Channing Tatum Could Save the President in ‘White House Down’

Channing Tatum could have gone either way. After 2009's 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra' it felt like Hollywood was trying too hard to make him a star, and movies like 2011's 'The Eagle' could have been his future. But earlier this year he had back-to-back hits with 'The Vow' and '21 Jump Street.' And now he's being offered the lead in the upcoming blockbuster 'White House Down.'

The film is going to be directed by Roland Emmerich, and - as The Hollywood Reporter notes - Tatum would play a secret service agent and single father who must protect the president from a paramilitary group. There's also another "'Die Hard' at the White House" movie in the works, so there's a certain urgency to getting this going. One imagines the pitch was "It's 'Die Hard' meets 'Air Force One'!"

And if anyone could make this work it's Tatum. Though he may have come across earlier as a lunkhead, he's matured into an affable leading man. The question is if audiences will be sick of him by the end of the summer. Not only was he in 'Jump Street' and 'the Vow' earlier this year, he was also in 'Haywire' and will be in 'Magic Mike' and 'G.I. Joe Retaliation' this summer. That's a lot of Tatum.