Joseph Gordon-Levitt May Direct The Musical Comedy Starring Him And Channing Tatum
It seemed like a match made in movie heavenwhen it was announced last yearthatJoseph Gordon-LevittandChanning Tatumwere to headline the R-rated musical comedy,Wingmen, together.
Now, in addition to his dancing shoes, Gordon-Levitt may be donning the director’s hat for the Universal movie in his second time directing since his feature film debut,DonJon.
Gordon-Levitt is in talks to direct theWingmen— described by Universal as “an R-rated musical comedy featuring two pilots on a misadventure” — according toVariety, but nothing has been confirmed yet. If he does sign on to direct, it would be his second time in the director’s chair since 2013’sDon Jon, which funnily enough,featured a cameo appearance from Tatumas the star of a movie-within-a-movie.
Tatum and Gordon-Levitt have co-starred numerous times before, in 2005’sHavoc, 2008’sStop-Loss, and 2009’sG.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The two of them had even been looking intoremakingGuys and Dollstogether, though this upcoming comedy-musical seems like a worthy alternative.
Gordon-Levitt conceived of the idea forWingmenalongside writerMichael Bacall(Scott Pilgrim vs. The Worldand21 Jump Street), who will be writing the script.Marc Platt(Broadway’sWicked) andAdam Siegelwill produce alongside Gordon-Levitt, Tatum,Reid CarolinandPeter Kiernan.
It’s been a year since Tatum wowed us with his singing and tap dancing chops inHail Caesar!, the Coen brothers' ode to cinema and classic Hollywood. Since his breakthrough role inStep Up, Tatum has built a reputation for being a talented dancer and a pretty face to boot, though we wouldn’t be aware of his singing (and comedy) skills until the past few years, when he branched out into irreverent comedies like21 Jump Street. But Tatum so easily stole the show in his brief but charismatic appearance in the Coen brothers film that many dubbed him “our generation’s Gene Kelly” — tall, but deserved, praise. And let’s face it:Magic Mike XXLalso proved that to be true.
Gordon-Levitt is no slouch himself in the song-and-dance department.
The child star moved on from arthouse indie films to a romantic-comedy leading man, finally showing off his own secret singing and dancing chops in his uber-charmingSNLhosting gig in 2009. His pitch-perfect recreation of “Make ‘Em Laugh” fromSingin’ in the Rainis sadly not embeddable, but there are plenty of listicles out theregushing over his singing skills,as well as internet evidence of that brief moment in time when the world was obsessed with his relationship with Zooey Deschanel, and the two of them milked it for all it was worth.
Production forWingmenisn’t expected to start anytime soon, with Tatum about to begin shooting the Paramount action-thrillerTriple Frontieropposite Tom Hardy, while hisGambitmovieis still in the works. Gordon-Levitt was last seen in Oliver Stone’sSnowdenand is currently developing several projects, includingFraggle Rock, Sovereign, K TroopandIn Sight.
