Following the announcement of Guardians of the Galaxy at Comic-Con this year, the big question on everybody’s lips was “How the hell are they going to pull that off?” This is, after all, a comic with a sentient tree and a talking, gun-toting raccoon. Now we know, thanks to Heat Vision, that the task has fallen to Chris McCoy.
Who is Chris McCoy? While he is yet to received a credit for a feature, he is a three-time entrant in the Hollywood Black List, where the best unproduced screenplays turn up. One of these was the fascinating sounding Get Back, a time-travel comedy involving The Beatles! His high-concept ideas may be just what this series needs to avoid being a space-blown disaster like Green Lantern, as this will be one of Marvel Studios’ most challenging entries in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Taking over chores from Nicole Perlman’s treatment, McCoy is the latest in a long line of left-field choices for Marvel Studios. It’s only been a few months since Marvel announced Community helmers Anthony and Joe Russo as the directors of Captain America: The Winter Solider, which is a particularly dark chapter of Cap’s history. Indeed, we can go right back to Iron Man and the selection of Jon Favreau, who at the time was mainly known for Elf and Zathura. Not to mention Robert Downey Jr, who owes his current stardom to the chance they took. Marvel also seem to have a habit of getting people on the cheap, and an unproduced writer doesn’t really make the same demands as established ones.
The comedic approach McCoy might take would be in keeping with the tone of the comics, which were rebooted with a new team in 2008. The line-up, from the concept art below, appears to be Star-Lord, Draxx the Destroyer, Groot, Rocket Raccoon and Gamorra.The special-effects laden film that this will no doubt be will have to be underway soon, but rewrites like this are not uncommon.
To Infinity and Beyond
Where is this all heading? Read on if you aren’t afraid of spoilers from The Avengers. There’s a fairly good chance that Marvel’s Phase 2 direction is headed directly towards the whole Infinity Gauntlet saga that began back in 1991 in the comics. We have seen the Gauntlet, however briefly, during the Asgard scenes of Thor. It’s possible that Thanos, seen during the credits of The Avengers, will be seeking to retrieve the gauntlet, if not the Infinity Gems that make it up and allow him to go on a big wave of destruction.
The Guardians of the Galaxy were originally created in 1969, but the version commonly seen today is the 2008 reboot. During the War of Kings and The Thanos Imperative storylines, they faced the purple-headed warrior, and there’s a fair bet this is where the cinematic future is headed.
The one film that Marvel hasn’t announced as yet is The Avengers 2, but with $1.5 billion at the global box office, it has to be around the corner. Will this mean a team-up between The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy? Industrious fan kaijunexus certainly thinks so, with this banner he created from existing promo materials.
Guardians of the Galaxy is released on 1 August 2014 from Disney.
