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James Gunn was born on August 6, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri to James F. Gunn (attorney) and Leota "Lee" (Hynek). -
along with his parents he has five siblings. Actor Sean Gunn, actor and political writer Matt Gunn, screenwriter Brian Gunn, Patrick Gunn and Beth Gunn. -
as James grew up he was influenced by low budget films like night of the living dead and Friday the 13th. At age 12 he began making 8 mm zombie films with his brothers. -
he attended Jesuit St. Louis university high school (private all boy catholic school) with his brothers and graduated in 1984. -
while being in St. Louis he founded a band called the icons in 1989, being the lead vocalist. They disbanded in the mid 1990’s though Gunn continued to work in music, composing songs for scooby doo, scooby doo 2 and movie 43. -
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from saint Louis university. While there he would create political cartoons for the schools weekly. He went two years undergraduate at Loyola Marymount in LA then left and a few years later attended Colombia university of fine arts, earning a masters in fine arts in 1955. -
He began his filmmaking career in 1996 with Romeo and Juliet, working alongside his mentor Lloyd Kaufman the co founder of Troma. -
his first major Hollywood screenplay was scooby doo in 2002. -
in 2004, he wrote the screenplay remake for dawn of the dead and the sequel Scooby doo 2. Those films Gunn became the first screenwriter to have two films top in the box office in consecutive weeks. -
In 2000 Gunn married actress Jenna Fischer and after being married for 7 years they divorced in 2008, still remaining friends. -
in 2009 he announced he was going to write and direct pets, a comedy about a guy wanting to be upducted by aliens and become their pet. In march 2009 he informed that he left the project, hoping it’d see the light of day but without his name attached to it. -
Gunn cowrote and directed the marvel studios adaptation of guardians of the galaxy which released on august 1, 2014. His brother Sean Gunn has a role in the film. -
in 2018 due to Gunn’s public criticism of president Donald trump, commentator Mike Cernovich drew attention to controversial jokes Gunn had made in 2008-2012. Due to backlash Disney severed ties with having Gunn be the director for the upcoming movie guardians of the galaxy vol. 3. Gunn responded with a public apology for his past mistakes that he regrets doing and took full responsibility/accountability. -
in 2017 Gunn wrote and directed guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 then was slated to direct guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 in July 2018 but before it could get started Disney severed ties with Gunn as the director. -
Walt Disney Studio’s decision received criticism from many entertainers and journalists, including actors, directors, musicians, comedians. A petition for Gunn to be rehired was held online which received 400,00 signatures, cast members from the film guardians of the galaxy released a joint statement in support of James Gunn. -
Gunn was reinstated by Disney as director of the film after meeting with Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studio. Guardians of the galaxy vol.3 then started production again in October 2021. -
In November 1, 2022 James Gunn assumed his position as the co-chairpersons and CEO of DC films alongside Peter Safran. -
He is now ina relationship with Jennifer Holland since 2015, getting engaged in 2022 and being married by the end of September 2022. He also has a dog named Ozu which he adopted from a shelter in 2022 -
in total guardians of the galaxy received 60+ awards alone and 100+ nominations. James Gunn has received up to 15 awards. -
in December 2022 Gunn announced that he was writing a film about a young Superman, later revealing to be titled Superman and scheduled to be released in July 2025 -