Is Channing Tatum being looked at to play the lead in director Steven Soderbergh’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E.? Deadline seems to think so and is reporting that while the actor hasn’t been made a formal offer of the role yet, he is being considered by Warner Brothers for the title role in the big screen revival of the 1960s television spy series.
Soderbergh has been having a hard time trying to fill the role. Originally, it had been offered to Soderbergh’s sometime collaborator George Clooney, who initially accepted but then backed out. Johnny Depp and Matt Damon both passed on the project before Bradley Cooper was approached. Cooper walked away from negotiations for the part last week.
Personally, I’m not sure that Tatum is a great choice for the role. Any actor filling the role of suave spy Napoleon Solo, essayed by Robert Vaughn in the original series, needs to have a certain amount of charm, charisma and screen presence and I just don’t think that we’ve seen any of that in his work so far. I’m hoping that this doesn’t come to pass and Soderbergh continues to search for just the right actor for the part. How about Jon Hamm?
