Doug Liman leaves ‘Gambit’ movie for WB’s ‘Justice League Dark’

The news of Liman’s appointment to Justice League Dark will be bittersweet for X-Men fans, as we also learnt today the he has left the Channing Tatum led Gambit movie.

Gambit was originally supposed to be released this October, but after losing director Rupert Wyatt, work on the movie stalled before Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) was hired to take over.

After many months of no news and speculation that the project may be on ice, Variety reports the director Doug Liman has signed on to direct Warner Bros.’ Dark Universe movie, aka Justice League Dark.

Michael Gilio will be on scriptwriting duties for Justice League Dark, while Scott Rudin is set to produce. A mystical and macabre version of DC’s premiere superhero team, Justice League Dark brings together “dark” heroes like John Constantine (whom Keanue Reeves played in a 2005 film and Matt Ryan played in a short-lived TV series), Swamp Thing, Deadman, Zatanna and Etrigan the Demon.

There is no official release date set, but Warner Bros. has previously set release dates for Untitled DC movies on October 5, 2018 and November 1, 2019.

The film, based on DC’s more supernatural heroes like Constantine and Madame Zanadu, had been in development with del Toro for several years, but it got continually shelved while he worked on different projects. Del Toro will also be penning the script for the film. And, as so often happens with the director’s projects, pre-production delays meant that the film had to be scrapped as he moved on to other, more time-sensitive projects. That said, Fox is still planning on moving forward with the film and is now looking for a replacement director, according to The Hollywood Reporter.