James Gunn
James Gunn
James Gunn is an American screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, actor, and musician. He started his career as a screenwriter in the late 1990s, writing the scripts for Tromeo and Juliet, Scooby-Dooand its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. He then started working also as a director, starting with Slither. He subsequently wrote and directed the web series James Gunn's PG Porn, the superhero films Superand Guardians of the Galaxyand its sequel...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth5 August 1970
CitySt. Louis, MO
CountryUnited States of America
He put up with a lot of pain. ... I don't think many people would put up with what he had to put up with.
I really like people who can do both drama and comedy and not some like middle of the road do both drama and comedy. I'm not talking about some guy who does these bland dramedies all the time. I'm talking about people that have done heavy drama and who have done heavy comedy.
When people go to the theater, people say they want something different, but what they really want is something the same with slight permutations. To really not know what is going to happen next is a hard thing.
I like to plan everything out and know exactly what we're doing. It's always important to me to work with a cast and a crew that not only I respect their talent but I really like them as people.
In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment, caused by nature or the universe or technology, what readers want to see is how people cope, and so the character are present to cope, or fail to cope.
Scientists do their best work when they are in their early years. Writers' skills don't necessarily decay; if they can keep their interests and hopes alive (like Jack Williamson), their experience allows them greater depths to explore.
What you call "the Golden Age tradition" of stringing stories together into novels was not so much a tradition as a consequence of the fact that almost no genre SF novels were published between 1926 and 1946.
Sean says he always had a feeling he should remain friends with Jenna and he never knew why. He believes it's because he knew we were meant to be together.
But, on the most part, he belonged to the optimists; he felt that there would be time enough to suffer when catastrophe really struck.
As for going to the stars, The Listeners concluded that it was inherently impossible and the only contact would be through radio. I believe that this may be true; on the other hand, I still nurse my youthful aspirations to go to the stars, and I think that humanity should pursue it - after all, we have not reached the pinnacle of science and technology.
As for the "torture" of fans waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop, I hope that it is true - that there are readers out there panting to know what is going to happen to Adrian and Frances and Jessica, and who can't wait to find out who the aliens are and why they sent spaceship plans and what they want with humans. I must admit that I am curious, too.
A few years ago, a fellow professor stopped at my door and said, "You're here in your office more than my full-time colleagues," and I replied, "Writers don't retire, they just go out of print." With electronic publication, even that doesn't have to happen.
That certainly is one approach to take. My own is to acknowledge the inner child and try to work with my first fascination with science fiction. I have tried to build on its idea content and narrative drive rather than to discard them.
I prefer to bring these to the service of story rather than to let them replace narrative.