Who Are the “Guardians of the Galaxy?” You’ll Find Out, Says Director

Buena Vista(NEW YORK) — Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters Friday, and the movie has been generating massive buzz — and positive reviews.

Based on a relatively obscure comic that launched in 1969, the movie was considered a gamble, as its titular quintet of unlikely heroes — Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana’s Gamora, Dave Bautista’s Drax, the Vin Diesel-voiced tree-man Groot, and Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon — aren’t as familiar to most people as say The Hulk or Spider-Man.

Guardians director and co-writer James Gunn tells ABC News Radio, “Making a movie with characters that people weren’t as familiar with was actually pretty freeing. Because I got to create them from the ground up for the cinematic universe. And yes I love Marvel comics, and so there was a lot of the spirit of those comics that I wanted to keep. But I also had the freedom to do what I wanted in film form.”

While the summer box office numbers are down around 20 percent compared to last year, ABC News Radio asked Gunn if Guardians could rescue Hollywood’s bottom line as well as the galaxy. It isn’t a fair question, the filmmaker says.

“Disney’s doing pretty amazingly well this year, that’s who this movie’s going to help. It’s not going to help all the other studios that are out there making movies that aren’t making any money.”

The movie, which also stars Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Benicio Del Toro, Karen Gillan and Lee Pace, has already been given the go-ahead for a 2017 sequel.

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