James Gunn Shares Update on His Lost Gilligan’s Island Horror Reboot

James Gunn recently revealed new details about his unmade Gilligan’s Island horror reboot. The original sitcom, which aired on CBS between 1964 and 1967, had a profound impact on pop culture for decades. Its success led to the development of several made-for-TV movies. Meanwhile, Gunn’s pitch, which originated from an idea by celebrated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, was reportedly rejected by the estate of the late series creator Sherwood Schwartz.

James Gunn gives an update on his unmade Gilligan’s Island reboot

Gunn recently took to Threads to reveal that the Schwartz estate had reached out to him after his 2021 social media post on the subject and expressed interest in the reboot. However, by then, the DCU co-head had moved on to other projects.

“In all fairness, after I posted about the history of this project (the posts referred to in this article), the Schwartz estate contacted me and told me they’d be happy to let me do it… but by that time I was occupied with other things,” Gunn wrote.

The Superman director added, “But, yeah, this is all accurate,” and included a CBR article about the reboot pitch.

In 2021, Gunn recalled his experience on Twitter (now X) as part of the “Pitch a movie with two pictures, no captions” meme that took over the platform at the time. He revealed that Kaufman, known for writing screenplays for movies like Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, pitched an idea for a Gilligan’s Island movie reboot in the ’90s. In Kaufman’s concept, the castaways turned on each other and became cannibals. According to Gunn, Warner Bros. expressed interest in the project, but Schwartz himself rejected it.

Years later, after the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn attempted to revive the project. He noted that it seemingly caught the studio and Kaufman’s attention. However, as mentioned above, Schwartz’s estate ultimately turned it down.

Given that the estate did reach out to Gunn, his reboot of Gilligan’s Island remains a possibility.

Source: Comingsoon.net