The 40th Anniversary Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) will wrap up 10 days of film screenings, workshops and special events with an Encore Day featuring Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Encore + Conversation with James Gunn and Michael Rooker. The event will feature a screening of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and a Q&A with writer-director James Gunn and actor Michael Rooker. Longtime collaborators Gunn and Rooker are in Atlanta until May filming Marvel’s Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 2, the forthcoming sequel to the 2014 blockbuster, at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome James Gunn and Michael Rooker to the Atlanta Film Festival. Over the past four decades, our position in the industry has allowed the festival to act as a bridge between Atlanta’s organic film community and the big-budget studio productions now regularly calling our city home,” said Christopher Escobar, Executive Director of ATLFF. “James and Michael are two incredibly talented filmmakers who have the same dedication to sharing their filmmaking experiences with the fans so we’re honored to have them at our 40th anniversary event.”
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Ultimate Encore + Conversation with James Gunn and Michael Rooker will take place at 4:00PM on Sunday, April 10 at the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $10 to the Ultimate Encore event and will be available at http://www.atlantafilmfestival.com/guardians. Additional encore presentations of select films screened at the 2016 ATLFF will be announced throughout the fest and will take place at various times the same day.
Marvel’s original Guardians of the Galaxy was a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning over $770 million at the worldwide box-office and holds the record as the most successful debut film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gunn, who wrote and directed the film and its upcoming sequel, is known for writing, directing and producing dozens of films including Super, Slither and Dawn of the Dead. Rooker (AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, Jumper) will reprise his role in the second film as blue-skinned bandit ‘Yondu,’ the leader of the band of outlaws known as the Ravagers. Original cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice), Bradley Cooper (voice), Karen Gillan and Sean Gunn are also returning.