If James Gunn got his way, Frankenberry would have gotten a little nod in the Scooby-Doo movie he wrote in 2002. Thanks to some inspiration by way of a viral tweet from Weird Al Yankovic, Gunn revealed on Twitter Monday afternoon he initially had the beloved Monster Cereals mascot in the first draft of the script. According to the Guardians of the Galaxy helmer, Spooky Island was originally going to be a second-hand theme park with an animatronic Frankenberry.
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“On a side note, in my original script for Scooby Doo, Spooky Island was a low-rent theme park cobbled together from cheap, second-hand parts & Mystery Ink floated past an animatronic Frankenberry eating the cast of Friends,” the filmmaker tweeted Monday.
On a side note, in my original script for Scooby-Doo, Spooky Island was a low-rent theme park cobbled together from cheap, second-hand parts & Mystery Ink floated past an animatronic Frankenberry eating the cast of Friends. https://t.co/hw3o8VgcKr
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 10, 2021
With Gunn’s rising popularity among movie-goers, the filmmaker has dug into his past more as of late. That includes revisiting Scooby-Doo and answering whatever questions fans may have about it. This time last year, the director cleared the air of rumors suggesting the movie had originally been rated R.
“That would be #ReleasetheGosnellCut since Raja Gosnell was the director (& is an exceedingly nice guy),” Gunn tweeted at time. “Yes, the first MPAA rating was R but it was only because of one stupid joke the MPAA misinterpreted.”
“The movie was originally meant to be PG-13 and was cut down to PG after like 3 parents were outraged at a test screening in Sacramento. The studio decided to go a more family friendly route,” he added. “Language and jokes and sexual situations were removed, including a kiss between Daphne and Velma. Cleavage was CGI’d over. But, thankfully, the farting remained.”
Gunn then said he feels like the original rating was always a mistake, considering the project was geared toward teens instead of adults.
“I thoughts at the time the rating change was a mistake,” he added. “I felt like a lot of teens came out for the first film and didn’t get what they wanted (and didn’t come back for the sequel). But today I don’t know. So many young kids loved those movies, which is pretty cool.”
Scooby-Doo (2002) is now streaming on HBO Max.
