Gunn’s “Suicide Squad” Is Bigger Than You Think

By
Garth Franklin
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As part of a new feature piece in Empire magazine, writer/director James Gunn has spoken some more about his upcoming DC Comics adaptation “The Suicide Squad” and says it’s far bigger than his two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films at Marvel Studios.

In fact, the piece revealed the film is far more sprawling and epic than you might expect. Warner Bros. Pictures reportedly told producer Peter Safran that this was “the largest construction project on any movie they’ve ever done” and over one-hundred sets were built for the project.

Gunn says: “It was becoming more and more bluescreen on my other movies, an it sort of bums me out a little bit to be spending three weeks on a set that is just a few painted purple rocks. But The Suicide Squad is a big film with so many practical effects. We were really building giant sets.”

More details about the film’s plot has also emerged – the squad this time heads out on a mission to the infamous DC-invented Latin American island of Corto Maltese. Safran explains: “There they have to destroy a Nazi-era prison and laboratory named Jotunheim, where political prisoners were held and experimentations took place.” So a variation on “Overlord”?

Dan Sudick, who has worked as an special effects supervisor on every Marvel movie to shoot in Atlanta, also worked on “The Suicide Squad” and Gunn says Sudick: “thinks he did more on-set special effects on this movie than all the Marvel movies combined.”

Gunn adds: “That really is true, because we’re crushing cars, we’re blowing up tons of stuff, we’re doing tons of squibs…we could do whatever we wanted. There are no rules in terms of sex and violence and things like that.”

Gunn also said recently that “No character was protected by DC. They gave me carte blanche to do what I wanted.” In fact he made it a stipulation that one of the things he agreed to as he wanted the audience to know anything could happen.

Gunn says a potential sequel is “definitely a possibility,” and he’s also already written almost all the episodes of the HBO Max spin-off series planned which will center on John Cena’s Peacemaker character. In addition, actor Steve Agee will reprise the role of Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary warden John Economos in the series after debuting in the part in the new film reports Deadline.

Finally, comics writer and late 1980s ‘Squad’ creator John Ostrander will have a cameo as Dr. Fitzgibbon in the film. “The Suicide Squad” opens August 6th 2021 while “Peacemaker” has not set a premiere date yet.