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James Gunn was hired to directGuardians of the Galaxythanks to a auction pitch that concentrate on Star - Lord ’s Sony Walkman . Going into the Marvel Cinematic Universe ’s Phase 2 , Marvel Studios make out they wanted to take an experimental approach . They were specially concerned inGuardians of the Galaxy , a middling unexpected cosmic enfranchisement starring - among other thing - a speak racoon and a walking Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Even hardcore Marvel fans were storm whenGuardians of the Galaxywas announced . Marvel Studios had already developed a repute for turning B - list superheroes into A - list franchise lead , but this seemed like a stretch . The Guardians of the Galaxy were n’t even particularly big in the comics themselves , and even funny Christian Bible writer Dan Abnett - responsible for their latest relaunch - express surprisal . " I retrieve anybody … who would have said that this would make a with child main moving picture would have been laughed off , " he toldCBR . " It ’s such an unlikely affair to do . "
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Marvel made another unexpected choice in hiring James Gunn ( Tromeo and Juliet , SlitherandSuper ) as both writer and film director . It show an inspired decision , and in an audience withRotten TomatoesKevin Feige let out it was based on Gunn ’s unique rake .
" I loved recite mass that we were give-up the ghost to do this movie , Guardians of the Galaxy , with a racoon and a tree diagram , and multitude going , ' I do n’t know what you ’re talking about , you guys have gone half-baked . ' James Gunn did have that reaction ab initio , but as he will tell you , he was driving home and he started to think more about these fictitious character , and he started to fall in love with the notion of this raccoon . He flew to North Carolina , where we were filming Iron Man 3 , and we sit down with him . He had an unbelievable take on it . He had a Modern schema - the covert of whom had a picture of the very first Sony Walkman . With no explanation . I looked at it and I mean , ' This is going to work . ' Because we knew we wanted Peter Quill to have a link to Earth in a way that most intergalactic outerspace heroes do n’t have . When I saw that Walkman I thought , ' He ’s going to do it through euphony , ' which is brain . And that ’s what he did . "
The Sony Walkman lay at the meat ofGuardians of the Galaxy , with Peter Quill taking to infinite with him after his female parent ’s death . HisAwesome Mix Vol . 1cassette was his most precious possession , and Gunn chose to orient the entire soundtrack around the mix - tape . Ironically , although the music was central to Gunn ’s sales pitch , he encounteredresistance from the old Marvel Creative Committee . He key the Creative Committee as " a radical of risible - book author and toy people " who gave " haphazard " notes , and recalled them recommending he ditchthe film ’s ' 70 soundtrack .
Marvel Studios may have been a grand winner , but all was not well at the House of Ideas back in 2012 , when Gunn was hired . Kevin Feige was fundamentally in a operative battle with Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter and the Marvel Creative Committee , and the disagreement over the Sony Walkman foreground the sheer scale of it . Feige lease Gunn in large part because he was win over by the author - director ’s vision using the Walkman , and yet the Marvel Creative Committee wanted to drop the soundtrack .
In the end , Feige and Gunn were vindicated , with theAwesome Mix Vol . 1certified Pt by the RIAA . As the years pass off , the relationship between Feige and others at Marvel continued to devolve ; by 2015 Feige ’s wellness was suffering andhe consider quitting , forcing Disney to intervene . Disney boss Bob Iger hale a corporate restructure , establishing Marvel Studios as a separate subsidiary and placing Feige in position as chairman . The MCU has n’t looked back since , and all signs are that creative writer and managing director like Gunn finger far more welcome nowadays .
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