It seems that, for whatever reason, the ragin’ Cajun just can’t get a break.  Gambit, the latest member of the X-Men who was slated to get his own solo film, is a pretty cool character, by reader standards – at least he was when introduced into the X-series back in 1990 as a kinetic-energy-wielding mutant who just wants to throw around exploding playing cards and let his long man-hair waft over his face as he spouts creole-ish sayings.  Nowadays, though, it appears the mutant man may just not have luck going his way anymore, at least when it comes to having his own movie.

A few months ago, rumors started swirling that attached star Channing Tatum was not only interested in leaving the film, but leaving for a spicy offer to play a comic character in the DC Extended Universe of films.  Now comes word that director Doug Liman – the second director attached to the film, after original helmer Rupert Wyatt left last year due to, ahem, “scheduling conflicts” – is finalizing a deal to adapt ‘Chaos Walking,’ a trio of YA books, to the big screen.  If this deal goes though, it effectively kills any chance of him directing ‘Gambit’ any time in the foreseeable future.

For their part, Marvel and Fox (owners of the cinematic versions of the X-Men) clearly want to get the story portion of the movie correct.  Long-time X-film scribe Simon Kinberg has worked at great length on the plot, and he recently was quoted in an interview with Flickering Myth as being highly concerned with the potential tale of the solo ‘Gambit’ film:

“We’ve got to get the script right.  So we’re still working on the script. We’re very close, actually, to being done with the script. And the hope is that Channing [Tatum] has a couple of movies he has to shoot, but that we would shoot at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year.  It’s looking really good.  I’m not going to say anything about it content-wise. I think one of the things that I’ve learned on all these movies – and maybe the lesson was best learned for me on ‘Deadpool’ – is the most important thing is getting the tone and the voice right. That the storytelling, the actual narrative, the plots are sort of interchangeable and disposable, ultimately.

“If I ask you what your favorite movies are, you’re not going to tell me about the plot. You’re going to tell me you love this character. And so what we’ve really tried to do with ‘Gambit’ is make sure that we get the voice of that character right and the tone of the comics 100% on the page. It’s a very unique tone. It’s unique from ‘Deadpool,’ it’s unique from the X-Men. It’s a heist movie that we’ve never done in these kinds of films before. He’s a con-man. And so that’s really where we’ve spent our time.  There was a moment when we were going to shoot the movie at the beginning of this year, and then we felt like it just wasn’t ready. Knowing, hoping, that ‘Gambit’ is like what ‘Deadpool’ was – the start of a new franchise within the X-Men universe – we want to make sure we get it right.”

Source: Blastr

horizontal line

Tony Schaab saw a sign for a ‘Game of Thornes’ event and got excited to go – until he arrived and discovered that it was just the local Dyslexia Society’s annual gardening event.  A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Facebook and Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.