The Nicolas Cage movie James Gunn hated with a passion: “I was furious”
James Gunn, former Marvel MCU sweetheart for his work on the rave-reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy saga and now CEO of DC Studios, is no stranger to controversy. His propensity for strong opinions and penchant for dark humour has landed him in hot water in the past, in fact he was dropped by Disney at one point due to historical controversial tweets being unearthed. With this in mind, it’s no surprise to see that he once stated he was ‘furious’ when he heard about one of his favourite films being remade.
Gunn pulled no punches in an interview back in 2001, and the film remake that boiled his blood back then was none other than Nicolas Cage’s City Of Angels, a remake of Wim Wender’s Wings Of Desire, a classic rumination on love in a divided, cold war Berlin. Gunn was quoted as saying, “I was furious when I heard Wings of Desire was being remade (as the Nicolas Cage weeper City of Angels). In fact, I’m still not so happy about that one”. It’s easy to understand Gunn’s frustration given the remake that was delivered, with Wender’s more philosophical and brooding classic transformed into a run-of-the-mill rom-com slop.
The remake development would definitely raise some eyebrows among fans of the German original. The screenwriter, Dana Stevens, made several changes to the original story while still trying to maintain Wings of Desire’s essence. She moved the location from Berlin to Los Angeles, a decision she defended by stating, “Los Angeles is metaphorically more representative of America than any other city”.
There were also changes to the storyline, Wender’s classic non-linear narrative was dropped in favour of something more spoon fed, as well as the decision to kill Maggie (Marion in the original) for the classic Hollywood tear-jerking ending. In the most shocking twist the film has to offer, Nicholas Cage plays this scene with remarkable subtlety, depriving viewers some of his trademark wails.
Given the current era of the remake we inhabit, some of Gunn’s comments from all the way back in 2001 seem remarkably contemporary. When discussing the drawbacks of early drafts of scripts being reviewed online, Gunn said, “I think it could adversely affect filmmaking as a whole, even if only in a slight way. But, then again, what do I know? I take on these projects that are near and dear to people’s hearts and then expect them not to be afraid? No way”. It makes you wonder if some remake scripts received more pushback. Would we have been spared nightmarish remakes like Point Break or frequent offender Nicholas Cage’s The Wicker Man?
James Gunn remains as sceptical of remakes as fans today, going as far as to state, “If I heard there was going to be a Dawn of the Dead remake three years ago, I probably would have been on the message boards myself with more than a little cynicism“.
It’s good to know that even the biggest directors in the industry are not above a little social media trolling. Given Gunn’s fairly prolific Twitter usage, this does read like a little foreshadowing of how his career would be tied to internet backlash, both for and against him.
