Rupert Wyatt Compares His Abandoned ‘Gambit’ Movie To ‘The Godfather’
So often with superhero movies, it becomes a series of “what if’s?” What if this actor had signed on the play Superman? What if this movie had never bombed? But in the case ofGambit, the long-gestating comic book movie is one big case of “what if?”
The film has had a veritable revolving door of directors, includingRise of the Planet of the ApesfilmmakerRupert Wyatt, who first signed on to helmGambitin 2015. But Wyatt’s ambitious vision for the film was abandoned when the director left the project just a few months later. Now, Wyatt reveals what he had originally planned for his abandonedGambitmovie, and why it could have been like “The Godfatherwith mutants.” Read more about the lost Rupert WyattGambitmovie below.
In an interview withCollider, Wyatt delved into his original plans forGambit, which he had signed on for in June 2015 with starChanning Tatum. Tatum remains attached to the project and was a huge creative force in Wyatt’s version of the film. As Wyatt explained:
“What I do know is that Channing Tatum and his producing partnerReid Carolinhad an amazing idea of what that movie was going to be, andJosh Zeutemer, the writer, as well. It was terrific, it was a really exciting sort ofGodfatherwith mutants set in the world of New Orleans with different gangs.”
That’s certainly a lofty vision for a superhero movie.The Godfatheris one of the greatest American classics of all time, and to condense that into a superhero movie would have been ambitious, to say the least. But superhero movies have proven to be great vehicle for different genres — fromCaptain America: The Winter Soldier’s paranoid spy thriller toAnt-Man’s heist movie. Why couldn’t Wyatt makeGambitinto a sprawling, moody crime drama?
And it seems that Wyatt’sGambitwould take more cues fromThe Godfatherthan simply its genre. Wyatt expanded on his plans, revealing that the film would have been partially set in the 1970s and contain a heist.
“Yeah [a heist film] of a sort. 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. 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. But now Disney have the reins so I don’t know what their plans are.”
Wyatt would eventually leave the film, withDoug LimanandGore Verbinskisubsequently trying and failing to bringGambitto life. But in the interview with Collider, which I encourage you toread in its entirety, Wyatt finally explained why he exited the project.
“Fantastic Fourcame out, did not do very well for Fox, [and] they decided to lower our budget. We were 12 weeks out, we couldn’t recover. The script needed a huge amount of rewriting to fit that budget, and ultimately the powers that be chose not to go down that road, so the film didn’t happen.”
