By The “development” of X-Men spin-off Gambit has been a long-running, low key disastrous saga in the background of everything else. One after another, prospective directors drop out of the project, despite the script apparently being final. After this Agatha Christie And Then There Were None-type narrative, it looks like aspiring Gambit star Channing Tatum is interested in sitting in the director’s chair himself.
The fallen include Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Gambler), Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow), and Gore Verbinski (the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films). If Tatum were to nab the additional gig, as Deadline (via AV Club) reports, this would be his directorial debut—the actor has produced projects before, also attached as a producer for Gambit.
In the current corporate climate, Gambit is even more in limbo than it was before. With Disney’s purchase of X-Men film rights holder 21st Century Fox expected to close, Marvel Studios may have a different idea for how to handle these comic book properties moving forward. Several projects like a Multiple Man movie with James Franco and a Kitty Pryde movie from Tim Miller and Brian Michael Bendis were reported, but there have been no signs of the projects resuming.
The last we heard of Gambit, it was due to have a “romantic sex comedy” vibe to it. With Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants treading water before the MCU eventually eats X-Men up, it’s possible that our own take on Gambit as a sex comedy will be the only one to emerge.
Channing Tatum might just direct the damn Gambit movie himself if no one else will [The A.V. Club]