| SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2014

PHOTO GALLERY Hollywood’s highest paid actors newsday.com/celebs

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BY FRANK LOVECESpecial to Newsday

Not long ago, in agalaxy not partic-ularly far away,an adventurernamed PeterQuill pays hom-age to the open-

ing of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”:In an isolated cave, he steals aprecious object from its pedestaland makes off with it only afterescaping a gauntlet of dangers.

And there the movies diverge,since Indiana Jones couldn’tkeep the golden idol he found,while Quill spends most of“Guardians of the Galaxy,”opening Friday, tryingdesperately to hold onto a metalorb containing somethingmysterious and powerful — and,failing that, tries desperately toretrieve it from the fanatic,would-be world destroyerRonan the Accuser.

Quill and his compatriots, infact, endure quite a lot of failureand redemption in MarvelStudios’ latest piece of theMarvel Cinematic Universe — asingle shared reality where IronMan can meet Thor can meetSHIELD agent Phil Coulson.And while “Guardians” takesplace in outer space, it’s still2014, and its locales still sonearby that in an end-creditsscene of last year’s “Thor: TheDark World,” two charactersfrom that movie bring adifferent powerful artifact to alocation here for safekeeping.

There’s one big difference,though, as compared withMarvel films that star thecomics company’s cornerstonecharacters: As Zoe Saldana, whoplays the green-skinned uber-assassin Gamora, puts it in aphone interview from Los Ange-les, “Even though the Guardiansare part of the Marvel Universe,they really are the underdogs.”

LESSER-KNOWN HEROESYou’d be forgiven, then, if

Gamora, Drax (Dave Bautista),the treelike alien Groot (voice ofVin Diesel), the geneticallymodified raccoon Rocket (voiceof Bradley Cooper) and PeterQuill, aka Star-Lord (ChrisPratt), seem less familiar than,say, Captain America. Thesearen’t even the original

Guardians — four completelydifferent characters who debut-ed in a 1969 one-shot story andbumped around as occasionalguest-stars through the ’70s.Then, after starring in a 1990-95comics series, they faded away— their name taken over in 2008by the newly reconstituted teamfeatured in the film.

That relative unfamiliaritydidn’t deter director and co-writ-er James Gunn, who says, “I

tried to get them todo a Hit-Monkeymovie,” referring to an evenmore obscure Marvel character— a Japanese killer-for-hire. Inany case, he’s been waiting forhis crack at a Marvel Studiospicture for some time.

“Kevin [Feige, the studiopresident] met with me after‘Slither,’ ” Gunn’s 2006 alien-slug-parasite homage to ’80shorror. Since this took place

before “Iron Man”(2008) launched the

Cinematic Universe, “He just satdown with me and explainedwhat he wanted to do. Which,frankly, sounded a little crazy tome. So I think it’s pretty amazingthat he’s done exactly what hesaid he was going to!”

FROM THE SCRIPTTO SCREENGunn kept in touch, occasion-

ally meeting with studio execu-

tives, and heard that the direct-ing team the Russo brothers hadlanded this year’s “CaptainAmerica: The Winter Soldier”“by being so incredibly passion-ate about it. So I thought, ‘Well, Iguess I have to be incrediblypassionate about it to get thisgig.’ And, fortunately, I was. I’mkind of blasé about most of thegigs I’ve gotten in Hollywood,but this was something I reallycared about from the beginning

The Guardians ofthe Galaxy? AsKorath (DjimonHounsou), the

pursuer sent to capturewhoever has a covetedorb, puts it in the movie:“Who?”

Technically, he’s askingthat only of Peter Quill(Chris Pratt), who can’tseem to get traction for hisself-styled outlawnickname, Star-Lord. Butmoviegoers unfamiliar withthe 2008-10 Marvel Com-ics series by co-writers DanAbnett and Andy Lanningmay be asking the samething. — FRANK LOVECE

THANOS(Uncredited voice andmotion capture of JoshBrolin, confirms director

James Gunn)A nihilistic,sociopathic

mastermanipulator

with universe-spanning

ambitions, andone of Marvel Comics’

most powerfulsupervillains.

PETER QUILL(Chris Pratt)

The son of a human motherand an alien father, he’s aninterstellar good guy in the

comics, rather than themovie’s happy-go-lucky

mercenary rogue.

Marvel’s ‘Guardian’ angle

GAMORA(Zoe Saldana)

Adopted daughter of thecosmic conqueror Thanos,

who raised her to be hispersonal assassin.

Can youpick themout of a lineup?

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and was reallycommitted to trying toget.”

The script by then had gonethrough a flurry of changes. ByAugust 2012, screenwriter ChrisMcCoy had been hired torewrite an initial version byNicole Perlman. Gunn cameaboard soon afterward and didhis own draft, and other writersreportedly did script polishes,with the final credit going to

Gunn and Perlman.“Apparently they were going

through some rough-and-tum-ble times on the script,” saysMichael Rooker, the “WalkingDead” alumnus who plays themercenary Yondu, Quill’svicious surrogate father. Rookerand Gunn had worked togetheron “Slither,” and Gunn “addedthis character that ended upbeing perfect for me,” Rookersays. “A combination of caddish,

tough, but with a heart and kindof crazy.” Rooker says he wasfamiliar with Yondu — one ofthe early, original Guardians —from reading the comics, butonly the name and Yondu’strademark weapon, an arrowcontrolled via whistling, madethe transition to film.

Spookily, however, the scriptcontained something originalthat presaged real life. A centralconceit is Quill’s beloved

Walkman and a mixtapecassette his cancer-strickenmother had made for him, withher favorite 1970s songs. It’s hisonly tie to the family and planethe was forced to leave behind asa child. And as Gunn recalls,“My assistant, Simon — hismother died of cancer when hewas a child. And before she diedshe had made him a mixtape —actually, it was a mix CD — ofher favorite songs, including

‘The Piña Colada Song,’ which isin the movie.” Gunn hadn’tknown. “It’s just one of thosecrazy coincidences you find onmovie sets, because when hewas hired, the script was alreadyfinished.”

Doubtless, there’s somethingelse in the script that allconcerned must be hoping turnsout to be true: an end-creditspromise that “The Guardians ofthe Galaxy” will return.

GROOT(Voice of Vin Diesel)

A treelike alien, created in a1960 Stan

Lee-Jack Kirby monster story,who later chose to help

defend the universealongside hisfriend Rocket.

RONANTHE ACCUSER

(Lee Pace)In the comics, an honoredjudge/jury/executioner ofthe alien Kree race. In the

movie, a Kree fanatic out todestroy the planet Xandar

over a 1,000-year-oldgrievance.

DRAX(Dave Bautista)

In the comics, he’s ArthurDouglas, a human whose familywas killed by Thanos and whose

spirit is placed in a powerfulalien body by a rival of Thanos.Here, he’s an alien whose family

was killed by Ronan theAccuser, but the vengeance

angle is the same.

angle

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ROCKET(Voice of

Bradley Cooper)A law officer in thecomics, a bounty

hunter in the movie,he’s a genetically

modified raccoon inboth media.

Spidey or Iron Man? Not this time.The studio takes a risk by basing a filmon the comic universe’s little-known ‘underdogs’

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