You’re Never Going To Believe This, But GAMBIT’s Been Delayed Again

20th Century Fox has been fighting an uphill battle on Gambit for years now. 

Things started pleasantly enough back in 2014, with Channing Tatum basically willing the project into existence by repeatedly mentioning his desire to play the character in his own movie (nevermind the fact that Taylor Kitsch played the character in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine; even Taylor Kitsch doesn't remember that). With Tatum's star on the rise, 20th Century Fox decided to grant him that wish, and they even hired Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' Rupert Wyatt to direct it. We were all pleasantly surprised.

Then the shit hit the fan: weeks before Wyatt was to begin filming, Tatum threatened to walk away from the project altogether. Some back-and-forth occurred in the press, Tatum eventually got whatever it was he was after (y'know, besides the movie he was dying to make in the first place), and everything seemed back on track...for about a month, at which point Wyatt walked away from the film, citing a timing conflict with another project. 

(Reminder: at the center of this clusterfuck is a movie based on Gambit, who was to 90's comics what Hypercolor was to 90's fashion.)

Anyway, with Wyatt off the film, Tatum expressed interest in having Doug Liman direct. Liman came onboard, and now - get this - Liman's decided to take a break from Gambit. Per TheWrap:

As Doug Liman waits for a new draft of Gambit to come in, the Edge of Tomorrow filmmaker has entered negotiations to direct the sniper thriller The Wall for Amazon Studios, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap. 

That they're still futzing around with the script to Gambit could be read as either a good or bad sign, and I'll leave that for you folks to decide. In the meantime, The Wall sounds like it could be pretty cool: the script - written by Dwain Worrell and voted onto the 2014 Black List - was apparently the first spec script snapped up by Amazon Studios. The plot concerns a sniper and his spotter who get pinned down by another, more experienced sniper while on a mission in China. I can see that being an intense ride, and I like Liman for the job. 

Bottom line: we're all going to be waiting a while on Gambit, but we're getting another, possibly less ill-advised Doug Liman movie in its place. Celebrate in the comments below.