the suicide squad at fantasia film festival

Any James Gunn fan knows just how integral a role the soundtrack plays in his movies. In 2014, Gunn announced himself to mainstream audiences and immediately set the tone with Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” blaring over the title card of Guardians of the Galaxy. A few short years later, he thoroughly outdid himself with the chaotic and frenzied opening credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, featuring the team battling an extradimensional monster set to the strains of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” Even beyond these attention-grabbing initial scenes, highly-charged emotional moments throughout his films are almost always accompanied by some perfectly chosen needledrop.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Gunn has more of the same planned for the upcoming The Suicide Squad.

/Film attended a set visit for the new DC comic book film, and longtime Warner Bros. producer Peter Safran revealed that, as far as the soundtrack is concerned, we should expect nothing less than James Gunn going full James Gunn. When asked if Gunn was orchestrating a Guardians-esque soundtrack, Safran responded in the affirmative:

“Always. He writes the songs into the script and it hasn’t changed since that first draft. So yeah, we definitely operate to a soundtrack. We have a fantastic composer on this, John Murphy, who’s extraordinary, and he’s been giving us some stuff, already, that we’ve been shooting to.”

The Suicide Squad Poster

The Gunn Effect

This is all very welcome news, as Gunn seems to treat music as a priority, much like Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino. Filmmaking is about using every tool at a storyteller’s disposal, after all. Gunn clearly has grown comfortable with the story and visual side of things on big-budget blockbusters, successfully making the jump from Troma indies and well as 2010’s Super. So him boosting the audio dimension by adding his own eclectic musical taste to the mix in The Suicide Squad will likely be a treat.

Who wouldn’t want to watch classic songs kicking in as this gang of DC misfits inevitably gets killed one-by-one?

The Suicide Squad is set to hit theaters and HBO Max on August 6, 2021. Here’s the synopsis:

Welcome to hell — a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.

The post Yes, ‘The Suicide Squad’ Will Have Those James Gunn-Needledrops You Know and Love [Set Visit] appeared first on /Film.