Bautista: Disney quickly realized firing 'Guardians' director 'a bad call'

(2 Apr 2019) BAUTISTA: DISNEY QUICKLY REALIZED THAT FIRING 'GUARDIANS' DIRECTOR GUNN WAS 'A BAD CALL' Dave Bautista says Disney "realized very early on" that firing "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn over years-old offensive tweets was "a bad call." Bautista was at CinemaCon in Las Vegas Tuesday (2 APRIL) promoting the action comedy "My Spy." He had been publicly lobbying to have Gunn rehired to the Marvel franchise, and Disney announced the reversal last month. "I think that they realize that it was a very rash decision. But I think that they thought at that time that they were doing the right thing. But I think in retrospect they realized they didn't and they just didn't know how to save face and go back on that," said Bautista, who stars alongside Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana in the "Guardians" films. "And I think they finally just said we are going to do the right thing and rehire James. ... I think they realized very early on that it was kind of a bad call." Gunn was fired last July over tweets from nearly a decade ago in which he joked about subjects like pedophilia and rape. Disney Chairman Alan Horn at the time said Gunn's words were inconsistent with the studio's values. Gunn has since signed on to write and direct the next installment of Warner Bros.′ "Suicide Squad" for the Marvel rival DC Comics. That film is to shoot in the fall and be released in August 2021. Bautista says he hopes to join that film as well. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...