Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer threw a party to spite James Gunn

This latest reveal comes from the recently released book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, written by journalists Joanna Robinson, Gavin Edwards and Dave Gonzales. The book contains behind-the-scenes information and revelations about Marvel Studios and its rise to Hollywood dominance. Among the many allegations, the book sheds light on the long-standing tensions between James Gunn and Nicole Perlman. Nicole Perlman is a screenwriter in Hollywood and co-wrote the first Guardians of the Galaxy film with James Gunn. If the book is to be believed, he threw a party to spite James Gunn, but why?

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Marvel's incredible success with unknown comic book characters

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios highlights that one of Marvel's best years was 2014. The studio had two big successes with Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Both of these films were highly commercially successful and received critical acclaim. Guardians of the Galaxy was an unexpected success. None of the characters in the film were well-known, but against all odds, an obscure comic strip was brought to life and the film became extremely popular.

The Guardians has been praised for its humor, its story and its great characters. It is to James Gunn and Nicole Perlman that we owe the success of the franchise and its lasting attachment to popular culture. These authors knew how to give shape to a great story and fantastic characters.

Nicole Perlman chose to develop the story of Guardians of the Galaxy long before James Gunn was associated with the project. In an interview with Inverse earlier this year, she said: “I chose Guardians because I was a big sci-fi fan. They were less like a comic book and more like Star Wars.”

Writing the screenplay for Guardians of the Galaxy

Perlman's journey at Marvel began in 2009, when she joined the company's screenwriting program. Along with a few other writers, she was tasked with coming up with ideas and developing storylines for future Marvel films. They could write their screenplays based on Marvel comics. Perlman ultimately decided to write an early version of the Guardians script. In the interview, Perlman said she was exploring Marvel's cosmic comics and came across Guardians of the Galaxy, which she was previously unfamiliar with.

Perlman was drawn to the cosmic setting of Guardians and spent six to eight weeks reading each issue. She ultimately wrote ten versions between 2009 and 2011. The screenwriter had the difficult task of adapting the many “bizarre” characters to the screen. She also had to sift through many Guardians characters to arrive at the combination we saw on screen.

Perlman was also instrumental in the film's musical elements. Initially, his storyline contained 80s music from Michael Jackson and Guns and Roses. James Gunn was eventually brought on board the project and wrote his own version of the script. He introduced more supporting characters and infused more comedy into the dialogue. Gunn also changed the music from the 80s to that of the 70s. The director also incorporated Peter Quill's iconic Walkman.

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Following the release of Guardians, these and other changes became a point of contention in the media. The film's success put the spotlight on the creators, and articles like Slate's featured headlines like “Who deserves credit for the screenplay for Guardians of the Galaxy? At the time, the press considered Ms. Perlman to be the first woman to write the screenplay for a Marvel film. This article cites another BuzzFeed article as the source of the media controversy. According to the BuzzFeed article, Perlman took credit for the initial vision. the story and implied that Gunn added his perspective to his vision.

BuzzFeed's profile on Perlman turns things up when it mentions that Marvel barely credited Perlman for the film. The article states that “Marvel is publicly deferring to Gunn as the film's lead writer.” BuzzFeed also wrote: “The official production notes for Guardians of the Galaxy only mention Perlman in a single, one-sentence clause. In the article, BuzzFeed quotes Marvel's production note: “With the director on board and busy reworking the original script written by Nicole Perlman, an alumna of Marvel's writing program, the filmmakers are turning their attention to casting.

Trying to find out what happened behind the scenes

The article reports that Perlman was present during the film's production. When asked if Gunn agreed with her on set, she assumed he was wary of what she thought about his version of the script. Perlman said she thought Gunn was relieved when she told him she liked what he did.

BuzzFeed appeared to criticize Gunn later in the same article, mentioning that Gunn had “downplayed” Perlman's involvement after the film's release. They cite their interview with Gunn during a press junket for Guardians, asking the director about Perlman's role in the script; Gunn responded, “She started the ball rolling. The original concept was there; that's kind of what's in the movie, and then there's the story, and the characters were pretty much recreated by me.”

Slate also pressed Gunn's apparent downplaying of Perlman's role, citing a roundtable interview with Gunn where he said that “in Nicole's script, everything is quite different…the story is different , there’s no Walkman, the character arcs are different, it’s not the same thing.” Gunn then adds that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has a specific set of criteria that requires writing credits to be included for the screenwriters of the first draft, even if another screenwriter makes significant changes to the script, which distance from the original.

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MCU: The reign of Marvel Studios adds fuel to the fire

If we fast forward to MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, we see that the book makes an incendiary statement. The authors claim that when Guardians of the Galaxy was released, Nicole Perlman threw a “f**k James Gunn” party. The authors claim that Nicole Perlman “refused to publicly oppose James Gunn.”

Contrasting the public story with the private story, the authors quote Perlman as saying, “I agree that everyone on this film, including James, made it so beautiful.” The authors challenge Perlman's caring sentiment to reveal another side of the story. They quote Perlman's friend, Zack Stentz, who, according to a source, said, “Nicole had to fight loggerheads to get credited on Guardians of the Galaxy.” According to Stentz, Nicole suffered and won a very “deadly” arbitration, so much so that Perlman threw a “F**k James Gunn party” afterward.

Perlman and Gunn deserve credit for Guardians of the Galaxy

In hindsight, perhaps James Gunn could have been more accommodating and given Perlman more space. On the other hand, Gunn might have felt slighted by the press wanting to diminish his creative input and upset that Perlman was working behind the scenes to give himself more credit than he was due.

Regardless of who gets the credit for the script, we can all be grateful that James Gunn was able to use Perlman's ideas and vision along with his own to give us a classic like the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Tensions and arguments behind the curtains of Hollywood and in the press can derail a project. Luckily, these two creators were able to keep it together during the film's production, allowing everyone's vision to come together and create something unique.

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