James Gunn Wants His DC Universe To 'Elevate' Writers Again And Make Sure Scripts Are Ready Before They Shoot

Though James Gunn has risen through the ranks to become an acclaimed movie director and is now the co-chair and co-CEO of DC Studios with Peter Safran, he started out as a working screenwriter in Hollywood. It's a role he'll be continuing with the upcoming "Superman: Legacy." For whatever reason, though, screenwriting is historically the one above-the-line department where film studios seem to feel the personnel are interchangeable, as opposed to indispensable. For comic book movies and blockbusters in general, it's not uncommon to see multiple screenwriters listed, as was the case for "Superman: The Movie" back in 1978. There are even times when you'll hear about a multimillion-dollar film rushing into production without a completed script, in order to meet a preordained release date.

Gunn is having none of that. At a recent press event for the DC Universe, attended by /Film's Jenna Busch, Gunn talked about how he and Safran "want to elevate writers again" at DC, saying:

"I've been around, making studio movies now, for over 20 years. And the biggest change between the past and today — and the reason why I think movies, in general, are not as good as they used to be — is because too many movies get set into a date, and then they are made no matter what. And then you have movies where they don't have a third act, and they're already shooting, hoping that somehow they're gonna work it out, even though they didn't get it worked out through a three-year script room. So, we want to really elevate writers again, make writers as important as they are, and become architects of this [new DC Universe]."

Gunn mentions "movies where they don't have a third act," and that could certainly apply to any number of overproduced and underwritten superhero films. His comments about elevating writers again are encouraging, and they make complete sense, given his background.

If you look back at Gunn's filmography, some of his earliest credits are as a screenwriter on films directed by other people. For his first film in 1997, "Tromeo and Juliet," Gunn served as an associate director and co-screenwriter with director Lloyd Kaufman. After that, he wrote a weirdly ahead-of-the-curve little superhero comedy called "The Specials," directed by Craig Mazin (future co-showrunner of HBO's "The Last of Us"). It came out just two months after the first "X-Men" movie in 2000, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the former DC Extended Universe, or any other capes and cowls came along to grace screens in the superhero movie millennium.

Then, Gunn spent a few years writing live-action "Scooby-Doo" movies and a certain "Dawn of the Dead" remake, directed by Zack Snyder. It was only with "Slither" in 2006, almost a decade after his first movie credit, that Gunn became the writer-director we know today. 

It's been said that TV is more of a writer's medium, while movies are more of a director's medium. In some cases, even the director loses creative control, and we're reminded that the ultimate power rests with the producer(s) or movie studio. As someone who has climbed the ladder in Hollywood and witnessed the folly of studios chasing release dates without a good script (all while gaining firsthand experience as a writer, director, producer, and now, studio head), Gunn seems uniquely positioned to lead DC Studios into a new era where maybe people don't walk out of the movie complaining about the bad writing.