Universal PicturesOne of the many, many surprising things about Marvel's upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy - despite it being a property even most nerds haven't heard of, it stars Vin Diesel as a tree and Bradley Cooper as a raccoon, and a bald Amy Pond - is who's in the director seat. James Gunn has had an interesting career, penning the screenplays to Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remake and the two Scooby Doo movies, which... aren't all that similar. In 2009 he directed Super, which saw Office star Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page team up as a pair of mentally ill people who decide to become superheroes, with disastrous results (it's basically the black comedy version of Kick-Ass). The biggest sign that Gunn is a totally bizarre choice for Guardians of the Galaxy, however, might be his 2006 directorial debut Slither. A semi-remake of eighties flick Night Of The Creeps, this fantastically gross and gory horror-comedy saw a small South Carolina town dealing with an alien invasion which takes the form of slugs that invade people's bodies and turn them into terrifying monsters (like The Walking Dead star Michael Rooker, barely recognisable above). It's not a film that would've appealed to a particularly wide audience anyway, but it certainly would've made back it's relatively humble - for Hollywood - budget of $30 million if it had only been given a chance. Except, according to Gunn, it wasn't. Considered a "a box office flop" whose performance "might have killed off the horror-comedy genre for the near future," Slither has since become something of a cult classic, which wasn't for want of trying on the studio's behalf. Not only did Universal barely advertise the film, it didn't really know how to advertise the film, says the director: "the film was difficult to market. It was a mixture of genres the horror film, the independent black comedy, the gross-out film and that was difficult for people to understand through a two minute trailer."
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
Universal PicturesOne of the many, many surprising things about Marvel's upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy - despite it being a property even most nerds haven't heard of, it stars Vin Diesel as a tree and Bradley Cooper as a raccoon, and a bald Amy Pond - is who's in the director seat. James Gunn has had an interesting career, penning the screenplays to Zack Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remake and the two Scooby Doo movies, which... aren't all that similar. In 2009 he directed Super, which saw Office star Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page team up as a pair of mentally ill people who decide to become superheroes, with disastrous results (it's basically the black comedy version of Kick-Ass). The biggest sign that Gunn is a totally bizarre choice for Guardians of the Galaxy, however, might be his 2006 directorial debut Slither. A semi-remake of eighties flick Night Of The Creeps, this fantastically gross and gory horror-comedy saw a small South Carolina town dealing with an alien invasion which takes the form of slugs that invade people's bodies and turn them into terrifying monsters (like The Walking Dead star Michael Rooker, barely recognisable above). It's not a film that would've appealed to a particularly wide audience anyway, but it certainly would've made back it's relatively humble - for Hollywood - budget of $30 million if it had only been given a chance. Except, according to Gunn, it wasn't. Considered a "a box office flop" whose performance "might have killed off the horror-comedy genre for the near future," Slither has since become something of a cult classic, which wasn't for want of trying on the studio's behalf. Not only did Universal barely advertise the film, it didn't really know how to advertise the film, says the director: "the film was difficult to market. It was a mixture of genres the horror film, the independent black comedy, the gross-out film and that was difficult for people to understand through a two minute trailer."