Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn Wants to Run Marvel Cosmic

In a new interview with Fandango, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn discusses the challenges of bringing some of Marvel's lesser-known heroes to the screen. He says, in part, that it's a bit liberating to have a property where he's given the freedom to be himself, since he's the kind of director who's most at home when he's molding the content to his style. "At the risk of sounding pompous, because it's going to be filtered through me, it's going to be its own thing no matter what," Gunn said. "But I think it was a chance to do something that really could make people feel like I felt when I was a young kid and saw these big spectacular space epics and give them something of that. And that was an exciting thing to be able to do."

All along, Gunn has cited the work of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning--who, along with Keith Giffen, became the "voices" of "Cosmic Marvel" for years--as instrumental in his interpretation of the story, and now the article says that's what he wants--to "own" that corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and set the stage for more films to spin out of this in the years to come. "I want to lay down the rules, I want to start it – I would love to be able to see it grow into other things," Gunn told Fandango. "I love talking about all the other filmmakers, sitting around with the producer pitching ideas for other filmmakers to take on future Marvel projects. It's a great thing to be a part of. And I don't think it's for everybody, but the truth is for me being able to sort of create this movie is a dream come true and just been a great experience."