Channing Tatum discusses his unmade Gambit movie

Gambit
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Channing Tatum has been chatting about the X-Men spin-off movie we never got to see: Gambit. Channing Tatum brings a smart sense of self-awareness to the projects he features in. Perhaps thatā€™s why he spent ages trying to wrangle his way out of the two-film contract that tied him into the meathead toy-based G.I. Joe series. After all, the two-film franchiseā€™s anodyne tone took its ridiculous premise far too seriously, and Tatum, who in films like Logan Lucky and Magic Mike, is good  at exposing hidden depths to seemingly one-dimensional characters. The actor has a couple of films out in the next two months, Dog (his directorial debut) and The Lost City Of Z, but ahead of their respective launches, heā€™s been chatting about the one project that he never managed to get out of development hell: the Gambit movie. Tatum has been chatting to Variety about the unmade X-Men project, talking about how he was looking to bring that keen sense of self-awareness to the character which earned Deadpool a billion dollars. But despite being agonisingly close to going into production, the project remained mired in development hell: Tatum recalls that the film was ready to go, ā€œwith a cast, a production office, and a filming location,ā€ but days before filming was due to commence, Foxā€™s takeover by Disney threw the film, first into paralysis before it was ultimately shut down completely. ā€œI shut off my Marvel machine,ā€ said Tatum, following the loss of the project. ā€œI havenā€™t been able to see any of the movies. I loved that character. It was just too sad. It was like losing a friend because I was so ready to play him.ā€ Tatumā€™s take on Gambit sounds pretty fun too, certainly an upgrade on Gavin Hoodā€™s version of the character in 2009ā€™s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where the cajun mutant was played by Taylor Kitsch. Whilst that iteration of the character was fairly well-received by fans, Tatumā€™s take sounds like it would have been lighter and perhaps smarter, with him describing it as ā€œa romantic comedy superhero movie. The thesis was the only thing harder than saving the world is making a relationship work.” Despite offering to helm himself when Fox was reluctant choose a director, ultimately, the project would remain unmade. Whether we see the character appear in future Marvel films, as it now holds the rights, remains to be seen. Tatumā€™s version though, will only exist as a flight of fancy, one of those fascinating ā€˜what could have beensā€™. You can check the rest of the interview piece with Tatum here. Itā€™s well worth a read, whilst you can catch Tatum in Dog, next month. ā€” Thank you for visiting! If youā€™d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here. Become a Patron here.
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