Last month, word surfaced that Doug Liman was on track to get the director’s chair for Channing Tatum‘s "Gambit" after Rupert Wyatt exited the superhero movie earlier this year. But it would seem it’s taken a while to get the ink dry on the contracts, but nonetheless the filmmaker has the job and has beaten some pretty touch competition to get it.
THR reveals that Joe Cornish ("Attack The Block"; please make another movie soon), Shane Black ("Iron Man 3"), and, F. Gary Gray (who is making the next "Fast & Furious" movie) were all in the mix for the job. Liman still has the reputation he earned on movies like "The Bourne Identity" for being hard to manage and going over budget, but it’s reported that producer Simon Kinberg (who worked with the director on "Mr. & Mrs. Smith") will “exercise a strong hand” behind the scenes to make sure everything stays on target. Certainly, Kinberg also has something to prove to Fox following the disastrous "Fantastic Four" which happened on his watch.
Production will begin next year, and Fox is still somehow aiming to release the film on October 7, 2016. Good luck with making that date.