If there’s one thing that puts me in a worse mood than politics, it’s Hollywood, which never fails to disappoint in its stupidity and its arrogance.
I watched the new preview for “Superman” from director James Gunn. As you may know, I’m not a huge James Gunn fan. His work on &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy” is fine, when he engages in ridiculous, gonzo humor. But elsewhere?
Back in the day, Gunn’s old jokey and ugly tweets were resurfaced. Based on those old tweets, he was actually fired by Marvel. I publicly supported the idea that he should be rehired because people shouldn&#8217;t be canceled based on jokes they made back when Twitter was a jokier platform.
But now he&#8217;s directing the new “Superman” movie and the preview sucks. It&#8217;s bad. It’s terrible.
In the preview, Superman is wounded and lying on the snow, then whistles for Krypto, the Superdog, who arrives and then proceeds to beat the living hell out of him for over a minute. He&#8217;s screaming in pain as Krypto jumps on him and continues to fight him.
I don&#8217;t see the purpose of this; it’s not dramatic. It&#8217;s just silly and ridiculous.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2173-fallout-stock-market-drops-trump-pushes-on-member-exclusive?row=2&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Finally, Krypto figures out that he needs to take Superman back to the Fortress of Solitude. Every James Gunn joke is a Monty Python gag that lasts three times too long. So now Krypto is dragging Superman&#8217;s prone body through the snow back toward the Fortress of Solitude, which arises from the Arctic. And it&#8217;s a cool-looking Fortress of Solitude.
But don&#8217;t worry, it gets worse.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Superman | Sneak Peek" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xFU8U4UVUBs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Once Superman is brought inside, a team of robots, presumably of Kryptonian origin, starts to handle him and then they have one of the most nonsensical exchanges in any James Gunn movie. They say robots have no feelings, and then the female robot starts giggling like a little girl.
The entire attitude is wrong. The gold standard for a “Superman” movie remains the original “Superman” from 1978, by far the best “Superman” movie. It was significantly better than “Man of Steel” because it understood in the first half that there&#8217;s a solemnity to Superman, that he is supposed to be the embodiment of America, and then the second half of the movie shifted into a more comic-book, humorous mode. The color palette was very rich and very bright.
In “Man of Steel,” they basically desaturated the entire film so the entire color palette was grayscale and kind of ugly and dark and the entire character of Superman was much darker.
The attitude of the preview is totally wrong. It&#8217;s just “Guardians of the Galaxy” in a Superman suit, and it ticks me off, it really does. As a lifelong fan of the Superman brand, it&#8217;s not that hard to get Superman right. He&#8217;s supposed to be the embodiment of everything cool and heroic about America. And of course, he&#8217;s supposed to be charming as well. That&#8217;s the whole shtick.
So you don&#8217;t need full-scale James Gunn. He makes Superman the same as Chris Pratt&#8217;s character in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and all the jokes are the same as the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies. It&#8217;s silly and stupid and bad. Two thumbs down.
Then I discovered that for Greta Gerwig&#8217;s Netflix adaptation of “The Magician&#8217;s Nephew” — the first book in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series — the person who they are thinking about casting as the voice for the lion Aslan — who is obviously a metaphor for Jesus — is Meryl Streep.
This makes no sense at all on a character level. On a metaphorical level, it&#8217;s one of the dumbest things you could possibly do. If you want to alienate the entire C.S. Lewis audience, this is exactly what you should do. Meanwhile, Charli XCX is apparently in talks for the role of the White Witch.
Why are they doing this??
Just adapt the story straight. It&#8217;s not that difficult. It’s a great book. Adapt it straight.
This is the same as that ridiculous suggestion a while back that Cynthia Erivo was going to be cast in “Jesus Christ Superstar” as Jesus.
Stop with this stuff. Stop it. Just stop. It&#8217;s stupid and it&#8217;s insulting and it&#8217;s gross and you would never do this with any other religion. You wouldn&#8217;t.
It&#8217;s ridiculous and annoying and demonstrative of how Hollywood spits on people who don&#8217;t believe the things they believe, and then takes classic intellectual property from those spaces and uses it against them.

CinemaCon 2025 – Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation – Inside

Superman, Jesus, And Hollywood Stupidity

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The first trailer for the new “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/superman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Superman</a>” movie has finally dropped, and between the iconic John Williams theme music and the action packed clip, everyone is getting excited to see it.
On Thursday, DC Studios shared the two-minute plus <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhUht6vAsMY">trailer</a> on YouTube and it quickly became the top trending video on the site with more than 9 million views and counting at the time of this publication.
The first shot shows Superman, aka Clark Kent, played by David Corenswet, all bloody and bruised after landing hard on a frozen landscape, as he wheezes and gasps for air.
Help soon arrives from his trusty four-legged sidekick Krypto as Superman utters one of the few words in the entire clip, “Take Me Home.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Superman | Official Teaser Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uhUht6vAsMY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The new superhero film comes from writer-director James Gunn &#8212; known for the hit “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
“It&#8217;s not just Clark. It&#8217;s not just Superman,” Gunn said at the trailer reveal, per <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/superman-james-gunn-trailer-dc-characters-krypto-luthor">IGN</a>. “It&#8217;s Clark/Superman. And the only people that know Clark/Superman are his mom and his dad and a few others who know who he is, and those are very different things.”
“People said all sorts of different things,” he added. “They said, ‘Clark&#8217;s the real one.’ They said, ‘Superman&#8217;s the real one and Clark&#8217;s the secret identity.’ But I don&#8217;t &#8211; and it says it in my script on the second page &#8211; I don&#8217;t believe either of those things. I don&#8217;t think anybody knows Superman unless they know both of him. And when they know both of him, they know the real guy. And that means not too many people.”
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Speaking to members of the press at the trailer launch, Gunn also talked about incorporating the goodness of the Man of Steel as a representative of the U.S.A., <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/superman-trailer-james-gunn-movie-1236089850/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think that’s what ‘Take me home&#8217; is all about,&#8221; Gunn said. “We do have sort of a battered vision of Superman at the beginning, and I think that is our country.”
“I believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like for the other side, no matter what that other side might be,” he added.
The video is full of action with familiar faces of the franchise both good and evil, like Lois Lane, Mr. Terrific, and Hawkgirl. Most notable has got to be the new face of villain Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult.
“Lex is really a sort of sorcerer in a way,” Gunn previously told <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/superman-james-gunn-trailer-dc-characters-krypto-luthor">reporters</a>. &#8220;He&#8217;s a scientist, but he&#8217;s so good at science and I think of him as like a sorcerer.”
“Superman” hits theaters next summer on July 11, 2025.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-one-loves-to-be-harassed-james-gunn-replies-to-haters-after-backlash-over-wonder-woman-sequel-henry-cavill-exit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘No One Loves To Be Harassed’: James Gunn Replies To Haters After Backlash Over ‘Wonder Woman’ Sequel, Henry Cavill Exit</a>

First Trailer For ‘Superman’ Finally Drops, And Fans Are Very Excited

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&#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3&#8221; is set to hit theaters this week — and at least one of the stars has said that she feels like mourning has already set in as the franchise&#8217;s final chapter begins to make its way in the world.
Pom Klementieff, who played the role of Mantis in Volumes 2 and 3, said Friday that she has already begun to feel the impact of the series coming to a close — and that sometimes, the smallest things can trigger an intense emotional reaction.
Writer and director James Gunn outed Klementieff during a recent virtual press conference ahead of the film&#8217;s release, noting that he had been on a plane with several members of the &#8220;Guardians&#8221; cast — including Star Lord actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-pratt-talks-getting-rejected-was-never-gonna-audition-for-marvel-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Pratt</a> and Nebula actress Karen Gillan in addition to Klementieff — when she had burst into tears over what they all thought was a simple accident.
Gunn began by blaming the entire situation on Pratt, saying, &#8220;We are on the plane. You know Chris, Chris is a clumsy oaf, okay? He comes in. We&#8217;re taking off. He has a coffee — there&#8217;s a cup holder right there. He doesn&#8217;t put his coffee in the cup holder. He puts it on the armrest.&#8221;
The director went on to explain that Klementieff had gotten on the plane with a really &#8220;cool looking&#8221; purse — which the actress confirmed had been &#8220;very expensive&#8221; — and that Pratt&#8217;s apparent inability to use a cup holder may have ruined it.
Gunn joked that the only explanation for what happened next was that perhaps Pratt had never flown before — because the coffee he&#8217;d placed on the armrest tipped over, spilling all over Klementieff&#8217;s &#8220;expensive, beautiful purse that we&#8217;ve all been complimenting for a week.&#8221;
&#8220;Pom&#8217;s a little irritated with Chris, as she should be. And, you know, we clean it up, and then we&#8217;re flying for another, I don&#8217;t know, maybe, you know, 10 minutes,&#8221; Gunn continued, adding that seemingly out of the blue, the actress suddenly began to cry a short while later.
&#8220;And she goes, &#8216;I&#8217;m so sad.&#8217; And Chris and I look at each other and go, &#8216;You really screwed up,'&#8221; Gunn said. &#8220;We thought she was sad about her purse getting wet.&#8221;
But Klementieff&#8217;s reaction apparently had nothing to do with the purse. &#8220;I feel like something is ending,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s funny because I wanted to hide in the bathroom and cry because &#8230; it&#8217;s like mourning, you know, sometimes it just comes at unexpected moments, and you just can&#8217;t control it. And it&#8217;s the beauty of it too, you know, it just comes like that, and I couldn&#8217;t contain it, and I wanted to hide in the bathroom to cry, but Karen was in the bathroom.&#8221;
WATCH:
<section id="cb-1a2849451ba982d1b7877a64b56bf188" class="canvas-block canvas-block-permalink canvas-text-block canvas-text-block-permalink ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3V5KDHRQvk
</section>

World Premiere Of Marvel Studios’ “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” – Arrivals

‘It’s Like Mourning’: ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Star Reveals What Set Her Off As The Trilogy Wrapped

'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Star Pom Klementieff Reveals What Set Her Off As The Trilogy Wrapped

&#8220;Shazam&#8221; star Zachary Levi said he almost didn&#8217;t try out for a role in the latest superhero film from DC because at the time he was in a &#8220;dark place&#8221; and undergoing &#8220;life-saving therapy.&#8221;
During the 42-year-old actor&#8217;s recent appearance on &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaJ-eB6fVxY">The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon</a>,&#8221; Levi said during this &#8220;super intensive&#8221; therapy he was encouraged by a casting exec to try out.
&#8220;I was in kind of a dark place in my life at that point,&#8221; the superhero star said. &#8220;And then fast-forward about a month and a half later, and I&#8217;m in this super intensive, life-saving therapy, and I learned how to love myself, really, for the first time in my life, and I have this whole breakthrough.&#8221;
The &#8220;Shazam! Fury of the Gods&#8221; star then turned to the audience and said &#8220;By the way, go love yourself. If you learn nothing else today, go love yourself, go love yourself, go love yourself, okay?&#8221;
He explained that even though he told his agents he was going to be &#8220;off grid&#8221; for a bit to work on himself, two in a half weeks into this therapy they told him about a supporting role in the movie &#8220;Shazam.&#8221;
WATCH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaJ-eB6fVxY
He said he decided to go cause he was feeling &#8220;good about himself&#8221; after two weeks into the therapy, ended up &#8220;doing one take&#8221; and sent in the audition tape.
&#8220;And in the course of basically one week, I ended up going from auditioning for this whole other role to them saying, &#8216;Hey, we think you&#8217;re our Shazam,'&#8221; Levi explained.
&#8220;They flew me to Los Angeles,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I had done all my therapy that I needed to do. I go to L.A. I audition and within one week I was Shazam.&#8221;
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&#8220;I just think it&#8217;s indicative of when we do the real work to heal ourselves, and help other people heal themselves, that&#8217;s where all the good stuff comes from,&#8221; the actor continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s where that blessing landed in my life.&#8221;
The &#8220;Shazam&#8221; sequel is the first superhero film to be released under the leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran who recently took over as heads of DC studios.
Gunn recently hinted at what kind of movies/TV projects he and Safran have planned at the studio, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/james-gunn-teases-plans-for-upcoming-dc-movies-tv-projects">reported</a>.
&#8220;One of the things of the DCU is that it&#8217;s not just a story of heroes and villains,&#8221; Gunn explained. &#8220;Not every film and TV show is going to be about good guy versus bad guy, giant things from the sky comes and good guy wins. There are white hats, black hats, and grey hats.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/james-gunn-teases-plans-for-upcoming-dc-movies-tv-projects">James Gunn Teases Plans For Upcoming DC Movies/TV Projects</a>

Zachary Levi-2

‘Dark Place’: ‘Shazam’ Star Says He Almost Didn’t Try Out For Role Because He Was Undergoing ‘Life-Saving Therapy’

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Actor <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/are-you-all-right-this-morning-dunkin-donuts-drops-outtakes-from-ben-affleck-super-bowl-ad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Affleck</a> says he won&#8217;t direct any DC movies under new studio head James Gunn — despite previous plans to direct a Batman film after donning the crusader&#8217;s cape himself.
Affleck explained his position in an <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/ben-affleck-air-production-company-grammys-memes-justice-league-1235353301/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> published Thursday by The Hollywood Reporter, saying that doing &#8220;Justice League&#8221; had changed his perspective on the superhero film genre in general, leaving &#8220;the most monstrous taste&#8221; in his mouth.
&#8220;You could teach a seminar on all the reasons why this is how not to do it,&#8221; Affleck said of making &#8220;Justice League. &#8220;Ranging from production to bad decisions to horrible personal tragedy, and just ending with the most monstrous taste in my mouth. The genius, and the silver lining, is that Zack Snyder eventually went to AT&amp;T and was like, &#8216;Look, I can get you four hours of content.'&#8221;
<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/ben-affleck-questions-netflixs-assembly-line-filmmaking-process-how-can-they-make-50-great-movies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Affleck</a> went on to say that the extra &#8220;content&#8221; Snyder had provided was mostly slow motion he had shot in black-and-white — along with one day when Affleck says they shot in Snyder&#8217;s backyard.
&#8220;He was like, &#8216;Do you want to come shoot in my backyard?&#8217; I was like, &#8216;I think there are unions, Zack. I think we have to make a deal.&#8217; But I went and did it. And now [Zack Snyder’s Justice League] is my highest-rated movie on IMDb,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Retroactively, it’s a hit. All of a sudden I was getting congratulated for the bomb I’m in,&#8221; Affleck continued, adding that his experience on &#8220;Justice League&#8221; was what made him decide he was not going to direct a Batman film after all. &#8220;[It] made me go, &#8216;I’m out. I never want to do any of this again. I’m not suited.&#8217; That was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in a business which is full of some sh***y experiences. It broke my heart.&#8221;
Lamenting the constant use of green screens, adding, &#8220;You want to go to work and find something interesting to hang onto, rather than just wearing a rubber suit, and most of it you’re just standing against the computer screen going, &#8216;If this nuclear waste gets loose, we’ll …'&#8221;
When asked whether he&#8217;d consider coming back to direct a DC movie, Affleck was adamant. &#8220;I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that.&#8221;

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Ben Affleck

Actress <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/sarah-michelle-gellar-recalls-extremely-toxic-male-set-from-earlier-in-her-career/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sarah Michelle Gellar</a> revealed in a recent interview that she was supposed to kiss costar Linda Cardellini in the 2002 film &#8220;Scooby-Doo&#8221; — but that the scene had been cut from the final release along with a joke &#8220;outing&#8221; Freddie Prinze Jr.&#8217;s character as potentially bisexual.
Gellar, who played Daphne in the movie alongside Cardellini&#8217;s <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/mindy-kalings-woke-velma-makes-history-for-its-dismal-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Velma</a>, told Bravo&#8217;s Andy Cohen on Thursday that they had actually filmed the steamy scene only to see it cut — and according to script author James Gunn, his original intent had been to go much further than a kiss.
&#8220;In 2001, Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script. But the studio just kept watering it down and watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) and finally having a boyfriend (the sequel),&#8221; Gunn said of the project.
Gellar confirmed that vision during the &#8220;After Show&#8221; portion of Cohen&#8217;s &#8220;Watch What Happens Live&#8221; — saying, &#8220;There was a steamy kiss. It got cut. There was an actual kiss between Daphne and Velma that got cut. I feel like the world wants to see it. I don&#8217;t know where it is.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Sarah Michelle Gellar Reveals Deleted Moments From the Scooby-Doo Movie | WWHL" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zZJngECLCFU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
According to Gellar, the entire movie had been pitched to the main actors — also including Matthew Lillard as &#8220;Shaggy&#8221; — as &#8220;less family friendly&#8221; than the long-running animated series. And for Gellar, that was a key selling point.
She also recalled one specific line that had been cut — a line that had cast ambiguity over Fred&#8217;s sexuality — that she was supposed to deliver during a fight with Prinze Jr.&#8217;s character.
&#8220;There was a great line too that I&#8217;ll never forget. Daphne and Fred were having a fight and I yell at him, &#8216;That ascot makes you look gay!&#8217; I slam the door [at him]. They cut that, too,&#8221; Gellar said. &#8220;I think that was the reason I signed onto the movie. It&#8217;s something everyone’s thought for a long time. There&#8217;s always been an implication about Fred being interested in both parties. It all got cut.&#8221;
The <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/mindy-kalings-scooby-doo-spinoff-velma-trashed-by-fans-saying-its-horrible-not-funny-at-all/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new series</a> on HBOMax, called &#8220;Velma&#8221; and featuring actress Mindy Kaling, has taken Gunn&#8217;s vision and applied it liberally, making the character openly gay.

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Sarah Michelle Gellar Says Her Gay Kiss Scene Was Cut From 'Scooby Doo' Movie

Scooby Doo

&#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; franchise director James Gunn on Tuesday teased his plans for upcoming DC movies and TV projects now that he and Peter Safran are in charge of DC Studios.
In a video posted on Twitter, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-gunn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">56-year-old</a> director shared that their plan is to take those &#8220;diamond characters&#8221; like  &#8220;Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman&#8221; and use them to prop up other characters people don&#8217;t know,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/james-gunn-unveils-dc-slate-batman-superman-1235314176/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hollywood Reporter</a> reported.
&#8220;One of the things of the DCU is that it&#8217;s not just a story of heroes and villains,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-one-loves-to-be-harassed-james-gunn-replies-to-haters-after-backlash-over-wonder-woman-sequel-henry-cavill-exit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gunn</a> explained. &#8220;Not every film and TV show is going to be about good guy verse bad guy, giant things from the sky comes and good guy wins. There are white hats, black hats, and grey hats.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here are just a few of our plans. Up, up, and away! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DCStudios?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DCStudios</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DCU?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DCU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DCComics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DCComics</a> <a href="https://t.co/8XNDNLUEPq">pic.twitter.com/8XNDNLUEPq</a>
&mdash; James Gunn (@JamesGunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1620468379672002565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;2025 is going to be a very big year for DC,&#8221; Safran shared. &#8220;Superman and Batman within the same year.&#8221;
The following is a peek at the what some of the projects will include:
<ol>
<li>An animated series called &#8220;Creature Commandos,&#8221; a modern take on the original version about a team of classic monsters assembled to fight Nazis.</li>
<li>&#8220;Superman: Legacy,&#8221; with Safran promising it&#8217;s not an &#8220;origin story. It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.&#8221;</li>
<li>A movie based on a team of superheroes called &#8220;The Authority.&#8221; &#8220;They are kinda like Jack Nicholson in &#8216;A Few Good Men,'&#8221; Safran added. &#8220;They know that you want them on the wall. Or at least they believe that.&#8221;</li>
<li>A Wonder Woman-focused HBO Max series set in a &#8220;Game of Thrones&#8221; style that will take place in her home of Themyscira.</li>
<li>An &#8220;introduction of the DCU Batman,&#8221; Gunn shared.&#8221;It&#8217;s a very strange father-and-son story,&#8221; that doesn&#8217;t involve Robert Pattinson. However, Pattinson will return at least one more time as the Dark Knight in the DC Universe in a movie titled, &#8220;The Batman Part II.&#8221;</li>
</ol>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/director-canceled-then-uncanceled-by-disney-defends-cancel-culture-its-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gunn</a>, who was temporarily fired by Disney as director of &#8220;Guardians of Galaxy: Vol. 3&#8221; over old tweets that were deemed offensive, made clear he&#8217;s not going to allow cancel culture to direct his projects.
&#8220;Actors, filmmakers that I work with are going to say things that I agree with, and things that I don&#8217;t agree with,&#8221; Gunn explained. &#8220;I can&#8217;t be changing my plans all the time because an actor says something that I don&#8217;t agree with. At the same token, if someone is doing something that is morally reprehensible, that&#8217;s a different story. And we have to take that into account.&#8221;
Disclosure: The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/introducing-dw-kids">announced plans</a> for kids entertainment content.

Warner Bros. Premiere Of “The Suicide Squad” – Arrivals

James Gunn Teases Plans For Upcoming DC Movies/TV Projects

Director and new DC Studios co-head <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/james-gunn-addresses-wonder-woman-3-cancelation-rumors-without-confirming-anything/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Gunn</a> responded on Tuesday to backlash over some of the early decisions that he and fellow co-head Peter Safran had made — namely the decisions not to move ahead with the third installment in the &#8220;Wonder Woman&#8221; franchise and not to bring back actor <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/henry-cavill-will-not-return-to-superman-role-in-new-film-eyed-to-play-different-dc-character-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Henry Cavill</a> as Superman.
Both decisions — coupled with the news that Dwayne &#8220;The Rock&#8221; Johnson&#8217;s &#8220;Black Adam&#8221; would not have a continuing storyline in the DC Universe — raised eyebrows and <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/12/james-gunn-shoots-down-claim-gal-gadot-booted-dc-universe-wonder-woman-3-axing-1235203061/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">angered fans</a> alike, but <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/director-james-gunn-responds-to-calls-to-recast-chris-pratt-over-actors-public-christianity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gunn</a> made it clear that he and Safran were prepared to face the consequences of their decisions.
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It&#39;s official, James Gunn is the Grinch of 2022. 😂 &#8211; No Wonder Woman 3 &#8211; No more Henry Cavill as Superman &#8211; and now THE ROCK just got Jabroni&#39;d <a href="https://t.co/OBKuqOCqbE">https://t.co/OBKuqOCqbE</a>
&mdash; TheresaRockFace (@TheresaRockFace) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheresaRockFace/status/1605596491078213634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Gunn laid out his thought process in a lengthy Twitter thread, explaining that while he and Safran both understood that not all of the decisions they made would be popular, they intended to always move forward with what they believed was best for the studio and stayed true to the characters that had been around for decades.
&#8220;One of the things Peter &amp; I were aware of when we took the job as heads of DC Studios was a certain minority of people online that could be, well, uproarious &amp; unkind, to say the least,&#8221; Gunn began, noting that they had expected backlash and that they were prepared for it to be unpleasant.
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Our choices for the DCU are based upon what we believe is best for the story &amp; best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years. Perhaps these choices are great, perhaps not, but they are made with sincere hearts &amp; integrity &amp; always with the story in mind.
&mdash; James Gunn (@JamesGunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1604929009787146240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
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He went on to explain that backlash, however unkind, would not deter them from doing what they believed was best when it came to honoring the characters&#8217; history and moving the stories forward. He also conceded that they were well aware of the possibility that they could make mistakes in that effort.
&#8220;Our choices for the DCU are based upon what we believe is best for the story &amp; best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years. Perhaps these choices are great, perhaps not, but they are made with sincere hearts &amp; integrity &amp; always with the story in mind,&#8221; he said.
Gunn went on to note that however prepared they were for complaints and social media uproar, that did not change the fact that it could be hurtful. &#8220;No one loves to be harassed or called names — but to be frank, we&#8217;ve been through significantly worse. Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.&#8221;
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We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig, &amp; we knew we would sometimes have to make difficult &amp; not-so-obvious choices, especially in the wake of the fractious nature of what came before us.
&mdash; James Gunn (@JamesGunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1604929012790239232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig,&#8221; Gunn added, noting that some of the choices they were making might be &#8220;not-so-obvious&#8221; to the fans, at least at face value, and that they were prepared to move forward with them regardless.
Gunn&#8217;s overall assessment was that the backlash came with the territory — and in the grand scheme of things, was less important than making sure that DC Studios had a solid path forward.
&#8220;This means little to us in comparison to our jobs as artists &amp; custodians in helping to create a wide &amp; wonderful future for DC.,&#8221; he said.

‘No One Loves To Be Harassed’: James Gunn Replies To Haters After Backlash Over ‘Wonder Woman’ Sequel, Henry Cavill Exit

James Gunn Replies To Haters After Backlash Over 'Wonder Woman' Sequel, Henry Cavill Exit

Comics

Film director <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-gunn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Gunn</a> revealed that he &#8220;finally&#8221; married his girlfriend of seven years — &#8220;Peacemaker&#8221; star Jennifer Holland — spilling details about the pair&#8217;s Colorado ceremony and the uninvited guest who wandered by just as things were getting underway.
Gunn shared a series of photos on Instagram, along with a video taken as the ceremony began. But instead of showing <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/director-james-gunn-responds-to-calls-to-recast-chris-pratt-over-actors-public-christianity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gunn</a> waiting at the altar or Holland preparing to walk down the aisle, the video was focused on the guests — and the moose that was lumbering across the grass a short distance away.
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&#8220;After over 7 years together, I finally married the love of my life, @jenniferlholland. What an incredible, beautiful, stunning day surrounded by the most wonderful family and friends in the world,&#8221; Gunn began his caption. &#8220;And, yes, that’s a moose that showed up as the ceremony began!&#8221;
Gunn went on to explain the Funko — the brand behind the <a href="https://www.funko.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collectible vinyl figurines</a> capturing everyone from professional sports icons to film and cartoon characters — had made custom cake toppers designed to match his tuxedo and Holland&#8217;s wedding gown.
&#8220;And also, yes, @originalfunko made our wedding cake toppers designed on our actual tux and gown (Jenn wouldn’t let me see them before the wedding because her dress was too perfectly done!),&#8221; he said.
&#8220;And, yes, we had Sunday fun festivities including a Marvel vs DC softball game (@michael_rooker played on both teams!),&#8221; Gunn — who directed Marvel&#8217;s &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; films as well as the DC Universe&#8217;s &#8220;Suicide Squad&#8221; films added.
His reference to &#8220;The Walking Dead&#8221; actor and Gunn&#8217;s longtime friend Michael Rooker was a nod to the fact that Rooker — who played the role of Yondu Udonta in the &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; films — also appeared in &#8220;The Suicide Squad.&#8221;
Gunn&#8217;s <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a829022/guardians-of-the-galaxy-3-trailer-cast-release-date/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newest offerings</a> — a &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special&#8221; and &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3&#8221; — are set to be released in the coming months. The &#8220;Holiday Special&#8221; is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in December of 2022, and &#8220;Volume 3&#8221; will grace the big screen in March of 2023.
(Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/introducing-dw-kids">kids entertainment content</a>.)

Hollywood Director ‘Finally’ Ties The Knot — After A Brief Encounter With An Uninvited Guest

Director James Gunn 'Finally' Ties The Knot — After A Brief Encounter With An Uninvited Guest

Cancel Culture

To get the headline out of the way, James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” (rated R for violence, nudity, and language) achieves its primary mission — that is, to wipe away every foul memory of its abominable but profitable 2016 predecessor.
An opening, pre-title-card scene in which a decoy squad gets wiped out in minutes acts as a symbolic palate cleanser. We get the message: Gunn has no intention of maintaining continuity with either the tone or storyline of the first film. So get all that intricate Marvelian multiverse-building out of your head immediately. This is a clean slate, which the “Guardians of the Galaxy” writer/director plans to dirty up as quickly as possible.
Once again, government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles a team of high-security supervillains willing to take on missions so impossible they’re deemed suicidal in exchange for knocking a few years off their prison sentences. There’s expert marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba), demented patriot Peacemaker (John Cena), dreamy pied-piper Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior), mommy-issues stress case Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and finally, in the most appropriate casting, monosyllabic humanoid, King Shark (Sylvester Stallone).
Together, they’re tasked with invading the island nation of Corto Maltese to capture a mad scientist and destroy some secret biological weapon of indeterminate origin.
From there, there’s not much plot development beyond team bonding and the obligatory (and thus, supremely unsurprising) reveal that the U.S. government turns out to have a guilty conscience in the matter. (Think hacky lines that would have been more at home in an insufferable Sean Penn poli-drama, like, “I was prepared to die for my country, not lie for it.”)
Thankfully, this bit of moralizing is brief and easy to ignore for those who don’t relish a side of sanctimony with their blood and gore.
As the Squad bulldozes over innocent civilians in hapless but ultimately well-meaning attempts to stop a tin-pot dictator from unleashing aquatic terror on the world, the film builds to an old-fashioned monster movie that could not take itself less seriously. That’s a good thing. Watching a giant, technicolor starfish that looks like it’s made of playdough destroy a city is the stuff Tinsel Town was built on.
And yet, while there’s a reasonable amount of fun to be had from the mayhem, things never get quite as gonzo as the trailers promised. Overall, you get the sense that the once-canceled Gunn has become gun-shy, and has been listening overmuch to his inner critic, censoring lines and scenarios that might really push comedic boundaries.
The requisite carnage is present, accounted for, and played for plenty of laughs. A sequence in which a game of one-upmanship results in a village of dead freedom fighters is particularly funny. But overall, what should be Deadpool-style darkness ends up more as safe gray that only dips a toe in black-humor waters.
It&#8217;s hard not to think the director&#8217;s very public cowering to get his Disney job back is affecting his work.
After the Mouse House fired Gunn for old tweets in which he joked about rape and pedophilia (the kind of humor, incidentally, that would have been right at home in the &#8220;Deadpool&#8221; milieu), Gunn immediately showed himself to be a good soldier in the speech suppression movement. Striking a humble, enlightened pose, he insisted then and ever after that his firing was merited and that cancel culture is a generally positive development. In other words, thank-you-may-I-have-another, Mr. Iger.
The gambit worked. Gunn is back in Disney&#8217;s good graces and has re-ascended to a place of sterile, servile liberal respectability.
But it seems it’s hard to un-neuter the inner bad boy once he’s been snipped in front of the entire world. Thus, bits that once seemed fresh, like playing an incongruently sunny pop-tune under a scene of slaughter, seem to be the only cards Gunn remembers how to play. They&#8217;re still amusing, but not surprising. And they hit the table way too often in this two-hour film.
Every deal with the devil takes a little bit of your artistic soul. And I can’t help wondering what kind of twisted, truly-inspired romp Gunn might have made had he instead faced down the cancellation mob like a man. But I guess that would have been suicidal.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

SUISQ2_Character_Art_Harley_Quinn_VERT_2764X4096_DOM

Funny ‘Suicide Squad’ Doesn’t Quite Fulfill Its Gonzo Promise

Marvel director James Gunn is speaking out about what it was like to be temporarily canceled for old tweets.
In 2018, Disney fired the writer/director, best known for his work on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films and DC’s upcoming “Suicide Squad,” after Twitter users unearthed past remarks where he made jokes about pedophilia and rape.
Among the posts between 2008 and 2011 that landed Gunn in hot water: “I like when little boys touch me in my silly place” and “The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not being raped!&#8217;”
After the Guardians cast protested Gunn’s firing, however, Disney rehired him less than a year later.
In a wide-ranging July 14 interview with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/movies/james-gunn-the-suicide-squad.html">The New York Times</a>, Gunn called that period “unbelievable.”
“For a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone,” Gunn said. “I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.”
Gunn described receiving the news from Marvel head Kevin Feige at the time, saying, “I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, ‘Is this a big deal?’” He went on to share details of their conversation: “And he goes, ‘I don’t know.’ That was a moment. I was like, ‘You don’t know?’ I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided.”
Despite the devastation Gunn says he experienced at the time, the director still defended cancel culture, likening it to accountability. He brought up serial predator, Harvey Weinstein, though the studio head faced far more than social media censure or career loss for his illegal behavior. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape, taking his conduct well beyond the bounds of speech or cancel culture.
“Cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled,” Gunn said. “People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled – most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets – they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.”
Gunn has defended cancel culture before. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/director-canceled-then-uncanceled-by-disney-defends-cancel-culture-its-free-speech">reported</a>, in March, Gunn called it “free speech.”
“Stop calling everything ‘cancel culture’ because you’re too dim to have a nuanced opinion,” he said. “People can be offended by something, or think something sucks, and that’s not ‘cancel culture’ — it’s free speech. To all of those writing me about the times people get unfairly attacked — yes, that sucks! But that doesn’t mean every time someone is offended by something it’s ‘cancel culture.’ Calling EVERYTHING that is a knee-jerk response that destroys your point.”
Gunn previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/james-gunn-rehired-by-disney-after-scandal-likes-tweet-bashing-gina-carano-after-disney-fires-her">liked</a> tweets bashing former Mandalorian star Gina Carano and celebrating her firing for political speech.

Premiere Of Disney And Marvel’s “Ant-Man And The Wasp” – Arrivals

Marvel Director James Gunn Addresses his Temporary Cancellation, Defends Cancel Culture as Accountability

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