Simon Kinberg Gambit

Simon Kinberg is making his directing debut with ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’, but he has long been a behind the scenes presence with Fox’s ‘X-Men’ movie franchise, and as such, remains attached as a producer to the eternally in-development ‘Gambit’ movie.  Fox still has it on its schedule, although it has been pushed back for the thousandth time.  It is now due to be released on March 13, 2020.  This movie has been in development since 2014, when Channing Tatum expressed a desire to play the character but has undergone a number of rewrites, at times described as a heist film, and more recently as a “romantic or sex comedy.”

Kinberg has revealed:

“I think with the standalone movies… one of the things we’ve strived to do is sort of create a sub-genre within the genre of the superhero movie. Obviously ‘Deadpool’ was like a R-rated comedy. ‘Logan’ was very much a western. And, so we talked a lot about who Gambit is. And it’s always motivated by the character is… the things that Channing [Tatum] relates to in the character. And so obviously he’s a thief… you know his superpowers, those things are going to be very present and prevalent in the movie. But he’s also a scoundrel, and a rascal, and a womanizer, and a lot of other things that we felt like we could explore in his relationships with women and one of the genres that is underserviced genre now is the romantic comedy. So whenever we can smuggle some other genre into one of these kinds of movies… I mean I did it with…The first movie I ever wrote was ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ and that was a romantic comedy smuggled into a spy thriller. In the same way that on the surface it will be a superhero movie with you know. People love superpowers and things are going to explode and there’s going to be car chases and all of that. Doing all the powers and cards that you are familiar with. Underneath that will be romantic comedy undercurrents and it’s not really like Rom-coms from when we were growing up. Or when I was growing up. It’s more going back to like Philadelphia Story and His Girl Friday and just the kind of pattern banter of that and the fun and speed of those kinds of movies.”

Both ‘The Philadelphia Story’ and ‘His Girl Friday’ are old black and white movies– both released in 1940, both starring Cary Grant.  Both are also known for their rapid-fire dialogue and two leads that don’t get along on the surface.  Katherine Hepburn starred opposite Grant in ‘The Philadelphia Story’, while Rosalind Russell traded barbs with him in ‘His Girl Friday’.

It remains to be seen just who Tatum’s Gambit will engage in his war of words with.  The film was supposed to include the character Belladonna Boudreaux.  Léa Seydoux (‘Spectre’) was cast in the role when Rupert Wyatt was planning to direct.  Later, Lizzy Caplan (‘Extinction’) was reportedly up for the role, after Gore Verbinski took over.

But as far as most fans are concerned, Gambit really only has one true love interest, and that’s Rogue.  But Anna Paquin has stated that she isn’t likely to return to the ‘X-Men’ franchise.  Fox could recast, but… well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Though there is no director attached, ‘Gambit’ is being eyed to hit theaters on March 13, 2020.  Will it make it?  Place your bets.

Source: Screen Rant