James Gunn has pinpointed a significant factor he believes is contributing to the decline of the movie industry. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the filmmaker and co-head of DC Studios expressed his concerns about the quality of films being released. He asserts that many lackluster movies can be traced back to production schedules that are set before the scripts are fully developed.
“I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies. It’s not because of home screens getting so good,” Gunn stated. “The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”
Since assuming leadership of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran, Gunn has made it clear that no superhero films will enter production until their scripts are complete. He shared that they have halted at least one project because the screenplay wasn’t ready. “Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go,” he revealed. “The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good.”
Gunn noted the fortunate circumstances surrounding the scripts for upcoming projects. “We’ve been really lucky so far, because Supergirl’s script was so fucking good off the bat. And then Lanterns came in, and the script was so fucking good. Clayface, same thing. So fucking good. So we have these scripts that we’ve been really lucky with or wise in our choices or whatever the combination is.”
Additionally, Gunn highlighted that not having a mandate from Warner Bros. to produce a certain number of DC projects annually has allowed for a focus on quality. He pointed to Disney’s previous push for increased Marvel content as detrimental, explaining that Disney CEO Bob Iger has since prioritized quality over quantity.
“We have to treat every project as if we’re lucky,” Gunn explained. “We don’t have the mandate [at DC Studios] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”