Not that his most vociferous and vocal detractors needed any more reasons to drag James Gunn‘s name through the mud, but they’ve been given a fresh magazine of ammunition after YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou revealed that they’d held discussions with DC Studios before ultimately turning down the chance to direct an unnamed project.
The way the industry works is that filmmakers have conversations with studios and producers all the time, but because this particular tale involves the man who swooped into the comic book company, booted Henry Cavill and Dwayne Johnson out of the door, and stamped out the final remaining embers of the SnyderVerse, it’s suddenly become a stick to beat him over the head with.
It doesn’t help that it’s come so soon after Ben Affleck unequivocally made it clear that he had no interest in helming a DC production under Gunn’s watch, despite the Guardians of the Galaxy architect claiming when Chapter 1: Gods & Monsters was announced that he’d love nothing more than to bring the former canonical Batman back into the fold on the other side of the camera.
While YouTubers making the jump to a blockbuster superhero adventure has the potential to cause widespread alarm among purists, the duo known online as RackaRacka have been making serious waves with their feature-length debut. Backed by genre specialists A24, supernatural horror Talk to Me has rustled up an impressive 97 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its theatrical release this summer, so the Philippou brothers are virtually destined to become seriously in-demand should it take flight at the box office.