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James Gunn Says The Movie Industry Is 'Dying' Due to Unfinished Screenplays
James Gunn, director for the highly anticipated forthcoming reboot of Superman, has been in the news quite a bit recently, and in rather blunt fashion.
The 58-year-old filmmaker has made headlines for casually and confidently responding to fans "trying to restore the SnyderVerse"—in reference to Man of Steel director Zach Snyder—who have laid out a pretty ridiculous set of plans with ways to essentially "bomb reviews" of Superman, along with other ways to keep moviegoers away.
Gunn offered up a funny, albeit condescending reply on X of, "Lol I think we will survive. I'm not sure the eight people that listen to that guy (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's a guy) are going to impact the course of events."
While he's also taken to putting fans in their place who have been incorrectly spreading rumors that Batman II is canceled, Gunn also dropped another blunt take on the movie industry as a whole, explaining what he believes is the true reason the movie industry is "dying."
"I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies," Gunn said in a profile from Rolling Stone. "It's not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay."
"I know some people that were my former workers at Marvel — people who made some of the worst movies," Gunn explained. "There were people that were lazy and didn't put their time in. And then there were other directors that worked really hard and maybe didn't have the best movie come out, but they did everything they could."
Gunn's overall point comes across as pretty fair and logical, and was in response to a reference about Eddie Murphy once stating that every bad movie happens because of Hollywood's apparent habit of setting a production date before they have a finished screenplay.
One has to believe this problematic habit of Hollywood rushing films to production without a finished product, which has to induce somewhat of an extra massive strain on all the major players involved in any given film, has probably only gotten worse over the last decade with the strong, competing presence of continuously growing streaming platforms.
Gunn appears to be adamantly backing up his take with DC Studios' polar opposite approach to Batman II's incessantly-discussed production status.
"We don't have a script [for Batman II]. Matt's [director Matt Reeves] slow. Let him take his time. Let him do what he's doing. God, people are mean. Let him do his thing, man."
Gunn's Superman reboot starring David Corenswet is right around the corner, slated to hit theaters on July Gunn Says The Movie Industry Is 'Dying' Due to Unfinished Screenplays first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 18, 2025
