Channing Tatum: Still gunning at Evel Knievel

CANNES, France — Channing Tatum still has his eyes on Evel Knievel.

The star is getting the best reviews of his career as a troubled wrestler in Foxcatcher, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. But Tatum says he's looking ahead for the upcoming biopic, which he'll produce and star in, about the legendary stuntman.

Tatum says he's a huge fan of the man who holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for surviving the "most bones broken in a lifetime" (433 -- but Knievel used to say it was fewer).

"He walked the walk," says Tatum of Knievel. "He said something which was possibly very stupid, 'I'm going to go do this even if it means death.' And he just went and did it over and over again. And he somehow still survived."

Knievel died in 2007.

Tatum says the film should begin production in 2015 and will focus on the early days of the daredevil leading up to his first jumps. The actor wants the film to explore what made Robert Craig Knievel turn into the daredevil who dominated ABC's Wide World of Sports in the 1970s.

"Who was this man who became one of the most famous men in the world?" asks Tatum. "The story we're focusing on was how he got to that first jump. The early stuff. That's most of the interesting part."

"(Knievel) was on the cutting edge of that kind of spectacle where you could be watching someone die on television. How did he go about putting his entire family on the line for this success?" says Tatum.

Tatum says he hasn't started preparing for the part ("I haven't even scratched the surface"). The Alabama-born actor says he is a competent motorbike rider.

"I've ridden dirt bikes and bikes pretty much my entire life," says Tatum. "But there are things I am way more intuitive on. I can ride a horse way better than I can ride a bike."

A key aspect of this is that Knievel himself also was not a born bike rider in the beginning of his daredevil career.

The filmmakers are also still looking for a director. Tatum's Foxcatcher director Bennett Miller read the script, gave some thoughts and said he liked it. Would he take on the story?

"He hasn't been able to think about this. He was like, 'That's going to be an amazing story,' " says Tatum.

Even Tatum's Magic Mike director, Steven Soderbergh, has read the script and given notes.

"That's what's so awesome about a character this large," says Tatum. "Everyone has their own perspective."