Reid Carolin, who was once set to direct Gambit, has revealed some details about the cancelled movie.
During an interview with Playlist, the film’s former director explained what the cancelled superhero flick would have been about. And it sounds all kinds of awesome
“It was all this kind of low-level mutant fights and disagreements,” he said. “We set it in this world of the Mafia—almost kind of like a mutant Goodfellas in New Orleans.”
Gambit was originally confirmed back in 2014 with Channing Tatum suiting up as the Louisiana mutant and long-time member of the X-Men. And it sounds as though it would have played heavily on his Cajun background.
“We made this world in New Orleans that was a city of mutants that didn’t care about saving the world,” explained Carolin. “They went there so they could use their powers to party and hook up, and their hands could fry the grease at MacDonald’s and whatever else and the hardest thing for them to do was to fall in love because they could read each other’s minds, or when they got into a fight, they could turn a table into a grenade and send their partner to the hospital or whatever.”
Carolin said that he and Tatum produced the film for over five years, actively working on it for two years straight. They wrote “multiple versions of the script and finally found the one that I think that was going to be really awesome.”
But the film’s troubled production kept it in development hell, with Channing Tatum still devastated at its cancellation.
“It is still one of my favorite scripts I’ve ever read,” Carolin explained. “I mean I worked on it, so it’s easy to say that.”
“I think it played really well in the Deadpool universe at Fox,” he added. "Emma Watts had really championed it at Fox. They made Deadpool at Fox and they understood that when you went a little punk rock with these characters you could pop some wheelies and really attract an audience.”
Unfortunately, it looks as though Disney wasn’t so keen on the movie. After Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, the axe finally came down on Gambit. Carolin revealed that the movie was fully cast, a crew was assembled, and they were just months away from filming “when ultimately Disney scrapped it.”
Whether or not the project gets revived remains to be seen. But Carolin and Tatum are certainly keen to get back on board.
“Those guys at Marvel have a really good thing going and I’m sure they have a plan that I don’t know about for the ‘X-Men’ universe,” said Carolin. “I’m not going to tell them how to do their jobs, they’re nailing it. But I hold out hope that maybe someday it’ll come back—Channing is perfect for the role. And as long as they keep making Deadpool a character, he’ll need a world to play in and… if they want some more characters like that, I think [they should] come our way.”
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...
During an interview with Playlist, the film’s former director explained what the cancelled superhero flick would have been about. And it sounds all kinds of awesome
“It was all this kind of low-level mutant fights and disagreements,” he said. “We set it in this world of the Mafia—almost kind of like a mutant Goodfellas in New Orleans.”
Gambit was originally confirmed back in 2014 with Channing Tatum suiting up as the Louisiana mutant and long-time member of the X-Men. And it sounds as though it would have played heavily on his Cajun background.
“We made this world in New Orleans that was a city of mutants that didn’t care about saving the world,” explained Carolin. “They went there so they could use their powers to party and hook up, and their hands could fry the grease at MacDonald’s and whatever else and the hardest thing for them to do was to fall in love because they could read each other’s minds, or when they got into a fight, they could turn a table into a grenade and send their partner to the hospital or whatever.”
Carolin said that he and Tatum produced the film for over five years, actively working on it for two years straight. They wrote “multiple versions of the script and finally found the one that I think that was going to be really awesome.”
But the film’s troubled production kept it in development hell, with Channing Tatum still devastated at its cancellation.
“It is still one of my favorite scripts I’ve ever read,” Carolin explained. “I mean I worked on it, so it’s easy to say that.”
“I think it played really well in the Deadpool universe at Fox,” he added. "Emma Watts had really championed it at Fox. They made Deadpool at Fox and they understood that when you went a little punk rock with these characters you could pop some wheelies and really attract an audience.”
Unfortunately, it looks as though Disney wasn’t so keen on the movie. After Disney acquired Fox back in 2019, the axe finally came down on Gambit. Carolin revealed that the movie was fully cast, a crew was assembled, and they were just months away from filming “when ultimately Disney scrapped it.”
Whether or not the project gets revived remains to be seen. But Carolin and Tatum are certainly keen to get back on board.
“Those guys at Marvel have a really good thing going and I’m sure they have a plan that I don’t know about for the ‘X-Men’ universe,” said Carolin. “I’m not going to tell them how to do their jobs, they’re nailing it. But I hold out hope that maybe someday it’ll come back—Channing is perfect for the role. And as long as they keep making Deadpool a character, he’ll need a world to play in and… if they want some more characters like that, I think [they should] come our way.”
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading...