_Guardians of the Galaxy_ has opened huge this weekend. After being embraced by, well, everyone it is now on track for nearly 100$ Million in North America and 160$ million worldwide which makes it the biggest august opening weekend ever.
Writer/Director James Gunn posted a heartfelt thank you on his Facebook page this morning and you should totally read it.
> Thanks to all of you who saw (and are seeing) Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend, from the bottom of my heart. The Guardians are a group of oddballs, outcasts, and geeks. The movie is for anyone who ever felt cast aside, left out, or different. It’s for all of us who don’t belong. This movie belongs to you. And, today, I think we’re doing okay.
> I am of course happy with all the film has accomplished box-office-wise. But what touches me the most is that the film I told the folks at Marvel I wanted to make two years ago is the film that you’re seeing in theaters today – it’s that so many of you seem to be directly EXPERIENCING the film I INTENDED. The cast, the producers, the crew, and I felt like we were making something special while we were making it. But it is very rare that a director’s INTENTIONS in creating a film, or a scene, or a character, or a line of dialogue are, seemingly, specifically what is experienced by an audience (not to mention critics!), and that seems to be what has happened here. You have allowed a talking raccoon – for a moment, a minute, or a day – to make you a little more human. And for that, I am profoundly grateful.
> If I relied on myself to implement these intentions, the film would be a shambling mess. But instead, I had a wonderful cast, genius producers, an incredibly brave studio, sublimely talented visual effects artists, great editors, and the best damn crew of mostly-British bastards to actually implement these intentions for me. Where I had a good idea they would, through alchemy, transform it into a great one. Many of you involved are friends of mine on Facebook. Many of you will read this somewhere else. I love you all.
> You may remember me posting here a couple weeks ago how sad I was to be finishing up the film, that I was having trouble letting go of Rocket, and that I was going to miss him. But seeing him (and Groot, and the rest of the team) embraced by the world like they have been, to be UNDERSTOOD, makes it a wonderful letting go. It’s like giving a foster pet up for adoption to the most wonderful parents in the world.
> And, of course, I’m not really saying goodbye as, while many of you have been enjoying the film, I’ve spent this weekend hard at work on the sequel. I couldn’t help myself! The results are nice but it’s really the creative process I love and that keeps me going. I’m on fire with this thing! The Guardians have so many hardships and heartaches and triumphs ahead of them, and I can’t wait to share them with all of you.
> Onto week two…
> Love, James
I kind of wonder if this post has anything to do with the minor controversy over Nicole Perlman getting a writing credit after basically her entire script (except the basic outline) was tossed out and re-written by Gunn, but then again I’m kind of a cynic.
Even if there is some lingering messiness there Gunn has crafted a fantastic film and his fingerprints as a writer and director are all over the finished product. It must be more than a little nice for him –whose films to date have mostly been niche films– to see such widespread acceptance from, again, _everyone_.
As stated in the letter he’s already working on Guardians 2 (which has been dated for July 2017). One can only hope that Gunn’s name is at the top of the list for replacement for Joss Whedon if he leaves the Marvel Universe after _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ as rumoured.
Either way James Gunn is here to stay and can write his own ticket now and that’s nothing but good news for film lovers everywhere.
(source: Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/jgunn/posts/10152606005179570))
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