Budget & Start Date Revealed For Channing Tatum’s Gambit

While a large portion of the online fan community continues to feverishly anticipate next February’s long-awaited ‘Deadpool’ (for which a trailer is expected to appear online very soon), let’s not forget that 20th Century Fox has another ‘X-Men’ spin-off solo movie with a big name Hollywood star set for 2016.

Yes, we’re talking about the ‘Gambit’ movie, which has Channing Tatum in the title role, Rupert Wyatt (’Rise of the Planet of the Apes’) directing - and now, according to reports, has a production start date and budget confirmed.

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According to Louisiana media site Fastlane, the Marvel mutant movie will shoot in the comic book character’s home state this December, with a budget of $154,975,309 (just shy of £100 million).

This would certainly suggest ‘Gambit’ will be a very different affair from ‘Deadpool,’ despite both films sharing the common starting ground of being feature length spin-offs of characters initially introduced in 2009′s disappointing ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ - in which Gambit was portrayed by Taylor Kitsch.

‘Deadpool’ is set to be quite the ground-breaker for the contemporary superhero genre, as it will be Fox’s first Marvel-based movie to aim for an R-rating in the US (meaning a 15 or possibly even 18 certificate is likely in the UK).

As this rating typically means lower box office, ‘Deadpool’ was reportedly made on a significantly lower budget than most modern blockbusters, thought to be in the region of $50-60 million, although a precise figure has not been revealed.

However, as ‘Gambit’ is seemingly being made for more traditional blockbuster big bucks, this surely means a PG-13 is on the cards - not that we necessarily expected anything different for this comparatively lighter character.

Even so, we still know next to nothing about ‘Gambit’ beyond the presence of Wyatt as director and Tatum as both star and producer. ‘Robocop’ remake writer Joshua Zetumer is on script duties, with Fox Marvel movie mainstays Lauren Schuler Donner, Simon Kinberg producing along with Tatum’s partner Reid Carolin.

Still, with a December start date and an October 2016 release set, we can assume it won’t be too long before reports of ‘Gambit’s plot and supporting cast come in.

And with ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ landing slap bang between the two solo movies in May 2016, 20th Century Fox may end up owning the superhero box office next year - though there’ll be some very stiff competition from Warner Bros/DC’s ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and ‘Suicide Squad,’ and Marvel’s ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Doctor Strange.’

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Picture Credit: Joe Alvarez, 20th Century Fox, Marvel