With roughly two years to go until it is unleashed on the world, Marvel Studios appears close to locking down a director for Guardians Of The Galaxy. And, in the company tradition of choosing non-obvious candidates, the front-runner appears to be Slither / Super’s James Gunn.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gunn is now the primary pick to call the shots, beating out the likes of Yes Man’s Peyton Reed and in an even more unlikely move, Half Nelson’s Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, though any of the list could get called up if Gunn doesn’t work out a deal.
Given the OTT nature of the Guardians – the team is, after all, made up of characters including the weapon-toting Rocket Raccoon and Thanos-obsessed green warrior Drax The Destroyer – Gunn seems to be an interesting choice to oversee the result, especially given his history with Troma.
Naturally, he’ll be guided by the likes of Marvel’s Kevin Feige and other members of its growing “Brain Trust”, including Joss Whedon. But we’re definitely intrigued to see what the man who made Super will do with a big budget and actual super heroes.
With Chris McCoy re-writing a script originated by Nicole Perlman, we figure Gunn – who wrote the two Scooby Doo movies (we’ll forgive him for that) and usually writes his films – will have some hefty input into the script if he makes a deal.
Guardians Of The Galaxy is currently set for an August, 2014 release. Gunn most recently worked on a segment of long-delayed comedy shorts anthology Movie 43.