Doug Liman Inching Closer to Directing ‘Gambit’

Doug Liman was Channing Tatum’s first choice to direct the comic-book adaptation of Gambit before Rupert Wyatt signed on and eventually backed out. Now, it seems Liman may return to the director’s chair.

The Hollywood Reporter has the story that Doug Liman has made it through several rounds of meetings and interviews, and Fox is getting closer to sign the Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Edge of Tomorrow director on board for the X-Men spinoff. Most recently, Liman wrapped production on Mena, a drug-cartel thriller with Tom Cruise, so Gambit looks to be his follow up.

While Liman has found major commercial success with action films The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, apparently those films needed someone to step in post-production and Liman lent to the troubled productions on both. Whatever may be behind these troubled productions doesn’t change the fact that Liman is a solid action filmmaker. His 2014 Edge of Tomorrow suffered from one of the more confused and muddled marketing campaigns of all time, but it was still more than competent.

Gambit is set for an October 7, 2016 release date, so Fox needs to put the pedal to the metal.