Channing Tatum the frontrunner to star in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Should've seen this coming. Steven Soderbergh has proven over the years that he likes to maintain a certain circle of friends he works with on a frequent basis. Most recently, the newest addition to his clique has been Channing Tatum. Not only will he co-star in Soderbergh's Haywire next year, but the duo recently finished filming the stripper flick, Magic Mike. And now it looks like Tatum will take over one of the two leads in Soderbergh's spy spoof, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.


There's been so much turnaround on this flick that it's getting hard to keep track. Basically George Clooney was set to star as American spy, Napoleon Solo, but had to drop out due to injury. Bradley Cooper emerged as the frontrunner to replace him, but as was reported just a few days ago that is no longer the case. Tatum seems like the logical choice to play Solo, and has met with Soderbergh to talk about it. Deadline reports that no official offer has been made, but Warner Brothers is on board with the decision, and it's looking like a done deal.

That would still leave the other lead, that of Russian agent Ilya Kuryakin. Joel Edgerton was mentioned to be in line for it, but that looks to have fallen through. Whether that means Edgerton has chosen to be in Noam Murro's 300: Battle of Artemisia is anybody's guess right now. Hopefully it means he'll still be a part of Kathryn Bigelow's Kill Bin Laden.

The script by Scott Z. Burns(Contagion) is going to keep the adventures of U.N.C.L.E. firmly planted in the 1960s, detailing the global security force's battle with the terrorist organization known as T.H.R.U.S.H.