Alex Pettyfer to Shed Clothes – and Become Channing Tatum

By Alison Schwartz

05/13/2011 at 10:15 AM EDT

Talk about eye candy!

Before he made movies, Channing Tatum made money taking off his clothes – as a male stripper.

He's not ashamed, he's said of his dancing days, so it seems only fitting that his old job is catching up with his current career.

Beastly's Alex Pettyfer, 21, will take it off in a Steven Soderbergh comedy based on an 18-year-old Tatum, according to the Hollywood Reporter.



The stripper flick, titled Magic Mike, will also star Tatum.

But, perhaps to the dismay of his fans, it seems he won't be baring it all as he did back in the day. Instead Tatum, 31, will play a character who mentors Pettyfer's character.

"Look, I'm not proud of it," Tatum said in 2010 of his stripper gig. "But I'm not ashamed of it."