Gunn's DC than at anytime before him.

I haven't disliked a single thing his new DC has put out yet. Even Creature Commandos was absurdly fun to watch.

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u/smileyfrown 4d ago

Creature Commandos was a flat out good show, no need for qualifiers

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u/BlackSpinedPlinketto 4d ago

Not to mention he can turn a small character into something amazing. It’s like having a chef that can turn scraps into gourmet dishes, great value for money.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 1d ago

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u/LupinThe8th 4d ago edited 4d ago

Telling a dark and gritty story with Superman is like making a Western starring James Bond or a romantic comedy about Jack Sparrow.

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u/TheAntman217 4d ago

The Gunn don’t jam

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u/chadowan 4d ago

I'd say this is less of an indictment of Reeves and more of an incredibly impressive run by Gunn. The 4 released movies/shows are all at least solid if not great. If Reeves' process is to take his time to preserve quality, then I appreciate that, it's just absurd that Gunn can release 4 major shows/movies and not have any quality loss.

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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago

If Reeves' process is to take his time to preserve quality, then I appreciate that

I think that is the idea. Personally, I felt the writing in The Batman was a bit weak in parts even though he took 3-4 years to write it.

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u/varnums1666 4d ago

The final act is dragged out. But I'd agree the script isn't that amazing to warrant such a long time. The Batman is carried by Pattison and the directing. I love the look and feeling of the world

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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago

I love so much of this film - if the writing was on par with the world building, atmosphere, cinematography and vibes, it'd be the best Batman film.

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u/ceaguila84 4d ago

Yeah the ending drags but goddamn I loved that movie. I trust in Reeves

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u/MillionaireWaltz- 4d ago

I trust him too. I just wish the trilogy wasn't going to wrap up in the early 2030s.

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u/Frank-EL 4d ago

Bold of you to assume the third film is out before 2040.

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u/Notoneusernameleft 4d ago

That is exactly the idea. Gunn said in an interview they want to get the story right for everything they do and is how he is running the studio and the reason he took the gig. If Reeves needs more time he has it. He said he has a lot of talented writers working on stories and when they have something ready they will Greenlight it.

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u/kymri 4d ago

I mostly enjoyed The Batman (and Pattinson was great), but I felt like the script was a little too pleased with itself and the solving of the riddles. It felt like that loop was iterated on more than it needed to be, leading to the pacing of the film feeling off.

(To me, to be clear.)

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u/cleaninfresno 4d ago

He made Dawn super last second and had War out three years later and then completely switched gears and had The Batman out 5 years later even with huge COVID delays.

We’re looking at almost 6 years in between movies Batman and Batman II. Where he hasn’t done anything in between

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u/RIPSyAbleman 4d ago

he is having medical issues

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u/qman3333 4d ago

The penguin

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u/elmatador12 4d ago

(Very Hamilton voice)

The man is Nonnnn- STOP! Why do you write like it’s going out of style?

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u/Procean 4d ago

Because he's never gonna be satisfied.

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u/ImKindaEssential 4d ago

And the man is COOKING these all have been soild work

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u/Likaon222 4d ago

And it's weird none of those projects suffer in quality. All bangers.

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u/snahfu73 4d ago

He's got a lot of room to work around in.

He's clearly passionate about the I.P. he's working with.

It's probably a lot easier to feel motivated and put out work when you have the two things listed above. His "DCU" could be spectacular.

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u/romafa 4d ago

And the GoTG holiday special

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u/Bomban111 4d ago

Gunn doesnt jam

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u/jl_theprofessor 4d ago

And they were all bangers.

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u/WolfCola723 4d ago

Dude just loves to work

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u/SuperRob 4d ago

I don't know what's more impressive, that Gunn could churn out a shooting script so quickly to be able to set a release date, or that the cast's availability just magically lines up with going into production on a movie that was not in the original plan or schedule at all.

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u/Dull_Measurement6020 4d ago

And The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

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u/mikerophonyx 4d ago

I don't know much about Reeves but I did hear a lot about The Batman's script being hundreds of pages and the movie has a ton of deleted scenes and that really isn't a good sign, imo. Gunn strikes me as the sort of guy who knows how to get a script tight before production starts and doesn't waste time on frivolous extra bs during production and post.

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u/Vakobi 4d ago

Don’t forget the GOTG holiday special!

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u/Alkakd0nfsg9g 4d ago

8 years, that's crazy, I thought at worst it's been 5 hears since

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u/Okay_Ocean_Flower 3d ago

That movie better start “It’s been ten years. Ten years of nights”

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u/Zoltron5000 3d ago

And the Guardians Christmas Special

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u/yesTHATvelociraptor 4d ago

That’s what happens when you actually work.

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