Marvel provided me on an all expense paid trip to attend the junket and interview some of the cast and crew of Guardians of the Galaxy for #GuardiansOfTheGalaxyEvent.
Congratulations to James Gunn on the success of Guardians of the Galaxy movie. His passion and love for the movie shines through on his success and the love and respect that his cast had for him. Listening to him talk about the movie with such genuine love and enthusiasm was really neat. His eyes lit up and his smile was so gigantic and genuine. James is the director and co-writer of the movie. He finds something special in each outcast/main character in the movie. He sees that even though each character doesn’t fit in, they team up and become members of an unlikely group to save the universe.
As James walks in to the room he starts laughing and sees all of our iPhones laying on the table where he is about to sit. He starts off with saying, “I didn’t know it was gonna be so many people. So many iPhones. You guys have been tweeting me and I love it, I love it. Yeah, I love it.
Since we had heard about James Gunn and his great dance scene that he had his cast do that was the first thing we had to ask him. He said “Yeah, I do. Kevin Bacon is a great national hero. I love dancing, I love pop music. I love super heroes and I love space adventures. I love raccoons. So I have all the things I love in one movie.”
Credit: MeetKristy.com
The interview then began with some great questions and here are some of the highlights:
Question: Does Kevin Bacon know about this?
James: He knows that I love him. Kevin was in my last movie. And he doesn’t know it, so we’ve got to keep it quiet. Uh, yeah, I know, I don’t think he knows yet. And I was supposed to invited him to the New York premiere. And someone reminded him I didn’t do it. But, uh, so maybe I’ll text him after I get out of here. But I’m excited, for him to see it.
Question: What drew you to Guardians?
James: I think the main thing that drew me to GUARDIANS was the ability to create a whole new wing of the Marvel universe. I would find a very difficult time, say making a, a sequel to another Marvel movie. Or even making another earthbound Marvel movie that’s leading into, directly into The Avengers, because you’re working so much within the world that’s already been created.
New characters, new species…and I found that to be just the most freeing thing ever. When I was a little boy, I had a box. And this box, I was sort of obsessed with…I was obsessed with the solar system and all the different planets. And I would make drawings for each one of the different planets, of the species that lived on that planet. What their pets were and what their houses looked like, what their water systems were like. And this box became filled over time with this sort of universe inside of it, that I created. And that is, that’s where my heart was. And that’s still where my heart is. Because that’s what this movie is.
Question: Who’s your favorite Guardian and why?
James: The one I feel the most connected to is Rocket. Although I think that Rocket is the meanest Guardian, I think he’s the most selfish Guardian. I think he’s probably the Guardian that learns the least at the end of the movie. It’s very strange. Very strange I connected ’cause I started to get emotional. He’s just this little mangled guy that is completely alone in this world. There’s nothing else like him, he’s been torn apart and put back together again. He was originally an innocent little animal, I love animals to begin with. So he’s just a, you know, I’ve come to love him. And, and I think probably also because, you know, I probably had the greatest time in creating Rocket over any of the other Guardians. Rocket and Groot both. Because that really, you know, unlike you know, Star-Lord, Chris and I have to be on the same level. And see that we see things in the same way. I write his dialogue, he says it. I pull this stuff out of him, he adds stuff. We’re creating a character together, with Rocket, and there’s a lot more people involved. It’s, it’s much more like conducting a symphony, within one character. To, to make somebody alive and so they tend — you know, it tends to become more of a real character to me.
Question: With the Marvel cinematic universe expanding exponentially, Any there any couple characters you’d like to see together in a story? Or in a movie?
James: I would love to tell the Rocket and Groot story for sure. Yeah, I love them. But you know, at the same time, I’d love to tell the, to do the Drax movie, you know. I’d love to do the Gamora film. I think they’re all interesting enough to me. I want to do the Nebula film. It’s something I actually think about a lot.
Question: In the Guardians comics there is a lot of interplay with the Avengers. Was there any interconnection or conversations that you had with Joss Wheedon, on what he has done or is doing, with the Avengers?
James: Yes, for sure. I would talk to Joss ’cause I didn’t want to do anything that was gonna contradict future plans. The one piece of connective tissue is Thanos. He’s the guy who’s at the end of The Avengers. He will likely show up in future Marvel movies.
Question: Were there hilarious antics that took place while filming?
Jason: well, one of our great moments was in the dance of. We didn’t tell Dave Bautista. I said, to Chris and Zoe, and I said — no, to Lee Pace, and Chris and Zoe. Lee Pace who plays Ronan. And I said, “When Chris challenges you to a dance-off, you know, take him up on it.” And so Chris started dancing. And then Ronan goes, “You got it, pal, you’re on!”
And he throws down his hammer and he’s doing this ridiculous dance that his six foot five frame in this gigantic metal object could do. And he’s dancing, and then Gamora starts dancing. And then they turn it over to Dave and Dave is like, “Oh, no.” And he did it, he did, he just started dancing and then, we had about 200 extras on set or something. And all of them started dancing, my brother who plays Rocket on set, started dancing. And I have it all on film, it’s one of my favorite things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’ll be on the DVD, for sure.
Question: Why did you go with Yondu instead of Major Victory as seen in the Vol 2 comics?
Jason: (laughs loudly) Wow. Uh, you know, it’s simply because I love Yondu’s super power. I thought Yondu’s super power’s about the coolest thing ever. And it’s so different from any super power we’ve ever seen in any movie, that I’m like, I think this is something that could really be cinematic. So that’s, that’s the main thing that attracted me to Yondu. And also, my friend — Michael Rooker is my friend who plays Yondu. He’s unfortunately my friend, I’m stuck with him. I thought that I really wanted the chance to write a character for Michael. because he’s always playing these, these tough guys, these hard guys. And these sort of humorless guys. I wanted to get that part of Michael that is that big laughing, like sort of insane maniac that he is. And you know, have that be a part of a character. And, and I felt like with Yondu I was able to do that.
From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor,
Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team—the Guardians of the Galaxy. An
action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel
Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object -21-14
of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain
with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is
forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon,
Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the
Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the
cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the
galaxy’s fate in the balance.
Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which first appeared in comic books in Marvel Super-Heroes,
Issue #18 (Jan. 1969), stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, featuring Vin Diesel as
Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou,
with John C. Reilly, Glenn Close as Nova Prime and Benicio Del Toro as The Collector.
James Gunn is the director of the film with Kevin Feige, p.g.a., producing. Louis D’Esposito, Alan
Fine, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Nik Korda and Stan Lee serve as executive producers.
Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”