Washington DC, July 21: Disney Studios severed business ties with Hollywood director James Gunn. As a result, Gunn is exiting the upcoming film 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' as the director. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the move comes after the filmmaker tweeted jokes on controversial topics like paedophilia and rape resurfaced.

"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him," Hollywood reporter quoted Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn as saying in a statement.

Gunn in response tweeted that, "Many people who have followed my career know, when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I've developed as a person, so has my work and my humour."

The tweets came to the fore after the conservative website 'The Daily Caller' did some digging on the director's previous social media posts. Gunn further said that he regretted some of his tweets, adding that those tweets don't reflect the person he is today.

"My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since - not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don't reflect the person I am today or have been for some time," he said.

Gunn has been an outspoken critic of United States President Donald Trump.

Gunn was the scriptwriter for Guardians 3. The filming for this movie was supposed to start in Atlanta in autumn, with an expected 2020 release date.

Till now, the official release date hasn't been announced.

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