X-Force Gambit Doctor Doom Fox Marvel Projects

In what should come in no way as a surprise, any planned but unmade Marvel movies that 20th Century Fox had in the pipeline are rumored to be officially dead.  That includes the ever in development ‘Gambit’, which has been in the works since 2014, with Channing Tatum attached to star. The film has gone through a slew of directors and scripts but never seemed too close to actually coming to fruiting.  Now it doesn’t look like it ever will.  The other, perhaps more shocking cancellation is ‘X-Force’ a film that ‘Deadpool 2′ seemed to exist simply to set-up.  Other scrapped projects include oddities like ”Doctor Doom’, ‘Kitty Pryde’, and ‘Silver Surfer’ which were announced after the Disney buyout of Fox was in the works, so it begs the question what were they even thinking?  There was no way that these would get made before Disney assumed control, so any writing or pre-production work was just money wasted.

Keep in mind, this is just rumor at this point, but it makes perfect sense.  This news comes from Daniel Ritchman of Super Bro Movies:

At one point, ‘X-Force’ seemed like a sure thing, and ‘Deadpool 2’ seemed to exist simply to set that movie up, with the introductions of Cable (Josh Brolin) and Domino (Zazie Beetz), as well as secondary characters like Shatterstar and Zeitgeist.  But the second ‘Deadpool’ didn’t do as well at the box office as the first, yet it cost considerably more to produce.  A recent attempt to recut the film into a PG-13 rating failed miserably.  While the first movie was a massive smash, it seems like ‘Deadpool’-mania at the theaters was short-lived.

As Ritchman stated, ‘X-Force’ can still happen if Fox starts production in the next two months.  The question is, should they?

‘Gambit’ was put in motion after Channing Tatum hit the big time after ‘Magic Mike’, and expressed a desire to play the Cajun thief, but his career– and this movie– have been up and down ever since.  Several directors have come and gone.  Other actors names’ have been attached to costar… and then they unattach.  The script has been overhauled repeatedly, including plans to make it edgier after ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Logan’ proved successful.  More recently, it was rumored that ‘Gambit’ would play as more of a sexy romantic comedy.

With Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it looks as though ‘Gambit’ has finally been put out of its misery.

More bizarrely, even after it was known that Disney would most likely buy Fox, roughly a year ago, it was announced that Tim Miller, who directed the first ‘Deadpool’, was developing a movie about X-Man ‘Kitty Pryde’.  Ellen Page previously played this character in the ‘X-Men’ films, but that continuity was considered a thing of the past, so this would have likely introduced a new take on her.

But with the Disney buyout looming… did anyone at Fox actually think this would become a reality first?

In addition to the ‘X-Men’, Fox had the rights to Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ and related characters.

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, ‘Legion’ showrunner Noah Hawley was announced to be working on a ‘Doctor Doom’ film.  This followed two stabs at bringing the character to the big screen, first portrayed by Julian McMahon in the kinda-decent 2005 ‘Fantastic Four’ film, then by Toby Kebbell in the flop 2015 reboot attempt.  Although the 2005 film did okay, and spawned a sequel in 2007, the character Doctor Doom has never been faithfully adapted from his comic book source.

Maybe Marvel Studios will get the character right because according to this report, Hawley and Fox’s attempt… whatever they had in mind… is dead.

Not long after the announcement that Miller was working in a ‘Kitty Pryde’ movie, word emerged that Fox was eyeing a ‘Silver Surfer’ film, with Brian K. Vaughn attached to pen the script.  Like Doctor Doom, this character had been adapted to the big screen in 2007’s ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’, with Laurence Fishburne providing his voice, while Doug Jones performed the motion capture performance.

Recently, Adam McKay (‘Vice’) declared that he desired to make a ‘Silver Surfer’ movie and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige expressed a willingness to hear McKay’s ideas.

And finally, although this wasn’t as high-profile, in fall 2017, word surfaced that Fox was looking to develop a film around Franklin and Valeria Richards, the super children of the Fantastic Four’s Reed and Sue Richards (Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman).  Seth Grahame-Smith was reportedly working on the script, which was reported to be based on Mark Millar’s ‘Kindergarten Heroes’ children’s book.

Reportedly, Feige and his crew are looking to begin discussions on how to introduce the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe sometime this year.

Of the now aborted Fox projects, which are you the most upset will never see the light of day now that Disney is taking over?

Source: Heroic Hollywood