Doug Liman Explains Why He Decided Against Directing X-MEN Spinoff GAMBIT
Despite originally being lined up for last October, Gambit currently has no release date and seems to be stuck in development hell. Here, Doug Liman explains why he walked away from the project.
While many fans argued that the movie wasn't necessary, things were looking good for Gambit for a while as Rupert Wyatt was attached to direct, Channing Tatum had signed on to star, and the X-Men spinoff had been given an October 2016 release date. After Wyatt left due to "creative differences," Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman took over and sadly also decided to walk away from the project.
When We Got This Covered recently caught up with Liman, he shed some light on why he decided not to take the helm of Gambit and it doesn't sound like he was particularly impressed with the script!
"I look for a personal connection to the movies I make and it may not be immediately obvious. You know, like what’s my connection to Jason Bourne? I have a deeply personal connection to that movie because it’s all about Iran-Contra and my father ran the investigations into Iran-Contra. In every story I have a personal connection. The Wall, you’d be like what could this filmmaker from New York possibly have in common with these two soldiers pinned down in Irag? But The Wall is really about perseverance. It’s about picking yourself up and you just keep going and that’s something I have firsthand experience with. Not in war but in other aspects of life. With Gambit, I just never found that personal way in. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t."
Chris Claremont wrote the treatment for Gambit, but we know that Wyatt left because Fox wanted to trim the budget, so perhaps Liman just couldn't find a way to get invested in what was left of that original idea. We may never know, but the filmmaker has his sights set on Justice League Dark now, so the fate of this spinoff currently remains unknown. Do you think it will ever see the light of day?
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