Channing Tatum is known for doing his own stunts — at least, of the hip-thrusting order. His status as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars first came from the things he could do with his body, and thus his continued desire to make a biopic about motorcycle performer-turned-70s-icon-turned-Guinness-World-Record-setter (for most bones broken), Evel Knievel, makes a lot of sense. The project has been in development for a while — and Lone Survivor‘s Peter Berg was initially supposed to direct, but then stepped off the project. Now, however, it seems Tatum and Sony Pictures may have found a new director — and one who makes almost too much sense: Darren Aronofsky.
Knievel was someone who consistently pushed his body to at-times horrific limits, and he was also a seemingly deeply flawed man with a frightening, abusive streak (after a biography was written about him alleging that he’d abused his wife, he flew to California to do the same to the author — bludgeoning him with a baseball bat and knocking him unconscious and sending him to the hospital). His, er, intensity seems rather aligned with the subjects of Aronofsky’s other films — which tend to be about troubled individuals and their frightening corporeal ambition (Black Swan, The Wrestler).
Channing Tatum’s role in the development of this project has been as a producer, alongside his partner, Reid Carolin, but it’s also been rumored that he’ll star in the biopic; today, when The Tracking Board announced the news about Aronosfky’s participation, they also said Tatum will be starring. However, the certainty of all this is questionable, as Deadline later reported that Aronofsky was just supposedly in early negotiations, but that a deal had not been reached yet. (The same could go for the news of Tatum officially starring.)