Gore Verbinski To Direct GAMBIT With Channing Tatum

Well, this is unexpected.

After A Cure For Wellness bombed, it seemed like we may have heard the last of Gore Verbinski for quite a while, but the Ring director is making a deal to helm Gambit, with Channing Tatum in the title role as Remy LeBeau. There'd been talk of Tatum taking the role for a while now (with rumors originally positing that his X-Men character would be introduced in Apocalypse), but the actor always maintained that he wanted Gambit to be introduced with a proper amount of time to fill in his backstory. 

This is a fascinating move for Fox as a studio, as it cements their commitment to making filmmaker-driven genre movies based off these individual properties. After both Deadpool and Logan were rather large commerical and critical hits, it looks like Verbinski's Gambit is their next big bet in terms of an idiosyncratic adaptation. 

Equally intriguing is Channing Tatum in the lead role, as he's proven (via his work with Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino) that he's quite the capable actor. Could we be hearing more of that thick drawl he was using in The Hateful Eight? 

No release date has been eyed as of yet, but this project suddenly became one to watch rather closely.