James Gunn and Zack Snyder, known for their grand endeavors with Marvel and DC films respectively, worked together on the latter’s directorial debut – Dawn of the Dead (2004) as the writer and director duo.
The two, however, went their separate ways and responded to their calling in the superhero world. Snyder gained a considerable amount of experience before Man of Steel (2013) with films like 300 (2007) and Watchmen (2009).
Gunn, on the other hand, was able to land his breakthrough opportunity at Marvel Studios with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). With Snyder’s departure from DC Studios during Joss Whedon’s (The Avengers) Justice League debacle in 2017, with some hiccups, Gunn came in last year as DC’s Co-CEO.
Snyder, with much resistance from studios but a massive social media movement, was able to have his passion project – Zack Snyder’s Justice League released in 2021. Gunn, according to a recent Threads post, walked away from his own passion project – Pets and never looked back.
James Gunn Was Kicked Out Of Pets In 2009
Looking at his filmmaking career, Gunn wrote Scooby-Doo (2002) and the sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). A Threads user, collin_seals, revealed that Gunn was ousted from Pets, which he wrote and looked to direct.
The director, though, didn’t fight back for the project to get it moving and released a statement –
“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.”
Take a look at collin_seals post; James Gunn revealed his side of the story –
Post by @jamesgunnView on Threads
Unlike Gunn, Snyder came back to give the fans the Justice League that he made which the studios had almost shelved.
Zack Snyder Fought Back For The Director’s Cut
In a Vanity Fair interview in May 2021, the year Zack Snyder’s Justice League was released, Snyder said that studio execs hadn’t even seen the film, and tried to corner him to agree to their demands, should it ever be released.
He said –
“When the movie came out in 2017, I was not doing the movie anymore; they had finished the movie without me. I think there was a guy in Wales, who hashtagged, on the day of release – #releasethesnydercut, right… Two years later, on the anniversary, there was a huge Twitter campaign, joined by Gal, Jason, and Ben. The studio called saying, ‘What is that?’”
He further added that the studio tried to pull him from finishing the director’s cut and wanted the world to see the “raw form.” He pushed back and finished it so that they don’t say, “See, it’s not that good.”
Netflix has recently released the trailer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming film – Rebel Moon; it comes out on December 22, 2023.
Source: Threads, Vanity Fair
