Lauren Shuler Donner On ‘Gambit’, ‘New Mutants’ Hulu Rumors & Future Of ‘X-Men’ Franchise Under Disney – TCA
Lauren Shuler Donner is ready to hand off the X-Men franchise to Disney and Marvel’s Kevin Feige, and she has no worries — it’s in good hands.
“Kevin (Feige) and I started the first movie, he worked for me, he has a great story sense when it comes to weaving each world together, I trust him and I trust where he will take it,” said Shuler Donner.
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The fate of the long-in development Gambit with Channing Tatum; its final result will be determined by the new Disney Marvel when it comes to fruition. The film is currently not bubbling in development. There’s no director attached to the pic even though Fox has it dated for March 13, 2020. That said, Shuler Donner, whose credits have generated in excess of $6.6 billion at the global B.O., says that there’s been some thoughts about a new Wolverine down the road.
However, “it’s all in Disney’s playground and they get to decide,” said the producer.
Will she remain aboard the X-Men franchise as it comes into the Disney fold?
“I don’t know, I don’t think so, certainly in name credit, it’s up to Kevin (Feige),” said Shuler Donner, “I don’t know what Kevin is thinking, I think he’s still dealing with the wealth of characters and trying to make sense of it all.”
The producer was at TCA today here in Pasadena, CA for FX’s Legion panel. The cable network announced today, ironically in a year when Disney is set to acquire Fox’s Marvel X-Men assets, that the series’ third season in June, will be its last. Creator Noah Hawley has said that it was always part of his design to do three seasons.
What Shuler Donner did warn in a scrum with reporters is that “you cannot have too many Marvel, X-Men superhero movies out there: We’ll cancel each other out. Each one has to be distinctive. You have The Avengers to follow through; there are so many distinctive canons to follow through and you have to have new ones to focus on. For us, it’s a lot and people will get sick of them. We have to be careful; he (Kevin) has to be careful. You can’t have more than four (franchises out there).”
In regards to the rumors of New Mutants heading to Hulu, Shuler Donner, who yielded production oversee of the project to Simon Kinberg, says that she’s “hopeful” that the teen-horror pic will receive a theatrical release. The pic is currently scheduled to hit theaters on Aug. 2. “They worked hard on it,” said Shuler Donner about the film’s production team, “I want to see it released (theatrically), I’d hate to see it thrown at Hulu.”
Whether New Mutants goes straight to Hulu or not; we’ve heard that those hard decisions will be made once Fox is completely in the Disney fold. As of right now, the pic is scheduled to be released theatrically.
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