Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Production Notes

Taglines: All heroes start somewhere.

An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe.

To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the tenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The film was directed by James Gunn, who wrote the screenplay with Nicole Perlman, and features an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill forms an uneasy alliance with a group of extraterrestrial misfits who are on the run after stealing a coveted orb.

Making The Epic Space Adventure

Shooting began in June 2013, in the UK and over a long, hot summer through autumn, a dedicated cast and crew worked ardently together, embracing and realizing director James Gunn’s vision. Production designer Charles Wood was tasked with designing and creating the weird and wonderful environments in which the action takes place. It was important for Gunn to have physical sets to shoot on, a rare treat for cast and crew who work on many productions that rely on huge green-screen stages to create their biggest sets. As one would imagine, production was massive but in spite of the extent of the work, Wood was excited by the scope of the job, saying, “There was such a range of sets, of environments to explore, and each so vastly different from one another; it was a thrilling opportunity.”

Gunn had a very clear vision for the film, which was fully embraced by his creative team, and while the possibilities seemed limitless, it was important to Gunn that the spaces felt as real as possible. He says, “One of the driving forces, from the beginning, was to create a gritty world that was still very colorful. I miss some of the color palettes of the ’50s and ’60s science fiction films when things were much brighter and to intermingle those different looks from the past and create our own look was very important.”

Production designer Charles Wood concurs: “There is a color palette system within the film that changes from one environment to the other and is very purposeful. The different technologies and machinery are all planetspecific and very diverse.”

Charles Wen, head of Marvel’s visual development, also points out, “James was adamant about making sure the technology felt Space Age, but not too advanced or over-the-top. It needed to almost feel timeless as if space / time is generally just relative.”

The Environments

The first otherworldly place visited in the film is the abandoned planet Morag, which Wood and his team designed in a neutral palette to fit its sandy environment. In contrast, when Peter Quill enters the sunken secret temple on Morag, Wood used vivid golds, greens and blues to accent the jewel-like interior.

The Kyln-the space prison where the Guardians meet and form-was the production’s largest build; a 360-degree set, and a feat of engineering, comprised of 100 tons of steel across three levels, extended in post-production by a further 200 feet. The set features corridor systems connected to main cells and bays built on a steel frame on wheels.

The Kyln set was repurposed several times, with each transformation often requiring a good deal of working around the clock for the departments to accomplish the complex transitions, which included a revamp of The Collectors lab, Taneleer Tivan’s museum of extraordinary things.

The watery planet of Xandar is one of the brighter environments in the film. The actual set is just a footing for a gigantic virtual set, inspired by the architecture of Santiago Calatrava, and the monumental steel, glass and white concrete arch of the Liege train station in Belgium provided its backdrop.

Wood and his team also built Knowhere, a port of call and observatory for intergalactic travelers of all species and from all times, located inside the decapitated head of a Celestial, on the edge of the universe. Knowhere is evocative of an industrial mining town with a gritty, rough and tough atmosphere. Both the Boot of Jemiah and The Collector’s lab were outstanding sets for Knowhere built by Wood and his team.

Spacecraft

One of the spacecraft production designer Charles Wood and his team designed for the film was the Milano, Peter Quill’s ship, which is a Ravager ship and part of Yondu’s fleet. Less high-tech technology was used in the design to give the idea that Quill wants to have more hands-on control and experience the ride-much like a driver who prefers stick over automatic.

Constructed as a double-level composite set, with an upper flight deck and lower living quarters, it was a 14-week build involving several trades. “Our biggest inspiration for the Milano was Chuck Yeager and the early test flights and missions that took place in the late ’50s, early ’60s,” says Wood. “So we looked at a lot of that footage. James wanted to come up with an environment for Quill that was reminiscent of Earth and had a tangible quality-mechanical with chrome and leather and a muscle-car look. A little boy’s dream.”

In order to have the sense that Quill thought of his ship as home, Wood and set decorator Richard Roberts worked to collect and build items that would evoke 1980s nostalgia. “Rich and his team got together all of the ephemera and other bits and pieces to remind him of home,” says Wood. “The Milano itself was probably the biggest construction thing that we did and unusually for a prop master, I’m also involved in the manufacturing of the set decoration parts. So we did an immense amount of work going from the beds to all of the flight seats. Everything in the Milano was created from scratch.”

Richard Roberts echoes, “We made everything. We bought ejector seats from jet fighters and completely remodeled them and we worked from a lot of concept work that Charles Wood created. So we were creating a ship that looks like it’s got some ’80s notes, but we built it so it was really just the personal items that we bought that are from the ’80s.”

Among the items the filmmakers built was a cassette player built into the spaceship that looks like a car stereo. They also installed shag-type carpet of various colors and a black light in the living quarters. With the idea that Quill had a backpack with him when he was abducted from Earth, Roberts peppered the interior of the Milano with iconic items that would have been in a 9-year-old’s possession in the 1980s: Alf stickers, baseball cards and Troll dolls, among other items.

Wood’s efforts were not lost on Chris Pratt, whose character Peter Quill commands the Milano. “I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it and I have been in awe ever since,” enthuses Pratt. “Inside it, I felt like I was on a ride at a theme park, something people would wait in line all day just to get a glimpse of and I got to pretend it was mine. It was pretty amazing and helped inform my performance.”

Wood and his team also crafted the Dark Aster, Ronan’s spaceship, which is a Kree warship. Suggestive of a flying mausoleum, the design is minimal and brutal-a stark, gray, colorless world devoid of any set dressing whatsoever, relying purely on its heavy concretelike architecture to convey its tone and function. Lee Pace, who plays the villain Ronan, was impressed with his “ride.” “You’ve never seen a spaceship like this. It’s massive: the size of the Empire State Building turned over on its side three and a half times,” says Pace. “A colossal, steel flying device. It’s awesome.”

On the flight deck of the Dark Aster, four Sakkaran pilots guide the ship using glowing balls that they manipulate with synchronized hand movements. The filmmakers hired synchronized dancers so that the hand movements would be perfectly in sync.

Part of Wood’s build was a large wall where Ronan communicates with others. It acts like a big screen, but it has an uneven finish with texture and carvings. When Ronan is communicating with people, their faces appear in the wall.

The Dark Aster also houses Ronan’s fleet of Necocraft in its massive wings. Yondu’s mother ship is called the Eclector and it is the second largest spacecraft in the movie. It houses the entire Ravager fleet. It boasts a room called the Strategarium, which is like a conference room with manually operated screens.

Co-producer Jonathan Schwartz sums up Charles Wood and his team’s work best when he says, “The sets are genius. Charles has done an absolutely incredible job of making the script come to life. If you read the script and tried to envision it, it would be impossible. It’s so different, so crazy, and like nothing else we’ve ever done before. You don’t fully understand the movie until you see it spring up around you in a full 360-degree set.”