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James Gunn (film maker)
Encyclopedia
James Gunn is an American writer
, filmmaker, actor
, musician
and cartoonist
.
, for whom he wrote and co-directed the critically acclaimed independent film Tromeo and Juliet
. After contributing to several other films for Troma, Gunn wrote, produced and performed in his own superhero comedy, The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin
and featuring Rob Lowe
, Thomas Haden Church
, Paget Brewster
, Judy Greer
and Jamie Kennedy
.
Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo
in 2002. In 2004, he wrote the initial screenplay for the remake of George A. Romero
's Dawn of the Dead
, but left the project early to work on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
. That same year he also executive produced, and appeared in the mockumentary LolliLove
, directed by and starring his then-wife Jenna Fischer. His directorial film debut was the 2006 horror-comedy Slither.
Gunn's next projects included the comedy short film Humanzee! which was originally intended exclusively for the Xbox Live's Horror Meets Comedy series of short comedy films by horror directors, it was replaced with Sparky and Mikaela which debuted on Xbox Live on December 31, 2008. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall
Show, Gunn described Sparky and Mikaela as being "about a human racoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world". Gunn also has a short form web series for Spike.com titled James Gunn's PG Porn
which made EW's The Must List.
In 2008, James Gunn was one of the judges on the VH1 reality television show Scream Queens
where 10 unknown actresses compete for a role in the film Saw VI
, where directed contestants during acting challenges.
In 2009, Gunn announced he was going to write and direct Pets, a comedy about a man who is abducted by aliens who want to turn him into a household pet with Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer producing. However, by March 2009, Gunn announced, "PETS, unfortunately, is done. I'm gone. I left the project for various reasons. I hope it sees the light of day somehow, but it won't be with me attached as director."
In 2010, Gunn released the film SUPER, a dark comedy and superhero
satire
starring Rainn Wilson
and Ellen Page
.
Outside of filmmaking and television, Gunn also penned a novel in 2000, The Toy Collector
, and with Troma's President Lloyd Kaufman
co-wrote All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger
, about his experiences with Kaufman while working at Troma. As a musician, Gunn released one album with his band, The Icons
, Mom, We Like It Here on Earth. He has written music for the films The Low Life, as well as for Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2.
He is also currently writing the story for Grasshopper Manufacture
's latest title Lollipop Chainsaw
.
. He has four brothers, actor Sean Gunn
, actor and political writer Matt Gunn
, producer Patrick Gunn (formerly with Mosaic Media Group) and writer Brian Gunn
, as well as one sister.
As a youth, he attended St. Joseph Manchester Elementary school in Manchester, Missouri
. He and his brothers all attended St. Louis University High. He graduated in 1984, later attending
Saint Louis University
, where he earned his B.S. in Psychology. He continued his graduate studies at Columbia University
, where he earned his MFA in Writing Fiction.
He married Emmy-award nominated actress Jenna Fischer
on October 7, 2000, but after seven years of marriage Gunn and Fischer announced their separation in a joint statement on September 5, 2007. Fischer and Gunn divorced less than a year later.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, filmmaker, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
.
Career
Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma EntertainmentTroma Entertainment
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...
, for whom he wrote and co-directed the critically acclaimed independent film Tromeo and Juliet
Tromeo and Juliet
Tromeo and Juliet is a 1996 independent transgressive comedy film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet from Troma Entertainment...
. After contributing to several other films for Troma, Gunn wrote, produced and performed in his own superhero comedy, The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin
Craig Mazin
Craig Mazin is an American screenwriter and director.Mazin was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Marlboro Township, New Jersey when he was a teen and attended Freehold High School which inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2010. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology from...
and featuring Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe is an American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, and Wayne's World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert...
, Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church
Thomas Haden Church is an American actor. After co-starring in the 1990s sitcom Wings, Church became well known for his film roles, including his Academy Award-nominated performance in Sideways and his role as the Sandman in Spider-Man 3.-Early life:Church, the fourth of six children, was born...
, Paget Brewster
Paget Brewster
Paget Valerie Brewster is an American actress. She is currently known for playing Special Agent Emily Prentiss on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. In June 2010, it was said that her role on Criminal Minds would be reduced in the sixth season. In March 2011, Brewster's character left the series...
, Judy Greer
Judy Greer
Judy Greer is an American actress, known for portraying a string of supporting female characters, including Kitty Sanchez on the Fox series Arrested Development and Cheryl on the animated comedy series Archer...
and Jamie Kennedy
Jamie Kennedy
James Harvey "Jamie" Kennedy is an American comedian, rapper, and actor.-Early life:Kennedy, the youngest of six children, was born in Upper Darby Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family is of Irish descent and he was raised Roman Catholic. He attended and graduated from...
.
Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo (film)
Scooby-Doo is a 2002 American comedy film based on the Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series Scooby-Doo about a group of young detectives and their talking dog. It is the first installment in the Scooby-Doo live action film series...
in 2002. In 2004, he wrote the initial screenplay for the remake of George A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
's Dawn of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber. The film depict a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall...
, but left the project early to work on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a 2004 film, and sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo based on the Hanna-Barbera series classic, Scooby-Doo. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo Live-Action film series. It was directed by Raja Gosnell, who also directed the first film, and was written by James...
. That same year he also executive produced, and appeared in the mockumentary LolliLove
LolliLove
LolliLove is a mockumentary co-written by, directed by and starring Jenna Fischer. The film satirizes a hip, misguided Southern California couple who decide to make a difference in the lives of the homeless by giving them lollipops with a cheery slogan on the wrapper.-Production:The film stars...
, directed by and starring his then-wife Jenna Fischer. His directorial film debut was the 2006 horror-comedy Slither.
Gunn's next projects included the comedy short film Humanzee! which was originally intended exclusively for the Xbox Live's Horror Meets Comedy series of short comedy films by horror directors, it was replaced with Sparky and Mikaela which debuted on Xbox Live on December 31, 2008. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall
Jace Hall
Jason "Jace" Hall is an American film, television and video game producer, best known for being founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Productions Inc and President of...
Show, Gunn described Sparky and Mikaela as being "about a human racoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world". Gunn also has a short form web series for Spike.com titled James Gunn's PG Porn
James Gunn's PG Porn
James Gunn's PG Porn is a web series created by brothers James Gunn, Brian Gunn, and Sean Gunn. It consists of a series of pornography spoofs, with a humorous event occurring just before the supposed commencement of pornographic sexual acts. Each episode pairs a mainstream actor with a pornographic...
which made EW's The Must List.
In 2008, James Gunn was one of the judges on the VH1 reality television show Scream Queens
Scream Queens (TV series)
Scream Queens is an American reality series on VH1 produced by Joke Productions and Lionsgate Television that premiered in October 2008. The show chronicles a group of unknown actresses competing for a role in the Saw franchise. Tanedra Howard won the first season and gained a role in Saw VI...
where 10 unknown actresses compete for a role in the film Saw VI
Saw VI
Saw VI is a 2009 horror film directed by Kevin Greutert from a screenplay written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. It is the sixth installment of the seven–part Saw film series and stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Peter Outerbridge, and Shawnee Smith...
, where directed contestants during acting challenges.
In 2009, Gunn announced he was going to write and direct Pets, a comedy about a man who is abducted by aliens who want to turn him into a household pet with Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer producing. However, by March 2009, Gunn announced, "PETS, unfortunately, is done. I'm gone. I left the project for various reasons. I hope it sees the light of day somehow, but it won't be with me attached as director."
In 2010, Gunn released the film SUPER, a dark comedy and superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
starring Rainn Wilson
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Dietrich Wilson is an American actor and comedian. He is primarily known for his role as the egomaniacal Dwight Schrute on the American version of the television comedy The Office...
and Ellen Page
Ellen Page
Ellen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...
.
Outside of filmmaking and television, Gunn also penned a novel in 2000, The Toy Collector
The Toy Collector
The Toy Collector is a novel written by James Gunn, published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2000. It is the story of a hospital orderly who steals drugs from the hospital which he sells to help keep his toy collection habit alive....
, and with Troma's President Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman
Lloyd Kaufman is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. With producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, including The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet. Kaufman also serves as...
co-wrote All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger
All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger
All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger is the autobiography of Lloyd Kaufman, published by Berkely Boulevard, a subsidiary of Penguin Putnam, in 1998. Kaufman is the co-founder of B-movie company Troma Entertainment and the director of such films as The Toxic Avenger,...
, about his experiences with Kaufman while working at Troma. As a musician, Gunn released one album with his band, The Icons
The Icons
The Icons were a former rock band created in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989. At a time when the St. Louis music scene was dominated by cover bands, the Icons played all original songs, an eclectic mix of alternative rock, gothic rock, and funk....
, Mom, We Like It Here on Earth. He has written music for the films The Low Life, as well as for Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2.
He is also currently writing the story for Grasshopper Manufacture
Grasshopper Manufacture
Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc. is a Japanese video game development house founded on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, Japan. Grasshopper gained mainstream attention in 2005 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 game Killer7...
's latest title Lollipop Chainsaw
Lollipop Chainsaw
is an action video game being developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. It focuses on Juliet Starling, a cheerleader fighting zombies in a fictional California high school...
.
Personal life
James Gunn was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. He has four brothers, actor Sean Gunn
Sean Gunn
Sean Gunn is an American actor, most famous for his role as Kirk Gleason on the television show Gilmore Girls .-Early life:...
, actor and political writer Matt Gunn
Matt Gunn
Matthew "Matt" Gunn is an American writer and actor from St. Louis, Missouri.He has a sister and four brothers: writer/director James Gunn, actor Sean Gunn, film/television writer Brian Gunn, and film executive/producer Patrick Gunn. They all attended St...
, producer Patrick Gunn (formerly with Mosaic Media Group) and writer Brian Gunn
Brian Gunn
Brian Gunn is an American screenplay and television writer.-Life and career:With his cousin Mark, Gunn created 2ge+her for MTV, which started as a television movie and then ran as a series for two seasons....
, as well as one sister.
As a youth, he attended St. Joseph Manchester Elementary school in Manchester, Missouri
Manchester, Missouri
Manchester is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 18,094 at the 2010 census. The mayor is David Willson.-Geography:Manchester is located at ....
. He and his brothers all attended St. Louis University High. He graduated in 1984, later attending
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
, where he earned his B.S. in Psychology. He continued his graduate studies at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he earned his MFA in Writing Fiction.
He married Emmy-award nominated actress Jenna Fischer
Jenna Fischer
Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer is an American actress and director. She is most widely known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Pam Halpert on the NBC situation comedy and mockumentary The Office, and has also appeared in several films, including Blades of Glory, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,...
on October 7, 2000, but after seven years of marriage Gunn and Fischer announced their separation in a joint statement on September 5, 2007. Fischer and Gunn divorced less than a year later.
Writer/director
- Tromeo and JulietTromeo and JulietTromeo and Juliet is a 1996 independent transgressive comedy film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet from Troma Entertainment...
(1996) (uncredited as director) - Slither (2006)
- James Gunn's PG PornJames Gunn's PG PornJames Gunn's PG Porn is a web series created by brothers James Gunn, Brian Gunn, and Sean Gunn. It consists of a series of pornography spoofs, with a humorous event occurring just before the supposed commencement of pornographic sexual acts. Each episode pairs a mainstream actor with a pornographic...
(2008—2009) - Sparky and Mikaela (2008)
- Humanzee (2009)
- SUPER (2011)
- Movie 43 (TBD)
Writer
- The SpecialsThe Specials (film)The Specials is a 2000 American comedy film about a group of ordinary superheroes on their day off. According to the film, the Specials are the sixth or seventh most popular group of superheroes in the world...
(2000) - Scooby-DooScooby-Doo (film)Scooby-Doo is a 2002 American comedy film based on the Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series Scooby-Doo about a group of young detectives and their talking dog. It is the first installment in the Scooby-Doo live action film series...
(2002) - Tube (2004)
- Dawn of the DeadDawn of the Dead (2004 film)Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber. The film depict a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall...
(2004) - Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedScooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedScooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a 2004 film, and sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo based on the Hanna-Barbera series classic, Scooby-Doo. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo Live-Action film series. It was directed by Raja Gosnell, who also directed the first film, and was written by James...
(2004) - LolliLoveLolliLoveLolliLove is a mockumentary co-written by, directed by and starring Jenna Fischer. The film satirizes a hip, misguided Southern California couple who decide to make a difference in the lives of the homeless by giving them lollipops with a cheery slogan on the wrapper.-Production:The film stars...
(2004) - Lollipop ChainsawLollipop Chainsawis an action video game being developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. It focuses on Juliet Starling, a cheerleader fighting zombies in a fictional California high school...
Actor
- Tromeo and JulietTromeo and JulietTromeo and Juliet is a 1996 independent transgressive comedy film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet from Troma Entertainment...
(1996) - The SpecialsThe Specials (film)The Specials is a 2000 American comedy film about a group of ordinary superheroes on their day off. According to the film, the Specials are the sixth or seventh most popular group of superheroes in the world...
(2000) - Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IVCitizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IVCitizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV is a 2000 American superhero comedy film released by Troma Entertainment, directed by Lloyd Kaufman...
(2000) - The GhoulsThe GhoulsThe Ghouls is a 2003 independent American horror film that was written and directed by Chad Ferrin....
(2003) - LolliLoveLolliLoveLolliLove is a mockumentary co-written by, directed by and starring Jenna Fischer. The film satirizes a hip, misguided Southern California couple who decide to make a difference in the lives of the homeless by giving them lollipops with a cheery slogan on the wrapper.-Production:The film stars...
(2004) - Slither (2006)
- James Gunn's PG PornJames Gunn's PG PornJames Gunn's PG Porn is a web series created by brothers James Gunn, Brian Gunn, and Sean Gunn. It consists of a series of pornography spoofs, with a humorous event occurring just before the supposed commencement of pornographic sexual acts. Each episode pairs a mainstream actor with a pornographic...
- Episode: "Roadside Ass-sistance" (2009) - Humanzee (2009)