DCU co-head James Gunn has effectively confirmed that Luca Guadagnino’s take on Sgt Rock was cancelled because he didn’t like the script.
Not long back James Gunn was talking about how quality would be the only relevant benchmark for the soon-to-launch DC Universe and to illustrate his point, he referenced pulling a project because he wasn’t happy with the script. Now Gunn has popped up again and all but confirmed that the project in question was Luca Guadagnino’s Sgt Rock, the planned war movie that was supposed to shoot in the UK this summer.
Speaking to EW about the overall state of the DCU as we move towards the release of its first theatrical release in the form of Gunn’s own Superman, the filmmaker had this to say specifically about the suspension of Sgt Rock: “I feel like we’re in a pretty good place. We’re still moving forward, but it’s not going to be…What would Peter want me to say here? … So it’s still moving forward, but, yeah, right now it wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be creatively, and so it needs to change a little bit.”
Colin Farrell or Jeremy Allen White were said to be in line to play the grizzled combat veteran, while the unreliable British weather was cited as one reason for the production being scrapped. Now it seems that our lovely climes were used as a scapegoat to hide the fact that Gunn simply wasn’t happy with the script.
Gunn has a tendency to overshare regarding the status of things over at DC, and this feels like it could be another case of ‘loose lips sinking ships.’ As the creative overseer of the entire DCU, Gunn has taken an enormous amount of strain upon his own shoulders by writing and directing the upcoming Superman, which will effectively set the tenor of the conversation moving forwards regarding the health of the DCU. By publicly admitting that Guadagnino’s Sgt Rock isn’t yet moving forwards because of him is another added responsibility, one that fans will use as ammunition should things not get off to a solid start.
Still, for better and for worse, this is Gunn’s style of leadership. It’s certainly refreshing but not just letting a filmmaker as highly respected as Guagagnino simply get on with things is a big call. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to bite him too hard as it seems to have done repeatedly for Lucasfilm, for example.
And honestly, Mr Gunn, we would have all believed you if you’d just told us that the suspension of Sgt Rock was down to the vagaries of British summertime, we’d have believed you with a full heart and and just gone about our business. We’ll bring you more on the project as we hear it.
