20th Century Fox is officially moving forward with the Gambit movie. Word started to surface a few months ago that an X-Men spinoff featuring the card-wielding mutant was in the works with Channing Tatum set to star, and now Fox has hired screenwriter Josh Zetumer to get to work on a script while Tatum is indeed officially attached to lead the feature. This isn’t the first movement on the project, however, as Marvel Comics writer Chris Claremont apparently wrote the treatment for the Gambit movie, which will form the basis of the screenplay. More after the jump.

Per Deadline, Fox has set screenwriter Josh Zetumer to pen the Gambit movie script based off of Claremont’s treatment. Zetumer only has one produced feature under his belt, this year’s RoboCop remake, but apparently Fox thinks he’s the right man to tackle Gambit. The storyline for the film is being kept under wraps, but the Gambit character has been a fan-favorite for sometime. A native of New Orleans, Gambit aka Remy LeBeau has the power to control and manipulate kinetic energy, with a propensity for card throwing.

Taylor Kitsch played the character in the ill-conceived X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Tatum has been keen on taking on the role for some time. The actor told us this summer that his plan with the film is to change up the superhero genre:

“We’re gonna try to change up the superhero-type movie, maybe give us something a little different. In my opinion, Gambit is an outlier in the X-Men [universe], he’s not a good guy in a way. He smokes, he drinks, he’s chasing women, he’s a thief. I’m not like an X-Men head but I just love him.”

Tatum is currently shooting the sequel Magic Mike XXL and will no doubt be on the awards circuit later this year with Foxcatcher, but it should be interesting to see him make his superhero debut in Gambit. With regards to Fox’s other X-Men plans, production begins next spring on the Days of Future Past follow-up X-Men: Apocalypse with director Bryan Singer, so could we possibly see Tatum’s Gambit make his first cameo appearance in that film? It’s set in the 1980s so there’s no telling what Fox has in mind for the Gambit solo movie, but throwing in a quick cameo or reference might be a nice tease for the spinoff film.