As we mentioned recently when discussing why Rupert Wyatt’s “X-Men” spin-off film, “Gambit,” ultimately was never greenlit, it would appear that the upcoming Disney/Fox merger will put the Channing Tatum-starring superhero film out of its misery. That being said, there are many fans that held out hope that the “Gambit” film would see the light of day. Well, thankfully, Collider spoke to Wyatt recently and he talked about what his film would have looked like.
And honestly, at this point, plot description is maybe the closest thing Marvel fans will get to a “Gambit” film.
“It was terrific, it was a really exciting sort of ‘Godfather’ with mutants set in the world of New Orleans with different gangs,” said Wyatt.
This is the first time we heard “The Godfather” being brought up as an inspiration for the film. Previously, we’ve heard that “Gambit” was going to be a heist film. Wyatt cleared up any confusion.
“Yeah [a heist film] of a sort,” Wyatt explained. “I mean it was a period film. It dealt with the 70s up until the present day. It was about kind of mutant gangs and the notion of what it means to belong, tribalism in this bayou-like environment. The swamps of New Orleans. So it would’ve been a lot of fun.”
He continues by confirming a rumor last year that after he departed the film, “Gambit” went in a…new direction.
The filmmaker said, “I know Channing sort of worked on the script to make it into more of a romantic comedy, I think. Which I read and it was great, it was very different to what I was involved in.”
Switching gears a bit, Wyatt also took the time to talk about another project that he was attached to that he ended up leaving. However, in the case of this series, “Halo” (based on the popular video game), it appears that Showtime is serious about presenting it to fans, albeit without the filmmaker involved. Sadly, it seems that the only reason that Wyatt had to leave the project is the time it would have taken out of his life to focus on the series, when he’d rather go off and try other things.
“So it became clear that there was gonna be more time needed, I’m talking some months if not years, to align—as you probably know it’s massively ambitious, so the budget for that really needs to align with the scripts,” explained the filmmaker. “We were still kind of working on that, but it ultimately wasn’t under my watch to be able to find that alignment. So there was a choice made by Showtime which was essentially to push things, and if I had been perhaps been the showrunner then I would have stayed on that journey for two or three years, but as a director of a finite number of episodes, there’s other things I really wanna do. So I was very sad to leave, but basically it wasn’t within the framework that I originally signed up for.”
A project that Wyatt did stick to and finish is “Captive State,” which hits theaters today.