LOS ANGELES, Oct 14 ― X-Men superhero spin-off Gambit is now tracking for release on February 14, 2019, with Channing Tatum as its card-throwing lead charmer, and uncertainty over the movie's director seemingly resolved.
Channing Tatum has been linked with X-Men character Gambit, and an associated solo movie, since confessing his appreciation for the character in 2014.
Gambit, born Remy LeBeau in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a skilled thief and a wanderer, able to charge objects with an immense amount of power (most typically his signature playing cards.)
His superhuman abilities also grant him an edge when it comes to persuasion as well as a fast, fluid fighting style.
Tatum himself grew up in the southern states of Alabama, Mississippi and then moved to Florida; following a breakthrough year in 2012 with 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike, he's appeared in comedies, action movies and dramas, from The Lego Batman Movie and 22 Jump Street to The Hateful Eight, Hail, Caesar!, Foxcatcher, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Since Tatum's initial expression of interest, Gambit has been attached to a few different directors, first Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt, and then Doug Liman of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow.
With Fox announcing a Valentine's Day date for the eventual Gambit release in 2019, it's apparent that negotiations with Gore Verbinski of the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy have been successful.
Previously associated with Gambit on the acting side have been James Bond Spectre pairing Daniel Craig and Lea Seydoux.
Craig played opposite Tatum in 2017's Logan Lucky and Seydoux appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, two films previous to The Hateful Eight, but at this time only Tatum's involvement has been confirmed.
With “Gambit” locking down Valentine's 2019, perhaps it's no coincidence that Deadpool launched to great success the same day in 2016.
That film, along with another X-Men standalone Logan, prompted the Gambit team to rewrite the script in order to “do something that this genre of movie hasn't seen before,” Tatum said during an August 2017 red carpet interview, “to do some of the things we've always wanted to do.”
Before Gambit, another X-Men adjacent movie in The New Mutants arrives April 2018, Deadpool 2” lands June 2018, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set for November 2018. ― AFP-Relaxnews
