Rupert Wyatt directed one of the most pleasant surprises in recent movie memory, 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. What looked as if it could be a mediocre prequel or reboot turned out to be a thrilling, compelling sci-fi film with an excellent motion capture performance from Andy Serkis as Caesar, whose brain evolves to the point where he leads an eventual animal revolution that overtakes humanity.
Wyatt didn’t direct the equally strong — and arguably superior — sequel, last year’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, dropping out because the movie’s release date created too much of a time crunch to prepare. He followed up with a remake of The Gambler with Mark Wahlberg, which received poor reviews and drew little interest at the box office.
But the British filmmaker is jumping back into the realm of sci-fi and fantasy, signing on to direct the X-Men spinoff, Gambit, starring Channing Tatum. To this point, the scuttlebutt around Hollywood concerned the number of directors who had turned the project down. That list reportedly included Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Darren Aronofsky (Noah), Gareth Evans (The Raid) and J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year).
Not much else is known about the film at this point, other than it’s been a passion project of Tatum’s, and his star power is probably getting the movie made. Plus, 20th Century Fox is eager to expand the cinematic X-Men universe while superhero movies remain extremely popular. Gambit is a mutant who can charge inanimate objects with kinetic energy and use them as weapons.
Joshua Zetemer (2014’s RoboCop) is writing the script, based on a treatment from longtime X-Men comic book writer Chris Claremont. The film is scheduled for an Oct. 7, 2016 release.
