The Suicide Squad’s James Gunn Says Studios Buy Too Many Movies

The Suicide Squad director James Gunn says that studios buy too many movies. These comments came after a fan asked a question during one of his popular Instagram Q+A sessions. Many people are wondering about what will change in the film industry after the coronavirus pandemic. One thing that was already being asked before this summer was how can studios can streamline the process ad shorten film development times. The fan asked the Guardians of the Galaxy director, “Is there a process in film-making you believe needs changing?” He took some time to deliver a thought out assessment of how things could change a bit when movies get the go-ahead to begin production. Gunn thinks that the script-writing process is so key to the success of many films.

“Many. The biggest one is I wish studios wouldn’t green light films until they had a script that they were happy with,” Gunn said. “The quality of films would instantly rise 60%. But studios green light movies off concepts, IP, and available release dates.”

Funny enough, Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson had similar comments when asked about how the coronavirus pandemic would affect films going forward.

“The pushing of all these big tentpole release dates will increase their overall quality — more time for script & production design development, he wrote on Twitter. “Blade Runner looks so amazing because Ridley Scott & his team took a year during the 80-81 actors & WGA strikes to perfect the visuals.”

These two vey different filmmakers are coming at this from similar angles. But, it remains unclear if any of that will change in the coming theater landscape. Yesterday saw Warner Bros. basically push all of their projects down the pipeline a bit because of rising concerns around COVID-19. Whenever things begin to inch back to normal, you can bet that studios will want to tighten things up a bit at all levels of production.

Marvel’s updated movie release schedule currently includes Black Widow on November 6, 2020, The Eternals on February 12, 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 7, 2021, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 on November 5, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on February 11, 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on March 25, 2022, Black Panther II on May 6, 2022, and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Disney+ also has The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If…? Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight on the way.

Do you think that Gunn’s proposal is correct? Let us know in the comments!

(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images)