Will Channing Tatum finally get his wish to star in a “Gambit” movie?
“I sure hope so,” he told me at Thursday’s premiere of “Blink Twice” at the DGA in West Hollywood. “From your mouth to God’s ears. Write it into existence, my friend. Please.”
Tatum’s newfound faith follows his surprise cameo as the X-Men mutant in “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Tatum and his producing partner, Reid Carolin, spent four years developing a standalone “Gambit” film for 20th Century Fox, but the movie died when Disney and Fox merged in 2019.
Yes, he’s already told Marvel he still wants to make it happen. “I’ve course I’ve said it. I’ve been saying I want it for the last 10 years,” Tatum said. “It’s in Bob Iger and Kevin Feige’s hands. I pray to God.”
Tatum thanked Ryan Reynolds in an Instagram post in late July for bringing his Gambit to life. “I thought I had lost Gambit forever” but Reynolds “fought for me and Gambit.”
He also wrote, “I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy.”
The “Magic Mike” star praised “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy as “a brilliant creator on every single level.”
“All things happen for a reason,” Tatum also wrote in the Instagram post. “I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater. LFG!!”
In first-time director Zoë Kravitz’s “Blink Twice,” Tatum plays a billionaire tech mogul who flies his friends and a bevy of beautiful women to his private island. Things go awry and take a very dark turn as the group spends countless hours drinking and doing drugs.
The film, co-written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, was originally called “Pussy Island.” “I still call it ‘Pussy Island,’ Tatum said. “In my mind, it will always be ‘Pussy Island.’…It’s a little lame that our culture isn’t comfortable with a word but again, it’s not my body part and I think women weren’t comfortable with it even more than men, so it’s out of my hands.”
Co-star Simon Rex says he still has hats and t-shirts emblazoned with “Pussy Island” that producers gave to the cast before the title change. Alia Shawkat said the cast’s group text is still called “PI.”
Other cast members on hand for the premiere were Naomi Ackie, Adria Arjona, Geena Davis, Christian Slater, Trew Mullen, Levon Hawke, Cris Costa, Tiffany Persons and Haley Joel Osment.
The premiere also marked Kravitz and Tatum’s red carpet debut as a couple. During the introduction of the screening, Kravitz thanked Tatum for his support while making the film, calling him “the love of [my] life.”
“Blink Twice” will be in theaters by Amazon MGM Studios on Aug. 23.
