What do we know about “Magic Mike 2” so far? Well, as we revealed exclusively a few weeks back, the official title will be “Magic Mike XXL” and Greg Jacobs, Steven Soderbergh’s longtime producer/first A.D./creative co-hort, will take over the directing duties (Soderbergh has “retired” which basically means directing TV, but no feature films).
And more news has arrived. Warner Bros. has slotted the movie for a July 4th weekend in 2015. America, get happy (though the gang of strippers will have to face off against the new “Terminator” reboot which could prove to be a challenge). Who’s returning for the sequel? Obviously Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer were seemingly written out of the narrative, but asked point blank about McConaughey, star/producer/co-writer Channing Tatum recently told MTV, “I think everyone’s gonna be back, I think, Obviously no one’s deals are done which is always kind of scary.”
And more, Tatum promises this one will feature a bit traveling. “This one will be a road trip movie. Without giving a lot away, we don’t wanna make it a really serious, slice-of-life movie. We want to have reality in it, but we don’t want to make it some dark drama. There was some darkness in the last one that I think surprised people and shocked people,” he said. “This one, we want there to be a lot of conflict and a lot of struggle, but we also want there to be a shit-ton of fun. A shit-ton of just ridiculous stuff that you would never see in a movie.”
And there’s even more Tatum news. He’s met with the producers of ‘X-Men‘ to possibly play the character Gambit because the “Magic Mike” star loves that particular mutant.
“I met with Lauren Schuler Donner. I would love—Gambit’s my really only X-Men that I’ve ever loved. I [mean] I’ve loved them all, they’re all great, [but] I don’t know I guess just being from down south—my dad’s from Louisiana and I’m from Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—I don’t know I just related to him,” he explained. “He’s just kind of a suave; he’s the most un-X-Men X-Man who’s ever been in X-Men, other than maybe Wolverine. He’s kind of like the anti-hero; he’s a thief. He’s not even like a hero, he’s kind of walking the line of grey. He loves women and drinking and smoking, he’s just a cool guy that happens to have a good moral center.”
Will it happen? Tatum says, “I hope it does [come together]. You never know, it’s a weird industry. If the stars align, I would play it. I’m already working on the accent.” In the meantime, at least you have “Magic Mike 2” to look forward to. Full interview below.
