With Marvel‘s insane level of secrecy we’re always eager to gobble up any little morsel they might give us about how they make their movies, but today they threw us the equivalent of a giant porterhouse steak by letting Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn share the script for Vol. 2 online. And if that wasn’t enough, he answered fans questions and shared some insight into how he cooked the whole thing from start to finish.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933032326530867200
Gunn shared on Twitter today the totally free-to-read script, which he wrote, and since he knew that would only lead to a bunch of the same questions, he addressed issues he knew would come up when people compared it to the movie they saw.
This was the last script of nine he turned in to the studio (and that doesn’t include the “dozens” he wrote for himself), and it was the one used during filming. However it doesn’t perfectly match the final movie both because of on-set improvisation from the cast and because some lines were cut. But this one script doesn’t even capture just how much time he spent working on it. And that work began the day the first film hit theaters.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933041416518778880
Of course the Guardians movies don’t exist in a vacuum, since they are a part of the larger MCU, but that doesn’t sound like it posed nearly the kind of problems or worries you might expect.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933042133107318784
And while it wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without an end credits scene or two, this movie had way more than most with a whopping five, and Gunn talked about how only one of them wasn’t in the original script.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933045132571451392
But what about that Adam Warlock tease, the one Gunn had to fight to have included? Was that a sign of what to expect from the next film? Actually it might not have been, because it turns out the character isn’t guaranteed to appear in Vol. 3 like we would have bet. And spoiler alert: he’s definitely not going to be fighting the Avengers any time soon.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933045776481099776
He also explained how the soundtracks that are such a huge part of the movies are a big part of the writing process right from the start.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933046998843846656
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933050455302717440
In addition to talking about the actual film, Gunn also shared some insights into the actual script writing process and how pages translate to screen.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933048823395450880
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933046774616309760
For you aspiring screenwriters out there, don’t use this script as an exact guide for how to format yours. That’s because Gunn included camera movements that he would not have out there had someone else been set to direct the movie instead.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933046488451579904
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/933038983210139648
You’ll want to check out his entire feed to get even more great insight into both the writing and filming of the movie, but don’t expect to see the script for the original movie anytime soon, because he said there are no plans to release it.
That’s a bummer, but we shouldn’t complain. Marvel serving us this much should hold us over until they finally satiate our desire for the Infinity War trailer.
We hope. We’re starving to get that.
What questions do you have for James Gunn about the script? What about how he filmed it? Tell us in the comments below what you would like to hear him answer.
Image: Marvel
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