Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn argues that some shared universes may be getting in the way of making a great film...
Over the past few months, more and more studios, following the success of Marvel, have been trying to muscle their way into the shared cinematic universe business. So, as well as the likes of X-Men and DC, there's Universal trying to apply it to its classic monsters, and more recently, reports that Warner Bros is up to the same trick with its planned King Arthur movie series (the studio is rumoured to have up to six films in mind).
James Gunn, the director of last summer's Guardians Of The Galaxy, wants to call bullshit on it all though. In fact, he has, in a post over on his Facebook page. Under the header 'Carts before horses & Hollywood's new love of shared universes,' Gunn declares that "I'm a little worried about the numerous shared universes being planned by the studios, without having a strong base to grow the film from - or in some cases, NO base film to grow from."
He specifically excludes from this the likes of Marvel, DC, Transformers, Twilightand Star Wars ("these were movies audiences loved, and the audiences demanded more from these characters"). But instead, his criticism was aimed at studios rather than named titles, arguing that they are "trying to grow trees without a strong seed," that "execs and producers and sometimes even directors are focused on the big picture, without perfecting the task directly in front of them - making a great movie."
"I think this new business model is flawed", he concluded. "I think filmmakers and studios should be prepared for the big picture, but never, ever let it get in the way of making a single great film. Be a little more experimental and see what works as opposed to trying to force success."
And we can't think of too many people who would disagree with the thrust of what he's saying.
You can read his full post here, which is markedly different from some of the, er, more extreme interpretations of it that have popped up in headlines over the past 24 hours...
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that's your thing!