Long-Delayed Gambit Movie Loses Another Director, Who Now Joins a New DC Film

Big news in the superhero movie world today, as director Doug Liman has exited the long-delayed Marvel project Gambit and has come aboard the DC Comics film Justice League Dark.

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the split for Gambit was a "mutual parting of ways" between Liman and Fox. Fox still wants to start production on Gambit in January 2017, the report said.

Liman isn't the first director to leave Gambit, as Rupert Wyatt left in September 2015. The Channing Tatum-starring movie has been in the works for a long time now and things haven't exactly gone smoothly.

Production was originally scheduled to start in fall 2015, but then shifted to early 2016. According to The Hollywood Reporter, script rewrites caused the delays, including the latest one to move the production start date to early 2017.

Liman, who previously directed The Bourne Identity and was going to make the Splinter Cell movie before he dropped out, is now taking the captain's chair for Justice League Dark. This movie has been in the works for a number of years and was at one time eyeing Guillermo del Toro as its director. However, del Toro is no longer involved, according to a story from The Hollywood Reporter.

The Justice League Dark comic features characters like John Constantine and Swamp Thing, both of whom have already had standalone movies, as well as Deadman, Pandora, and Black Orchid. It remains to be seen what the story would be for the movie version, who might star in it, or when it will be released.

On the more immediate horizon is the new Justice League film, which comes out in November 2017. The first trailer was released during San Diego Comic-Con last month and can be seen here.