Fox has found their choice to take the directorial reins for their planned Gambit comic book adaption. The studio is currently in talks with Doug Liman to helm the X-Men franchise spinoff which will star Channing Tatum.
The possibility that Liman would take over the film was rumored last month in the wake of director Rupert Wyatt leaving the project following a reported scheduling conflict. Other directors reportedly under consideration by the studio for the job were Joe Cornish, Shane Black and F. Gary Gray.
Liman, of course, is the director 2014’s best-blockbuster-that-people-couldn’t-have-been-bothered-to-see, Edge Of Tomorrow. Additionally, he has the action films Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity on his resume, though they both had tumultuous productions and required much post-production work to pull them into the hits that they were.
The character of Gambit, who has the ability to manipulate kinetic energy, and uses it to make thrown playing cards an explosive weapon, appeared once before in the X-Men franchise spinoff film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though he was played by Taylor Kitsch in that film.
Spectre‘s Léa Seydoux is set to play Bella Donna. RoboCop reboot writer Joshua Zetumer is handling screenplay chores.
Gambit is an important film for Fox. Still hurting from the beating that it took this past summer with the disappointing Fantastic Four. If the studio wants to stay in the superhero franchise business, it needs to expand its X-Men series beyond its current once-every-couple-of-years release schedule. With Hugh Jackman stating that his next Wolverine solo film being his last, the studio definitely needs to spin some new members of the mutant superhero team off into their own cinematic adventures. The studio does have a couple of other X-Men related projects in development, but Gambit is the only one they have scheduled. It’s performance may determine how the studio proceeds with the others.
Gambit is set to hit theaters on October 7, 2016.
Via Hollywood Reporter.
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