Rupert Wyatt Will Direct Channing Tatum's GAMBIT Film

Fans of the new Planet of the Apes films are eagerly awaiting Matt Reeves' return to the franchise after his excellent Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but let's not forget it was director Rupert Wyatt who kicked off these rebooted movies in a big way with the surprisingly good Rise of the Planet of the Apes back in 2011. He stumbled a little with the Mark Wahlberg film The Gambler late last year, but now EW brings word that Wyatt is stepping into the superhero genre by directing Channing Tatum's long-brewing X-Men solo film Gambit.

The search for a director has been a tough one. Tatum has been wanting a high-profile filmmaker to bring this story to life, and he reportedly asked Bennett Miller, Darren Aronofsky, Gareth Evans, and J.C. Chandor to take the gig, only to be turned down by all of them for one reason or another. And while Wyatt may not have the instant name recognition of Aronofsky or the pure action filmmaking style of Evans, his work on Rise is enough to give me confidence he'll be able to handle the scope of this film with ease. Now we just have to hope that Josh Zetumer (RoboCop 2014) wrote a good script.

Gambit arrives in theaters on October 7th, 2016.