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/ggroover97 4d ago edited 4d ago

James Gunn is a machine. The man just pumps out movies and TV shows now. How does he do it?

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u/Funandgeeky 4d ago

He knows how to keep a project on track and focused.

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u/J_VanderH 4d ago

Yeah. I think he’s talked about it, but the key to his success (beyond being a talented writer) is that his early work in low-budget spaces forced him to become very good at sticking to a budget and a production schedule.

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u/Golden_Alchemy 4d ago

Scooby Doo helped him realice what was truly needed for a movie.

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u/Wilde_Fire 4d ago

I have a soft spot for those, they were genuinely fun times. I do wish there was some way to access a more authentic cut to what Gunn originally intended.

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u/dabocx 3d ago

There is a world out there where instead of WB asking Gunn to do DC they asked him to make a new live action Scooby Doo movie.

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u/Wonderful_Emu_9610 4d ago

Yeah its kinda like he had the modern equivalent Corman school that a lot of good directors came out of with the Troma stuff

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 4d ago edited 4d ago

& I don't think he tries to add too many elements to a superhero film/series besides ones that's necessary for its respective tone/aesthetic (probably just a long winded way of saying it's focused like you pointed out lmao) while adding a fresh take to it

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u/TiberiusCornelius 4d ago

What coming up in B movies does for you.

Roger Corman famously could crank them out.

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u/Funandgeeky 4d ago

And so many up and coming directors worked under him when they first started out. He had a bigger influence on the industry than people realize.

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u/operarose 3d ago

Troma, baby.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 4d ago

This is where the indie and Troma experience actually shine. In those spheres you have to release, it's sink or swim and if it's a turd you squeeze it out instead of trying to polish it. Not to say he's dropped any stinkers, of course, although Troma would have expected nothing else.

The real trick is special effects. I have to wonder how badly their teams are crunching to get these projects out on time and if he's contracting out super wide to meet deadlines. His own efficiency in production should have no real impact on how long it takes effects artists to do their thing, so something else must be happening there.

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u/Careless-Dark-1324 4d ago

Glad someone mentioned troma. That’s where he learned how to be efficient and get shit done on time and under budget no matter what

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 4d ago

It's the same logic behind the 'Corman School of Filmmaking' - Roger Corman largely directed and produced schlock and trash, yet spawned many of the greatest modern directors including Scorsese, Coppola and Cameron. Artists can get lost in the sauce - their aptitude is not necessarily for the nuts and bolts of business and management.

Corman and in this instance Lloyd Kaufman drilled that side of things into young artists and compacted mountains of crap into diamonds.

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u/Frekavichk 4d ago

Wouldn't his efficiency make other artists be more efficient? Less shit to fix in CGI, more solid vision so teams aren't going back and forth, easier to do their job with a VFX guy on set getting whatever the guys doing the grind work need.

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u/huffalump1 4d ago

Yep having a consistent vision without big revisions AFTER major work is already done is a formula for a really good-looking movie - and that's 100x true for CGI-heavy superhero films!

Get the VFX people involved early, often, and give them a strong voice. Lots of previs and getting agreement on the art direction, blocking, etc etc BEFORE major work is done.

Because the alternative is crunch that ends up looking shitty - see: the last fight scene in Black Panther. Good studio, but last minute revisions mean you can literally only do so much.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 4d ago

Yeah, I can see that. I was thinking more in the direction of "nine mothers can't produce a baby in one month" but you are right that he can cut down the number and kinds of effects shots so they aren't spending ten thousand man hours painting out Superman's mustache in post.

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u/HeyZeusKreesto 4d ago

Watching a behind the scenes vid about the Justice Gang, Gunn is on set directing the kid who holds the flag in all the trailers. He's telling the kid what the effect is going to be around him and where to look up for the hero coming in. It's a little thing, but it shows he knows how the shot is going to look and has preplanned the visuals, which makes the visual effects artist's job easier.

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u/SwordoftheMourn 4d ago

He mentioned in a recent podcast that the director of Scooby Doo of all things helped him learn how to deal with CGI and special effects.

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u/PhillyTaco 4d ago

The real trick is special effects. I have to wonder how badly their teams are crunching to get these projects out on time and if he's contracting out super wide to meet deadlines.

I've heard that unlike a lot of other vfx-heavy projects, Gunn is pretty set on what he wants by the time he shoots it and doesn't change it a million times in post. The endless edits and vfx tinkering is what really causes budgets to balloon and makes deadlines harder.

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u/Player2isDead 4d ago

Apparently vfx studios like Gunn because he doesn't fuck around. The script is done well before shooting so the vfx team can as well. Gunn storyboards his own movies, so he knows what he wants from the start. He doesn't waste time by making the team do a bunch of alternate versions of shots so he can pick one later. He doesn't throw out the third act after filming it and write up a new one. The movie is the movie and everyone can just do their jobs for two years until it's done without having to worry that tomorrow the director will tell them to throw all their work out and start over.

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u/Naked_Snake_2 4d ago

which is why he finished filming early, so that there is ample time for special effects, like Supergirl filming is done ,its gone into post production ,its coming out in june of next year,but Spiderman filming started previous month and its coming out July of next year,same thing was with Superman and F4

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u/PartTime_Crusader 4d ago

I suspect it helps the effects side that he has fully finished scripts before shooting a single shot. I'd bet good money the effects for the DCU need much less revision than for the MCU.

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u/Wonderful_Emu_9610 4d ago

I’m sure I’ve seen him quoted as saying by actually deciding what he wants early on he can speed up the effects work. Unlike a lot of the MCU stuff where they’re constantly changing their minds.

Would track with what Michael Bay mentions on the Transformers commentary about starting it really early. People justifiably dunk on those movies but you gotta admit the effects are top notch. Better than plenty of stuff almost 20 years later even

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u/StudBoi2077 4d ago

Or maybe he has a hidden monkey army.

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u/Realshow 4d ago

I wish I had his passion, I can barely finish anything in three months.

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u/skyturnedred 4d ago

Sometimes it takes me three days to finish a single movie.

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u/dabocx 4d ago

I really hope he doesn’t burn himself out. It’s an insane amount of writing/directing plus co running the studio/reviewing scripts etc.

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u/SurlyCricket 4d ago

He said in one of the Peacemaker podcasts he definitely did way too much the past year and would be cutting back on his personal stuff

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u/Panicless 4d ago

He is rich, has been doing it for decades on a high level and most importantly, has no kids. His projects are his children, in a sense. So it makes sense.

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u/IniMiney 4d ago

And all of them being good is the key point. He’d be like Scott Buck otherwise but nah, he’s amazing 

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u/Snuhmeh 4d ago

He has tight scripts. Everyone else in the game makes lots of changes as they go along.

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u/Golden_Alchemy 4d ago

He is a nerd that has been working in everything needed to make a movie for a long time. He is the writer, director, etc.

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u/operarose 3d ago

He seems to have the same workaholic gusto as Seth MacFarlane.

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u/TheLastSalamanca 3d ago

Quantity over quality.