'Gambit' Producer Promises A Sexy Heist Movie: Prepare Yourself For Shirtless Channing Tatum Throwing Cards

After a rocky few months, it looks like 20th Century Fox's Gambit movie is finally starting to find its footing. Doug Liman is in negotiations to direct (replacing Rupert Wyatt), Channing Tatum is still locked in to play the kinetically charged mutant superhero, and producer Simon Kinberg is saying the right things in interviews.

According to Kinberg, who is the godfather of sorts to the entire X-Men movie franchise at this point, Gambit will be a "heist movie" and a "sexy thriller" that will stand alone from the rest of Fox's superhero movies. The heist movie aspect isn't surprising given the character of Gambit's penchant for thievery. The sexy thriller part of the equation makes sense because there is no way Channing Tatum doesn't spend great swaths of this movie shirtless and showing off his disconcertingly attractive body.

The full sexy, heist-y Gambit movie details can be found after the jump.

The folks at Collider caught up with Kinberg, who seems to be utilizing the lesson that has sustained Marvel Studios for the past eight years – superhero movies can be a vessel to tell all kinds of different stories. Much like how Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a hugely different experience than Guardians of the Galaxy, Kinberg says that the various X-Men movies in development will all have distinct tones:

I mean Deadpool obviously has a very different, almost antithetical tone to the mainline X-Men movies. The X-Men movies are dramatic and almost operatic, whereas Deadpool is irreverent and hysterical and sort of a dirty R-rated comedy in many ways. And Gambit will have its own different flavor and tone to it, will be more of like a heist movie and a sexy thriller in a way.

This is a smart game plan because why would you not lean into the strengths of the characters in your comic book stable? Remy LeBeau's comic book counterpart is a suave ladies' man and a thief who frequently stumbles into heroics. Making a full-on heist movie that utilizes his sex appeal is true to the character on the page while allowing the movie to provide a different flavor of action than the rest of the X-Men movies. And it's about time, too – the main X-Men films have begun to run together and tread on too much familiar ground. Deadpool and Gambit could be the shot in the arm that this franchise needs.

Although plot details remain unknown, we can totally imagine Gambit being an Ocean's 11-style adventure set in the mutant world, with the action occasionally pausing so Tatum and rumored co-star Lea Seydoux can glower at one another. It's a good thing we're not in charge of this movie, because we would demand at least one full-blown dance number from Gambit. Why not utilize every aspect of the Tatum?! That would be like throwing away part of the buffalo and everyone knows how wrong that is.

Gambit was originally scheduled for an October 7, 2016 release date. However, since Fox has literally just moved Alien: Covenant to that spot, the rumors that Gambit will be pushed back to allow everyone involved to actually have the time to make a good movie are starting to look very true.