“Guardians of the Galaxy” Debuts via Digital Download

Buena Vista Pictures(NEW YORK) — The highest-grossing domestic film of the year, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, is now available for digital download ahead of its release on Blu-ray and DVD Dec. 9. The sci-fi action film went from being what many considered a long-shot at the box office to the second-biggest movie of 2014, with a global take north of 770 million bucks.

One person who was confident of the movie’s fate in theaters was Sean Gunn, the actor brother of Guardians director/writer James Gunn. Sean Gunn played Kraglin, one of the group of space pirates known as Ravagers — who abduct and sort-of adopt then-youngster Peter Quill, the earthling who grows up to become Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord. Gunn also played Rocket on set.

Gunn tells ABC News Radio, “Honestly, I can’t lie — I don’t want to, you know, sound crazy…but when people said, ‘Did you have any idea of the kind of success?’…I had some idea. I didn’t know it was gonna be quite as big as it was, but I had a pretty good feeling it was going to be really big…Just because I knew it was good.”

While the Rocket was later replaced by a computer-generated raccoon character voiced by Bradley Cooper, Gunn was a key on-set reference for the other characters to interact with, and he also helped shape the character through ad-libbing and movement.

Gunn tells ABC News Radio he was surprised when his brother told him he’d landed both gigs. “He kind of called me and all at once said, ‘Okay, you’re in to play Kraglin, and also we would like you to come and be Rocket on set, but it means you’d need to be here for the full five months in England…”

“So it was crazy, I just packed up my whole life and went to England,” Gunn adds.

Guardians of the Galaxy also stars Zoe Saldana, Benicio Del Toro, Glenn Close, and the voice of Vin Diesel as Rocket’s buddy, the imposing alien tree-man Groot. A sequel is set for May 5, 2017.

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