Over the weekend, The Beat spoke with director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) about his new sci-fi thriller Captive State (out nationwide this Friday). During the conversation, we asked him about Fox’s proposed movie starring Channing Tatum as Gambit that Wyatt was once attached to direct.

We asked the director whether he had spent a lot of time developing the movie after being attached to direct, and this is what he told The Beat about what happened:

“I was very close with Channing Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin, and I was on the script with him and Josh Zetumer as a writer,” he said. “We were close, I believe 10 weeks away. It simply came down to budget. There was not enough. You know all too well about the politics of the business. Fantastic Four had been released by Fox a month before and had not gone well for them, so our budget was slashed quite considerably. The inevitable, from my perspective was, ‘Well then we need to rewrite the script to tailor to our budget,’ but we were too close to a start date for Fox to really want to go there, so unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”

“All I know is Channing had a really, really wonderful idea for what that film could and should be,” Wyatt said graciously about the chances of that film still happening. “I know he and Reid are still plugging away at it, so I hope in the new Disney era, that then they get to make it.”

Check back later in the week for the full interview with Wyatt, talking about Captive State, which will be released Friday, March 15.