On its 15th Anniversary, Guardians of the Galaxy helmer, James Gunn has taken to Facebook to look back on his time of the live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo in which he wrote the screenplay revealing his original cut wasn’t the family friendly film it ended up being.
With Scooby-Doo being his first studio film and being a fun kid since childhood, he admitted to being excited to work on the project but his first cut of the script was, in fact, a lot darker and edgier, initially being aimed at young adults and beyond.
“Yes, it was not exactly what we planned going out – I had written an edgier film geared toward older kids and adults, and the studio ended pushing it into a clean cut children’s film. And, yes, the rumours are true – the first cut was rated R by the MPAA, and the female stars’ cleavage was CGI’d away so as not to offend. But, you know, such is life. I had a lot of fun making this movie, regardless of all that. And I was also able to eat, buy a car, and a house because of it.”
Despite his excitement for the movie, it garnered some pretty harsh feedback, Gunn went on to explain how those reviews had quite an emotional effect on him.
“I remember being bummed out that the reviews were pretty terrible. These days I might glance at the occasional review (admittedly, mostly only good ones), but back then I read EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. I also read everything written about the movie online, by, like, anybody, including bulletin board folks. It was a kind of film-self-involvement I’ve learned to avoid since”
Gunn’s post went on to convey exactly how thankful he was for the experience of his time on the production.
