James Gunn

About Me

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri in a large Irish Catholic family. At the age of 12 he began his filmmaking career with an eight-millimeter camera. His first film featured his brother Sean (The Gilmore Girls) being disemboweled by zombies.

While attending Columbia University in New York, Gunn applied for a part-time job filing papers at famed B-movie studios Troma Entertainment, and ended up writing the screenplay for a movie called Tromeo & Juliet instead. He was paid $150 to do so. In 1997, Tromeo became a cult hit, playing in theaters around the world, including over a year of midnight screenings in Los Angeles. Gunn has also acted in the Troma films Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 and the appropriately titled Tales from the Crapper.

Gunn left Troma to write and star (along with Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden-Church, Jamie Kennedy and his own brother, Sean) in the feature film, The Specials, about a group of superheroes on their day off. In the year 2000, literally dozens of people flocked to the theater while it played in LA and New York. However, the film went on to minor-cult status on DVD, and Gunn has twice been accosted by someone dressed as himself in the movie.

Gunn wrote the critically acclaimed novel The Toy Collector, released by Bloomsbury Press in 2000. It's the story of a hospital orderly who sells drugs to finance his escalating toy collecting addiction. He also wrote, with Lloyd Kaufman, the non-fiction book All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, which is currently in its fifth printing.

In 2002 the live action Scooby-Doo movie was released into theaters. Gunn wrote the screenplay for the film, the first movie he was involved with that he allowed his mother to see. The film has grossed almost $300 million worldwide.

In March of 2004 Gunn became the first screenwriter in cinema history to write back-to-back #1-for-the-weekend box office hits, with the critically-acclaimed, "re-imagined" Dawn of the Dead on March 19, 2004 and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed on March 26, 2004.

Gunn's love for the comedy and horror genres has coalesced in the humorous horror film SLiTHER, Universal released in March of 2006 theatrically and on DVD in October of 2006, which received nearly unanimous positive reviews. Gunn wrote the film, his feature-film directorial debut, which was produced by Gold Circle and Strike Entertainment, and stars Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker.

He starred in Jenna Fischer's directorial debut LolliLove, a mockumentary about a Los Angeles couple who try to change the world by handing out lollipops to homeless people. The film has played film festivals around the world and was released on DVD on March 7, 2006, to amazing response.

Gunn will next write and direct Pets for 20th Century Fox, producers include Peter Safran, Ben Stiller's production company Red Hour and New Regency. Story follows a man abducted by aliens, who decide they want to keep him as a household pet.

James is also the creative force (in collaboration with producer Peter Saffran) behind a series of original short film pilots will be coming to Xbox LIVE this fall, free to all members around the world. The unique concept of masters of horror taking on comedy, will see some of the world's greatest horror directors bring their comedic visions to life. Beginning this fall, the short film pilots will be available worldwide on Xbox LIVE from influential horror directors James Wan (Saw, Death Sentence), David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy), James Gunn, Lucky McKee (May, The Woods), Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror) and Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th). All of the pilots will be free either for download or streaming on Xbox LIVE. The new short film pilots available on Xbox LIVE this fall including Gunn's original entry Humanzee, starring his brother Sean Gunn.

James will also serve as a judge as well as direct the contestants in scenes on the VH1 reality series Scream Queens, alongside actress, Shawnee Smith and acting coach John Homa a new television series that will pluck one actress from obscurity who could well become Hollywood's next horror film sensation. The series is produced by Lionsgate, the leading filmed entertainment studio, and set to premiere in the fall of 2008 as well.

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