James Gunn Net Worth

James Gunn's Quotes

• Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy happier.
• On Scooby-Doo: "With all the difficulties plaguing the world over the past year, isn't it about time we had a hero who tells kids it's okay to be afraid?" "Scooby's the greatest cartoon character ever. He isn't cute like Mickey, or smart like Bugs, or fearless like Woody and Buzz -- he's a talking dog who's more human than I am. It's his humanity and imperfections that make him special."
• If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, if life gives you assholes, make a Troma movie.
• I saw Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) in a theater when it first came out, and it was so gritty and dark I felt sick to my stomach for a couple of days afterwards - like the evil of it stuck to my soul. Part of what was so frightening was Rooker, Michael's incredible performance. We normally distance ourselves from villains, but I almost felt for him as Henry. The last thing you want to do is identify with a serial killer. That's scarier than anything jumping out of the corner of a film frame.
• I can't be told life is beautiful through a normal positive thinking book or a Hallmark movie; that language doesn't work for me.

Interesting Facts about James Gunn

1. The character "Gunn" on the TV series Angel (1999) was named such after Angel (1999) creator Joss Whedon worked with both James and his brother Sean Gunn.
2. Is an avid comic book reader.
3. Gunn worked as a hospital orderly, bar musician, and quarry worker before landing an interview for a summer job filing papers at Troma Films, but instead wound up being hired to write the screenplay for Tromeo and Juliet (1996) (and was paid $150 dollars to do so). He later choreographed the sex scenes for Tromeo and Juliet (1996). It would take him five years to write his first novel, "The Toy Collector". He also wrote the screenplays for The Specials (2000) and Tromeo and Juliet (1996) in two week binges. Was hired to write Scooby-Doo (2002) after doing a draft of Spy vs. Spy (1985) for Warner Bros. and director Jay Roach.
4. Brother of actor Sean Gunn, writer Brian Gunn, filmmaker Matt Gunn and movie exec Patrick Gunn. Cousin of Mark Gunn. Former son-in-law of Anne Fischer.
5. Was part of a consortium of teenaged amateur filmmakers called "The Splicers" in his native St. Louis; the consortium also included George Hickenlooper, Bill Boll, Tim Gallaher, Steve Goedde, and Chris Curtis.
6. Gunn was the first person in cinema history to write back-to-back #1 for the weekend box office hits, with Dawn of the Dead (2004) on 19 March 2004 and Scooby Doo 2: De losgeslagen monsters (2004) one week later.
7. Gunn is one of several real-world horror celebrities who are in the fictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack in the 2008 novel "Bad Moon Rising" by Jonathan Maberry. (Other such celebrities include Tom Savini, Brinke Stevens, Ken Foree, Stephen Susco, Debbie Rochon, Joe Bob Briggs (aka John Bloom) and blues musician Mem Shannon.).
8. Told the New York Times in August 2011 that the horror film with the most profound impact on him when he was young was Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), because the most frightening aspect of all was that it moved him to relate to, or empathize, with the killer.
9. Owns a hand-painted movie poster, directly sourced from Ghana, for Slither (2006).
10. He has Irish and Czech ancestry.
11. Ex-brother-in-law of Emily Fischer.