James Gunn

Early life

James Francis Gunn Jr. came into the world on August 5, 1966, in St. Louis, Missouri. His father, James F. Gunn, worked as an attorney, and his mother was Leota "Lee" Hynek. Raised Catholic in the St. Louis suburb of Manchester, Missouri, he grew up with five siblings: Sean, Matt, Brian, Patrick, and Beth. The Gunn family is of Irish descent, with his father hailing from an Irish immigrant background.

Gunn has said the family name was originally MacGilgunn, which he claims means "sons to the servants of the god of the dead," though the actual meaning is "son of the brown youth." As a child, low-budget horror like Night of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th shaped his tastes. He devoured Fangoria magazine and caught screenings of genre films, including the original Dawn of the Dead at St. Louis's Tivoli Theatre. By age twelve, he was shooting 8 mm zombie movies with his brothers in the woods near home.

He attended Jesuit-run St. Louis University High School, graduating in 1984, then earned a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Louis University, where he drew political cartoons for the student paper The University News. Gunn later spent two years in undergraduate film school at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles but left, saying he was "pretty screwed up" at the time. He eventually completed a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University in 1995, studying prose writing rather than film.

Career

While living in St. Louis, Gunn founded the band The Icons in 1989, serving as lead vocalist; the group released the album Mom, We Like It Here on Earth in 1994, and its songs appeared in Tromeo and Juliet. The Icons disbanded in the mid-1990s. Gunn began his filmmaking career with Troma Entertainment in 1996, co-writing Tromeo and Juliet. Working with mentor Lloyd Kaufman, he learned screenwriting, producing, location scouting, directing actors, distribution, and poster art.

In 2000, he wrote, produced, and performed in The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin. His first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo (2002). In 2004, he wrote the screenplays for the remake of Dawn of the Dead and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, becoming the first screenwriter to have two films top the box office in consecutive weeks. That year he also executive produced and starred in the mockumentary LolliLove.

His directorial debut was the 2006 horror-comedy Slither, later included on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 50 Best Ever Reviewed Horror Movies. He created the short film "Humanzee!" and the web series James Gunn's PG Porn. In 2008, he was a judge on the VH1 reality show Scream Queens. He also composed songs for Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Movie 43.

Personal life

Gunn married actress Jenna Fischer on October 7, 2000; they separated in September 2007 and divorced in 2008, remaining friends. In 2010, Fischer persuaded Gunn to cast Rainn Wilson in his film Super. He has been in a relationship with actress Jennifer Holland since 2015; they became engaged in February 2022 and married at the end of September 2022. He adopted a dog named Ozu from a shelter in 2022 and promotes the hashtag #AdoptDontShop. PETA declared Gunn their 2023 Person of the Year, citing his shelter advocacy and CGI work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Ozu inspired the redesigned, CGI-animated Krypto the Superdog in Gunn's 2025 Superman. Gunn was raised Catholic and says prayer remains important in his life, but he also describes himself as "in some ways, anti-religion."

Unrealized projects

In the late 1990s, Gunn and Charlie Kaufman attempted a film adaptation of Gilligan's Island as a cannibal film, supported by Warner Bros., but creator Sherwood Schwartz disapproved and it was never made. In 1999, an executive from 20th Century Fox offered to hire Gunn to write and direct a Silver Surfer film. Also in 1999, Gunn wrote an unproduced screenplay adaptation of Spy vs. Spy, which Jay Roach was to direct and Nicolas Cage and Eddie Murphy were to star in.

In the early 2000s, Gunn pitched a Plastic Man film with Matthew Lillard as the hero. In 2002, he revealed a script called The Newlyweds for Warner Bros. that was not produced. He and composer Willie Wisely worked on a stage musical called Pure, described as a love story about a man who kills and tortures people to write better children's books. Gunn was to helm Scooby-Doo 3, but Warner Bros. cancelled it after the critical and financial failure of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

In 2004, he pitched a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon to Universal Pictures, which turned it down. While promoting Slither in 2006, he said he was writing a darker film about Satan. In 2007, he was to write and direct a comedy called Pets for New Regency with Ben Stiller producing, but left due to creative differences.