James Gunn is a master storyteller who bases his movies on his characters. Whether it is about a team of supervillains or a group of heroes from all over the galaxy, the 57-year-old acclaimed filmmaker has been successful in making us care about every character in his films.
Gunn also succeeds in making us love some of the silliest characters in superhero history, which is not necessarily an exceptional achievement for a great director. Every time he brings to life a strange character, be it a talking tree with a limited vocabulary or a Polka Dot Man, the character is made relatable and completely lovable.
There is no better example of this than his sizable cast of human-like animal characters.
Gunn is renowned for forging bonds of friendship with the actors with whom he works, and he often uses actors from previous favorite casts in new roles.
James Gunn Obstructed Filming Due to This Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 Actor
James Gunn, who started his writing career in the mid-1990s, is a friendly person. He unintentionally ruined the filming when he tried to make friends with the dog that played Cosmo the Space Dog on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The actors that The Suicide Squad director works with, are well known for becoming friends with him, and he frequently recasts them in his upcoming movies. Slate, the dog who played Cosmo the Space Dog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, got first-hand experience of Gunn’s friendly nature.
The issues Gunn had with Slate were discussed by Stephane Ceretti, the visual effects production supervisor on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Ceretti described how Gunn, a dedicated dog lover, became distracted by playing with the dog. This excited Slate and prevented him from concentrating on returning to his work when filming was scheduled to resume. As reported by Comic book;
“It was mostly reference. Well, we scanned him, we scanned Slate, we use this fur and everything as a reference. We had him doing some different things so that we could study the way that everything moves and on camera with good quality material. And what I was doing is every time we would have a scene with Slate, with Cosmo, we had Slate coming in, get in front of the camera, so we know exactly what he looks like in the light and all that stuff.”
In addition, Ceretti recalled (via Comic Book) that “Slate was really not a dog that we could have used for shooting, that was a beautiful dog.”
“But every time Slate would come, James loves dogs. So James would start playing with Slate and then by the time we were rolling, Slate was like, ‘Oh, I’m gone. I don’t know. I want to play.’ But it was great. It was actually fantastic to have that on set for us because we could match and add the reference. We could look at all the time, and the vendors really liked that French store that was doing Slate was very appreciative that we had gone through the effort of doing that for them.”
Cosmo Was Mo-Capped In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3?
The motion-capture technology was used by French visual effects supervisor, Stephane Ceretti to physically portray Cosmo the Space Dog. It was voiced by Oscar-nominated actress, Maria Bakalova. However, Slate still made an appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as Cosmo the Space Dog’s physical model.
Slate entered the set to serve as Bakalova’s stand-in, allowing the lighting to be changed to reflect what the audience would have seen if there had actually been a dog on the screen.
James Gunn was not the only one who adored the dog; Bakalova also spoke highly of her canine co-star, referring to Slate as the “very friendly on-set mascot” of the film.
Because of the cast and crew’s dedication and inventiveness, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has succeeded in capturing fans’ imagination. All the praise you can give should go to the main actors and the entertaining on-set dog.
It was a critical and financial success, earning over $845 million globally and ranking as the third-highest-grossing movie of 2023.
Fans can now watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is currently available to stream on Disney Plus.
Source- Comic Book
