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'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Cast Pens Open Letter Supporting James Gunn


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The complete cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise have signed an open letter supporting fired director James Gunn.  The open letter says the cast has been “encouraged” by fans and some members of the media “who wish to see James reinstated” as director of Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3.  The director was fired by Disney on July 20th after his old tweets joking about pedophilia and rape were sent around the web by conservative bloggers.  335,588 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding his re-hiring as well.

The complete open letter can be read below.

Source: Deadline

Cast-Open-Letter.jpg

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15 hours ago, mako said:

So which jokes were they defending, the rape jokes or the pedophile jokes?

This was said over a decade ago, funny how Whoopie can tell a former Judge to go F herself & to get the F outta the building & still have her job on that POS libtard show, but someone says something on twitter while at home & they get canned from their own show & now this guy gets canned for something he said 11 yrs ago. The TDS is real.

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What this all brings to mind, to me, is not what’s wrong — or what was wrong — with the man, but what is indeed wrong with society, and the world at large.

There is extremism in everything. From comedy, to judgment.

On the one side, exists an outspoken element that has all but condemned and crucified the man, instinctively. But, there are also those within that camp, who have seen fit to Chicken Little what is essentially the normalization of otherwise abhorrent behaviors and sentiments, as the man is indeed guilty of having disseminated, speciously rallying against the man, by himself, rather than the actual behavior.

On the other side, there are those who have dug deeper into the background of the man, only to become aware of the fact that he went so far as to make attempts to right his wrongs, personally, of his own volition, for having taken the lessons of those mistakes, to heart. And within that segment, there are those who have called to boycott Disney and written petitions to decrie that they want his reinstatement, without acknowledging the reprehensiblility of the normalization of such behavior.

And, I can honestly see that there is something to be taken from both of these distinctive and substantive positions. Whether or not we want to actually, objectively consider the question of forgiveness. Y’know, that thing that we do, out of compassion and empathy, because we realize that we’re all imperfect. That most of us are deserving of a second chance. And that, in the grand scheme of things, there are bigger concerns, here.

Which, let me put it this way; From a strictly objective viewpoint, what the man said was sick and twisted. But he made every attempt to alter his own ill behavior, a very long time ago. And, when it comes down to it, I think there’s something much more concerning about a human being that actually exploits and abuses children, as opposed to a human being that makes jokes — deplorable as they may be — about the fact that that happens.

I just can’t help but think that there is no definitive ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, in this equation. At least insofar as what everybody’s actually so obsessively set their sights on, to do with it. Which is the discussion of child endangerment, and not so much the criminals that actually carry it out.

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I already spoke my mind bout this, but I will say one more thing.  What pisses me off about thing like this is the double standards. I the world we live today you are not judged by your words or actions, but by the crowd that you are in.  If you are with the "cool kids" everything is allowed or even excused. Doesn't matter if you did it today or ten years ago. But if you don't conform wit the collective or are not progressive enough, you are out! Even if what you did "wrong" wasn't so important, it will be made bigger, because you are not "one of us"

 

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On 8/6/2018 at 2:47 PM, mako said:

 

No, I find the guy who makes jokes to be a lot more concerning. A piece of filth who abuses a child or rapes a woman is an animal. NOBODY is gonna argue that. But the guy who turns that same behavior into comedy? On some level, that guy is turning that behavior, two of the worst things any human could ever do to another, into something acceptable. Even worse, he's attempting to profit off it. Granted, not in actual money; but a cheap laugh, a quick "WTF!" attention grab. I find that totally unforgivable.

 

 

To be fair, I noted that particular takeaway from this whole topic, among the varying sides that have been very vocal about it.

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  • 7 months later...

@Gmen4ever you’re my spirit animal on a message forum lol. I assume you’re a giants fan, as am I, and I agree with everything you said.  The hypocrisy & double standard unfortunately is a non-issue because the media is run by the left. It’s sickening. Taking politics out of this, which is so hard to do at this point, but doing it anyway, it’s probably best for the movie and MCU’s sake... but. My two favorite forms of entertainment are football and marvel lol, and both of them seem to be intertwined in the bowels of the left. 

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First, let's leave politics and the stupidity it causes out of this.  Second, this actually isn't a complicated matter. Disney has a history of firing/forcing out people who do things that don't jive with Disney's standards/beliefs. More than a decade ago they forced the Weinsteins out of Miramax when Harvey W's crimes came to their attention, and they tried to get someone, anyone, to press charges against him. And last year, they forced John Lasseter out for his abusive transgressions. There are countless other, much lower-profile, examples of this.

One additional thing to understand about Disney is that they abide by a sort of holy tenet that childhood is sacred. It's a very real belief within the organization. If you want to work for them, there's one line you don't get near and that's anything to do with harming children. So, in Gunn's case, it didn't matter how Disney found out about those tweets and it hadn't anything to do with right vs left, he would've been fired regardless.

Now, all that said, there's another aspect to Disney in that they're known for investigation and for giving second chances. They investigated Weinstein, found the rumors of abuse to have merit and actively tried to get someone to press charges. They investigated Lasseter and gave him the opportunity to stay, provided he took a sabbatical to seek help. Unfortunately, he didn't abide by the terms. And, finally, they fired Gunn because you don't joke about pedophilia and work for Disney, but Marvel Studios and a group within Disney itself conducted an investigation which found no evidence of anything beyond poor taste in humor over a decade ago, and they were able to convince the people at the top--and Iger himself--that Gunn isn't a pedophile or the idiot he once was and he deserved a second chance. Gunn's own actions in the matter helped him tremendously as well. That's it folks. No conspiracy, no politics and nothing out of the ordinary.

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On 8/7/2018 at 12:19 PM, FASVB said:

I already spoke my mind bout this, but I will say one more thing.  What pisses me off about thing like this is the double standards. I the world we live today you are not judged by your words or actions, but by the crowd that you are in.  If you are with the "cool kids" everything is allowed or even excused. Doesn't matter if you did it today or ten years ago. But if you don't conform wit the collective or are not progressive enough, you are out! Even if what you did "wrong" wasn't so important, it will be made bigger, because you are not "one of us"

 

Yay, I get to be political without getting deleted, cuz this is a political issue.

It's clear a lot of what he said 11 years ago was him trying to be provocative and trying to boost his public profile. I get it, but it was both sickening and excessive. There is a clear double-standard. Certain public figures woulda never got away with anything like this, but since Gunn is in the "Cool Club" with almighty Disney, is it really any surprise? For me it wasn't a matter of "if" he would be rehired, but "when". They feigned outrage just long enough to make feed the peasants' bloodlust and then when the next outrage took center stage and the heat died down, all is forgiven. This is a time when something someone said a decade ago can be dug up and used to crucify them, yet those same people, through Hollywood and the media, yet they don't hold the people on their own "team" to the same standards.

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Thank god. I really don't care what he said years ago. Virtually everyone was ignorant back in the day (myself included). We live in a different world today. When it comes to artists I separate the art from the artist anyways. I just want to see this man make an amazing movie and do my favorite comic book character (Adam Warlock) justice.

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First this is a warning to all, name calling and telling people to shut up will not be tolerated here. If you can't conduct a discussion in a civilized manner without attacking others then do yourself a favor and just move on without posting. If you can't do that you will be asked to leave.

 

 

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As to the topic of discussion. Those trying to bring politics into this seemingly do so to avoid the actual problem with what he said. Yes the reason why someone went and dug up these old comments originally was politically motivated but that doesn't change the fact of just how bad his comments where and why many people regardless of political affiliation were and still are offended by them. IMO Disney should have been aware of these comments before they ever hired him (and there are many indications they were) and should have found someone else for these movies to begin with to avoid this entire mess, but they didn't. 

Yes people do and say stupid things and can change, but there are certain things that become very hard to just write off as being young and ignorant or being said as a joke. I don't care how old you are, or what time period you grew up in, there are certain things that are just universally bad and unjustifiable and if you really take the time and read all his comments he made in public, I think they fit that bill.

IDK in today's society the lines of right and wrong get blurred so badly and generally anyone can make an argument on social media for one side or the other. I see people refusing to believe that Michael Jackson did anything wrong, and I don't know exactly what happened at Neverland, but you could definitely see there were signs of something being very off there and yet people were and still are willing to look past it because there isn't 100% proof and they enjoy his music.

Since Gunn has never been actually accused of rape or pedophilia let alone convicted I am not advocating his life should be destroyed, but I do think there are def signs of something being off there and someone like that should not be working on projects made primarily for kids.

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20 minutes ago, JayC said:

As to the topic of discussion. Those trying to bring politics into this seemingly do so to avoid the actual problem with what he said. Yes the reason why someone went and dug up these old comments originally was politically motivated but that doesn't change the fact of just how bad his comments where and why many people regardless of political affiliation were and still are offended by them. IMO Disney should have been aware of these comments before they ever hired him (and there are many indications they were) and should have found someone else for these movies to begin with to avoid this entire mess, but they didn't. 

Yes people do and say stupid things and can change, but there are certain things that become very hard to just write off as being young and ignorant or being said as a joke. I don't care how old you are, or what time period you grew up in, there are certain things that are just universally bad and unjustifiable and if you really take the time and read all his comments he made in public, I think they fit that bill.

IDK in today's society the lines of right and wrong get blurred so badly and generally anyone can make an argument on social media for one side or the other. I see people refusing to believe that Michael Jackson did anything wrong, and I don't know exactly what happened at Neverland, but you could definitely see there were signs of something being very off there and yet people were and still are willing to look past it because there isn't 100% proof and they enjoy his music.

Since Gunn has never been actually accused of rape or pedophilia let alone convicted I am not advocating his life should be destroyed, but I do think there are def signs of something being off there and someone like that should not be working on projects made primarily for kids.

Good points, but people need to remember that while Marvel Studios knew about the tweets beforehand, Disney did not. Disney expects Marvel Studios (and Lucasfilm and Pixar) to perform due diligence on all hires themselves. Contrary to popular belief, Disney can't micromanage all aspects of each division and subsidiary.

 

Regardless of all that, as we've seen on this thread, this is a no-win situation for Disney. Fire Gunn and get accused of "kowtowing" to the right and overreacting to ancient mistakes; keep him or rehire him and get told they're working with a man capable of disgusting behavior or possible pedophilia. They're held to a higher standard than other studios/companies and they hold themselves to a higher standard. In the end, as I said earlier, a thorough investigation was conducted, the results of which convinced Disney that Gunn wasn't a degenerate sex-fiend and they could rehire him.

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