James Francis Popular Books
James Francis Biography & Facts
James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and studio executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with Tromeo and Juliet (1997). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film Slither (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery hired Gunn and Peter Safran to become co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios. Under DC Studios, Gunn will co-produce and executive produce every film and television series under the upcoming DC Universe (DCU) media franchise alongside Safran, which will act as a soft-reboot of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). He will also continue to write and direct various projects set in the DCU, including the upcoming film Superman (2025). He also wrote and directed the web series James Gunn's PG Porn (2008–2009), the HBO Max original series Peacemaker (2022–present) and Creature Commandos (2024), and the Disney+ original special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022). Other projects he is known for is writing for the 2004 remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), writing the live-action adaptation of Scooby Doo (2002), and its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), writing and producing the horror-action film The Belko Experiment (2016), producing the superhero-horror film Brightburn (2019), and contributing to comedy-anthology film Movie 43 (2013) (directing the segment "Beezel") and the 2012 hack-and-slash video game Lollipop Chainsaw. Early life James Francis Gunn Jr. was born on August 5, 1966 in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents James F. Gunn, an attorney, and Leota "Lee" (Hynek). He was raised Catholic in the St Louis suburb municipality of Manchester, Missouri. He has five siblings — actor Sean, actor and political writer Matt, screenwriter Brian, Patrick, and Beth. Gunn is of Irish and Jewish descent his father coming from an Irish immigrant family. Gunn has stated that his family's surname was originally the Irish name MacGilgunn and that it means "sons to the servants of the god of the dead"; it actually means "son of the brown youth." Growing up, Gunn was influenced by low-budget films such as Night of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th. He read magazines like Fangoria and attended genre movie screenings, including the original Dawn of the Dead at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis. At the age of 12, he began making 8 mm zombie films with his brothers in the woods near their home. Gunn and his brothers all attended the Jesuit St. Louis University High School, where he graduated in 1984. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Louis University. While at Saint Louis University, Gunn created political cartoons for the school's student weekly, The University News. Gunn said that, at an unspecified time in his college education, "I went to two years undergraduate film school at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. But I was pretty screwed up at the time, and had to leave. Years later I went to graduate school at the Columbia University School of Fine Arts but I studied prose writing, not film writing." He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1995. Career Music While living in St. Louis, Gunn founded a band, The Icons, in 1989, serving as lead vocalist. The group released the album Mom, We Like It Here on Earth in 1994, and its songs "Sunday" and "Walking Naked" were featured in the film Tromeo and Juliet. The Icons disbanded in the mid-1990s. Gunn has continued to work in music, composing songs for Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Movie 43. Film and television Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma Entertainment in 1995, for which he co-wrote the independent film Tromeo and Juliet. Working alongside his mentor Lloyd Kaufman, the co-founder of Troma, Gunn learned how to write screenplays, produce films, scout locations, direct actors, distribute films, and create his own poster art. After contributing to several other Troma films, Gunn in 2000 wrote, produced and performed in the superhero comedy The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin and featuring Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden Church, Paget Brewster, Judy Greer and Jamie Kennedy. Gunn's first major Hollywood screenplay was Scooby-Doo in 2002. In 2004, he wrote the screenplays for the remake of Dawn of the Dead and the sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. With these films, Gunn became the first screenwriter to have two films top the box office in consecutive weeks. That same year, he executive produced and starred in the mockumentary LolliLove, directed by and starring his then-wife Jenna Fischer. His film directorial debut was the 2006 horror-comedy Slither, which was included on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 50 Best Ever Reviewed Horror Movies. Gunn's next projects included the comedy short film "Humanzee!" which was originally intended exclusively for the Xbox Live's Horror Meets Comedy series of short comedy films by horror directors, it was replaced with "Sparky and Mikaela" which debuted on Xbox Live on December 31, 2008. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall Show, Gunn described "Sparky and Mikaela" as being "about a human [and] racoon crime fighting team and they fight crime in both the forest world, among the furry animals, and in the human world". Gunn also has a short-form web series for Spike.com titled James Gunn's PG Porn. In 2008, Gunn was a judge on the VH1 reality television show Scream Queens, where 10 unknown actresses compete for a role in the film Saw VI. In 2009, Gunn announced he was going to write and direct Pets, a comedy about a man who is abducted by aliens who want to turn him into a household pet, with Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer producing. However, by March 2009, Gunn announced, "Pets unfortunately, is done. I'm gone. I left the project for various reasons. I hope it sees the light of day somehow, but it won't be with me attached as director." In 2010, Gunn released Super, a dark comedy and superhero satire starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page. He also directed a segment of the 2013 comedy anthology film Movie 43 (2013); the segment starred Elizabeth Banks and Josh Duhamel. The film was critically panned. Gunn co-wrote and directed the Marvel Studios adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released on August 1, 2014. His brother, Sean, has a role in the film. Gunn has appeared as an actor, mostly in smaller roles or uncredited appearances in his own projects. After Dan Gilroy and Jack Black separately lamented the proliferation of superhero films, Gunn responded in a Facebook post, saying in part:Popular fare in any medium has always been snubbed by the self-appointed elite. ... What bothers me slightly is that many people assume because you make big films tha.... Discover the James Francis popular books. Find the top 100 most popular James Francis books.
Best Seller James Francis Books of 2024
-
Travels with My Donkey
Tim Moore"'A donkey?' blurted my family as one. For a moment it didn't seem they'd ever be able to list all the reasons that made this so entertainingly ludicrous. . . .Yes, I'd never ridde...
-
Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies
Elizabeth WinklerAn “extraordinarily brilliant” and “pleasurably naughty” (André Aciman) investigation into the Shakespeare authorship question, exploring how doubting that William Shakespeare wrot...
-
DNA
James D. Watson, Andrew Berry & Kevin DaviesThe definitive insider's history of the genetic revolutionsignificantly updated to reflect the discoveries of the last decade. James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate whose pioneering ...
-
A New Ireland
Niall O'DowdIt’s not your father’s Ireland. Not anymore. A story of modern revolution in Ireland told by the founder of IrishCentral, Irish America magazine, and the Irish Voice newspaper...
-
The Guarded Gate
Daniel OkrentNAMED ONE OF THE “100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR” BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW“An extraordinary book, I can’t recommend it highly enough.” –Whoopi Goldberg, The ViewBy the wide...
-
Francis Bacon
Mark Stevens & Annalyn SwanTHE TIMES BEST ART BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE PLUTARCH AWARD AND THE APOLLO AWARD “There are not many biographical masterpieces, but…Mark Stevens and A...
-
Collateral Damage
Mark ShawIf there had been no coverup of Robert Kennedy’s complicity in the murder of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and he had been prosecuted based on compelling evidence at the time, the assassi...
-
Selected Essays
Samuel JohnsonThis volume contains a generous selection from the essays Johnson published twice weekly as 'The Rambler' in the early 1750s. It was here that he first created the literary charact...
-
The Code Breaker
Walter IsaacsonA Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington PostThe bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington P...
-
All My Lies
Sophie Flynn'Perfectly paced, suspenseful and gripping a real pageturner' SOPHIE HANNAH, author of Haven't They Grown 'A rollercoaster ride with a cast of flawed characters an exce...
-
The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro
Pierre-Augustin BeaumarchaisA French courtier, secret agent, libertine and adventurer, Beaumarchais (173299) was also author of two sparkling plays about the scoundrelly valet Figaro triumphant successes tha...
-
The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse
David Norbrook & H. WoudhuysenThe era between the accession of Henry VIII and the crisis of the English republic in 1659 formed one of the most fertile epochs in world literature. This anthology offers a broad ...
-
Lourdes
Ruth HarrisLourdes was at the very centre of nineteenth century debates on religion, science and medicine. Both the Church and secularists championed the 'miracle' town as crucial in shapin...
-
Decade of Disunion
Robert W. MerryExploring a critical lesson about our nation that is as timely today as ever, Decade of Disunion shows how the country came apart during the enveloping slavery crisis of the 1850s....
-
Days of Reading
Marcel Proust & John SturrockIn these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books, as well as explaining the beauty of Ruskin and his work, and the ...
-
A Brief Guide to Spiritual Classics
James M. RussellThis very readable brief guide examines a wide range of spiritual writing that can be read for enjoyment or inspiration, including some books that come from beyond any religious tr...
-
Orlando Furioso
Ludovico Ariosto & Barbara ReynoldsOne of the greatest epic poems of the Italian Renaissance, Orlando Furioso is an intricate tale of love and enchantment set at the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne's conf...
-
The Eyes of the Queen
Oliver ClementsIn this first novel of the “rollicking” (The New York Times Book Review) Agents of the Crown series, the man who will become the original MI6 agent protects England and Queen Eliza...
-
Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli
Mark SealThis “wickedly pacey pageturner” (Total Film) unfurls the behindthescenes story of the making of The Godfather, fifty years after the classic film’s original release.The story of h...
-
The Life of St Teresa of Avila by Herself
Teresa of Ávila & J. CohenBorn in the Castilian town of Ávila in 1515, Teresa entered the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation when she was twentyone. Tormented by illness, doubts and selfrecrimination, she...
-
Jesse James and the Lost Templar Treasure
Daniel J. DukeAn investigation into the lost treasures of Jesse James and the Freemasons and their connections to the Templars, Rosicrucians, and the Founding Fathers Explains how Jesse James u...
-
The Whole Language
Gregory BoyleGregory Boyle, the beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir, returns with a call to witness the transformativ...
-
Bomber Overhead
James FrancisEvacuee Jeffrey Fraser and his two friends must cope. when Marwell Village, intended as their place of safety, is shaken when a German bomber finds it.Jeffrey, Ginger and Arthur, a...
-
Selected Writings
Meister EckhartComposed during a critical time in the evolution of European intellectual life, the works of Meister Eckhart (c. 12601327) are some of the most powerful medieval attempts to achiev...
-
Cemetery Lake
Paul CleaveA heartthumping, noholdsbarred murdermystery that keeps you guessing until the very last page. Some secrets won't stay buried . . . A standard exhumation becomes anything but f...
-
Penobscot Oral History Project
James FrancisThis is a picture book created from an Oral History Project by James Eric Francis Sr. This Oral History Project took 350 picture and showed them to Elders in the community. This is...
-
The Complete Dangerous Davies
Leslie ThomasAs plainclothes men go, Dangerous Davies looks like a nonstarter. The small fry of petty larceny and minor disturbances in the backwaters of northwest London are his daily round. H...
-
The Best Golf Stories Ever Told
Julie Ganz & Tripp BowdenThis book is a comprehensive collection of stories, each of which captures a different facet of the game of golf. Some of the best golfers in the history of the sport as well as th...
-
Unravelling the Double Helix
Gareth WilliamsUnraveling the Double Helix covers the most colorful period in the history of DNA, from the discovery of "nuclein" in the late 1860s to the publication of James Watson's The Double...
-
Deadfall
Lyndon StaceyBay Tremayne, heir to a viscountcy and manager of his father's Dorset estate, has one burning ambition to be selected to ride on the British Olympic threeday eventing team. But hi...
-
In Search of a Kingdom
Laurence Bergreen“FASCINATING . . . Dramatic and timely.” New York Times Book Review, Editors' ChoiceIn this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan and Columb...
-
The Decadent Society
Ross DouthatFrom the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion, a powerful portrait of how our wealthy, successful society has passed into an age of gridlock, stalemate, ...
-
Time to Pay
Lyndon StaceyRevenge has no limits...Damien Daniels has been murdered; shot through the chest by an unseen marksman. It looks like a professional job but there are no clues as to who pulled the...
-
Tattoos on the Heart
Gregory Boyle“Destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times)Tattoos on the Heart is a series of parables about kinship and redemption fr...
-
Narrowing the Field
A.P. McCoyMURDER, RIVALRY AND REVENGE...'Fast paced and unbeatable.' The LadyEverything seems to be going right for brilliant young jockey Duncan Claymore. A career on the up, a beautiful wi...
-
Six Degrees of Paris Hilton
Mark EbnerIn the burgeoning Hollywood club scene, where ecstasy dealers dine alongside celebrities, and illicit money bubbles up from below like the La Brea Tar Pits, a handsome doublemurder...
-
Greene on Capri
Shirley Hazzard, Shirley Hazzard Steegmuller & The Estate of Shirley Hazzard SteegmullerThe subtle portrait of a great but difficult man and a legendary island.When friends die, one's own credentials change: one becomes a survivor. Graham Greene has already had biogra...
-
If I Die Before I Wake
Sherwood KingLaurence is a young exsailor who can't resist the lure of the good life, and when he finds a job as chauffeur to the wealthy Mr and Mrs Bannister, his occasional work leaves him fr...
-
The Code Breaker -- Young Readers Edition
Walter IsaacsonWalter Isaacson’s #1 New York Times bestselling history of our third scientific revolution: CRISPR, gene editing, and the quest to understand the code of life itself, is now adapte...
-
Mothers and Sons
Colm TóibínWith dazzling brilliance and empathy, Colm Tóibín's collection of stories wrestles with complicated themes of emotional restraint, the long reach of sexual repression, and the diff...
-
Orlando Furioso
Ludovico Ariosto & Barbara ReynoldsA dazzling kaleidoscope of adventures, ogres, monsters, barbaric splendor, and romance, this epic poem stands as one of the greatest works of the Italian Renaissance.
-
Cherished Belonging
Gregory BoyleAt a time when society is more fractured than ever before, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle invites us to see the world through a new lens of connection and build the loving com...
-
A Fine Madness
Alan JuddA captivating espionage novel that explores the life of theatrical geniusand spyChristopher Marlowe, whose violent death remains one of the most fascinating mysteries of the E...
-
The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall
Ann O'LoughlinA bestseller in the UK, this moving debut novel is a modern Philomena story of love, both lost and found.Secrets can’t last forever. . . . In a crumbling mansion in a small Irish v...
-
Story of Philosophy
Will DurantThis brilliant and concise account of the lives and ideas of the world's great philosophersPlato, Aristotle, Bacon, Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Schopenhauer, Spencer, Nietzsche, Bergs...
-
Real Irish New York
Dermot McEvoyAs they entered their six hundredth year of British occupation, the Irish looked to America. By the 1840s, America was the oasis that the Irish sought during a decade of both famin...