X-Men Spinoff Movie Gambit Close to Signing New Director

While Marvel and DC's franchises dominate the superhero movie scene, Fox, the studio that owns the rights to the X-Men characters, is slowly building its own interconnecting cinematic universe. There are several X-Men related projects in production, but the studio met a setback in September when the director of Gambit left the project. Now it seems that a replacement has been found.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Doug Liman is on the verge of signing to take on the movie. Liman is the director of such blockbusters as Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, and Hancock, and the offer follows several weeks of meetings between the studio and potential filmmakers.

As THR reports, some of Liman's past films have met with serious production problems. However, his experience with directing big movies, plus the tight deadline for starting production on Gambit, have clearly worked in his favour.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt was originally set to helm Gambit, which stars Channing Tatum. He left the project stating that a "push in the start date now conflicts with another project", but a subsequent report in THR suggested that it was creative differences that led to his departure.

Other X-Men related movies in the pipeline at Fox include Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse, both due for release next year, while Wolverine 3 will follow in 2017.