Gambit May Be Losing Another Director — A Blog By Milk & Mango

Ever since X-Men producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, convinced Fox to green light a solo Gambit movie, production has been plagued with road blocks. The project has been turned down by several high profile directors and gone through numerous rewrites. The project was finally accepted by the 'Dawn of The Planet of The Apes' director, Rupert Wyatt, but he soon after pulled out of the project, because of continuous rewrites and production delays. There have been rumors that Wyatt actually pulled out of the project, because of creative differences with the studio. After he left the film, the movie's star, Channing Tatum, was dangerously close to walking away from the project as well. Doug Liman, the director of 'Edge of Tomorrow,' would later take the job, in late 2015, months after they would have needed to start filming to be able to release the film on its original release date, October 7, 2016.

The delays and rewrites continue, and 'Gambit' is in danger of losing another director. Liman will be directing another film for Amazon Studios called 'The Wall,' but when asked about 'Gambit,' he did say he would return to it at the end of 2016. However, THR has reported that Liman is considering directing 'Chaos Walking,' the adaptation of Patrick Ness’ post-apocalyptic YA thriller at Lionsgate/Summit. It would not surprise anyone if he decided to drop the forever delayed 'Gambit' and direct the YA thriller, where he would working with the legendary Charlie Kaufman.

Since its inception the Gambit movie has been doomed to fail, and considering the relative failure of 'X-Men: Apocalypse,' there may have been even more pressure for the film to perform well. Fox may also be reconsidering the direction they want to take with their superhero movies, and replicate the massive success they had with 'Deadpool.' But continuing to delay 'Gambit' may not be the answer. In the comics Gambit has a very interesting back story and is one of the more charismatic characters in the X-Men universe. Also, much like Wolverine and Deadpool, he is a well known antihero and former villain.