20th Century Fox-backed film Gambit, delayed since 2015, will reportedly operate with a massive budget of $155 million. The shooting for this film, directed by Gore Verbinski, will begin in New Orleans in March 2018.

According to the Times-Picayune, the original 2015 filing with the state film office showed that Gambit was functioning with a $155M budget. The budget information is likely to have changed in the two years since the initial filing. Hence, the final budget for the film might vary.

Gambit has had a rocky start ever since the film was announced in 2015. The only steady factor surrounding the movie is the involvement of Channing Tatum who will play the title role along with producing the movie. After a series of setbacks, Fox and Tatum’s X-Men project is finally going to see the light of the day. It is yet unclear if the Fox/Disney merger that was announced last week will have any impact on the film. However, since a lot of shooting and cast details have been coming out from the studio, it seems like the film is on its way to hit the theaters in early 2019.

The massive budget of Gambit is not surprising if compared with other superhero origin movies. Ant-Man was made with a budget of $130M while Wonder Woman was closer to Gambit with a $149M budget. Doctor Strange’s production budget was a massive $165M while the budget of Spider-Man: Homecoming was $175M.

Whether Fox’s decision to invest $155M (if the number is accurate) on a relatively obscure character like Gambit is a smart decision or not is debate worthy. Fox’s Deadpool, which had Hugh Jackman play the lead role was made with a budget of $58M, which is way lesser than Gambit’s budget. Considering Jackman’s popularity and many years as Wolverine, the $155M for Gambit seems a little awkward.

Gambit is a heist film, which implies that the movie will be a small affair. It is hence quite possible that the $155M budget was for the original plan, which was to make a blockbuster film. Since the script of the film has been reworked over the past two years, the budget could be much smaller than what was planned earlier.

Gambit is scheduled to release in theaters on February 14, 2019.

Source: Times-Picayune