Very early in the pre-production of ‘Gambit’, it was Rupert Wyatt who was set to direct Channing Tatum in the film. While quite a few had sat in the potential director’s chair, it was the idea of the man behind ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes who had many excited. Unfortunately, we know that the movie never ended up happening and with the Disney buyout of Fox will likely never see the light of day.
RELATED: Channing Tatum Reportedly Wants To Direct ‘Gambit’ Himself
The reason he ended up leaving the production though had nothing to do with Tatum’s changing vision for the film but the flop of Josh Trank’s 2015 release of ‘Fantastic Four.’
“I was very close with Channing Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin, and I was on the script with him and Josh Zetumer as a writer. We were close, I believe 10 weeks away. It simply came down to budget. There was not enough. You know all too well about the politics of the business. Fantastic Four had been released by Fox a month before and had not gone well for them, so our budget was slashed quite considerably. The inevitable, from my perspective, was, ‘Well then we need to rewrite the script to tailor to our budget,’ but we were too close to a start date for Fox to really want to go there, so, unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.
All I know is Channing had a really, really wonderful idea for what that film could and should be. I know he and Reid are still plugging away at it, so I hope in the new Disney era, that then they get to make it.”
So, it sounds like the budget had a massive change which meant that Wyatt’s vision for the film was no longer feasible. While Simon Kinberg has shared that ‘Gambit’ is “being evaluated” by Disney, I wouldn’t hold my breath to see it happen.
Would you have loved to see a ‘Gambit’ film directed by Rupert Wyatt or are you glad this never ended up happening? Share your thoughts in the comments below, True Believers!
Source: Comics Beat
