Channing Tatum In Talks To Play Evel Knievel

If you had to name a movie MVP for the first half of 2012 Channing Tatum is most definitely the winner. While Haywire didn't do that great at the box office and G.I Joe: Retaliation being pushed back was a bad blow, The Vow, 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike all performed beyond expectation and the latter two even earned positive marks from critics. If Tatum wasn't a hot ticket before he most definitely is now, and he's using that power to play the greatest stunt cyclist of all time.

THR has learned that Tatum is now in talks to star as Evel Knievel in an upcoming biopic. The movie is being made by Columbia Pictures and Mike DeLuca and Dana Brunetti, the names behind films such as The Social Network, Moneyball and the upcoming 50 Shades of Grey, will be producing. Tatum will also continue his producing streak, as he backed both 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike. Over the course of his career Knievel set many records, but also managed to accumulate 433 broken bones during his career. He died in 2007 at the age of 69 from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Reid Carolin wrote the screenplay, which he based on the Stuart Baker book "Life of Evel," which came out in 2008. Knievel's life has been on the big screen before as George Hamilton starred as the daredevil back in 1971.

Tatum has shown to actually have some acting chops, but do you think he is the proper actor to put on the stars and stripes? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.