Alan Horn explains the decision to fire James Gunn and how it reinstated him back to Disney
The former president of Walt Disney Studios, Alan Hornhas finally broken his silence on the controversy surrounding the decision to fire director James Gunn in 2018. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Horn explained that he felt bad about firing Gunn and that he regretted his decision. What’s more, he even went so far as to point out that he had a bad feeling about the decision made.
In July 2018, Gunn was fired after some of his tweets from many years ago resurfaced. Despite Gunn publicly apologizing, Horn decided to let him go. He was fired almost immediately.
However, after Gunn presented himself politely and correctly after being fired, taking responsibility and trying to do everything he could to correct his mistake, Horn decided to rehire him to direct ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’.
Alain Horn received huge support to rehire James Gunn
In the interview, Horn explained that his decision to rehire Gunn was influenced in part by the fact that the director had accepted responsibility for his earlier comments and had worked to rectify his behavior.
Additionally, Horn revealed that he had received a tremendous amount of support from Disney employees and the filmmaking community after firing Gunn, causing him to reconsider his decision entirely.
Horn:
“Everything he did afterwards was first class. He was such a gentleman about it in the months that followed that we just brought it back. I felt it was the right thing to do. I hold him in the highest esteem.”
When Gunn was rehired by Horn, the director paid a visit to the president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige. He was delighted to have Gunn back, but Gunn revealed that he had already committed to directing. ‘The Suicide Squad’, a distinguished film. And now that?
However, despite the news, Feige and other Marvel executives never met with anyone else to have another filmmaker take care of the third Guardians installment.
Feige:
“We didn’t even put together a preliminary list just because we couldn’t do it. We couldn’t take it”
The head of Marvel Studios recently confirmed that he and Gunn have kept in touch since Horn fired him, so the meeting where they discussed the filmmaker’s return to Marvel wasn’t their first contact.
Once Horn left Disney, he found himself in a similar situation again, as he was one of those who fought because of Warner Bors. signed him as head of the DC Universe and DC Studios.
Fuente The Hollywood Reporter
