Speculation continues as to whether Disney will or won’t bankroll a $200m Lone Ranger from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp. The studio canned the film just over a week ago thanks to budgetary concerns (it was running north of $250m) but various sources within Disney have indicated the project remains a possibility. Johnny Depp, after all, has been part of some of the studio’s biggest movies in the past decade — the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Alice in Wonderland — and is seen as one of the last bankable movie stars. (Tell that to the producers of The Rum Diary and The Tourist.)
The latest word on Lone Ranger comes from Disney executive Rich Ross, who said during the studio’s D23 Expo this weekend that he still very much wants to make the film. But he evidently omitted Gore Verbinski’s name when talking about the project, leading to even more rampant speculation that the studio wants to make a cheaper version of the movie with a different director. Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
At the end of last week the biggest news might have been that Disney had canceled development of Gore Verbinski‘s Lone Ranger, which was set to star Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the title character. At issue was the budget. The film, based on a script full of visualizations of Native American mysticism and werewolves, and featuring a few big action sequences, was going to cost about $250 million to make.
What? $250m for a western! The Coens spent barely $40m on True Grit. Another $210m? Even with Johnny Depp, that’s a lot of digital werewolves. Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer aren’t ready to let the movie go just yet, however. Quite a few script changes and fee cuts are under way now. The werewolves have been given the boot (thankfully!) and it looks like some other big alterations are taking place in order to get the cost down to a far more reasonable $220m or less. Read More »
Sometimes even Johnny Depp is too expensive. Deadline is reporting that Disney has pulled the plug on The Lone Ranger, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced, Gore Verbinski-directed action western based on the classic TV show that was scheduled for release next Christmas. According to reports, the proposed budget came in north of $240 million and even when it was cut back, was still more than $230 million. With expensive films like John Carter and Oz The Great and Powerful already at various stages of production, and The Lone Ranger not yet shooting, Disney cancelled the film to save some bucks. There’s more after the jump. Read More »
Universal, in the conference room, with the telephone. That’s most likely how the movie studio officially dropped their interest in a remake/adaptation of the Hasbro board game Clue. However, Hasbro is currently so flush from films like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, they aren’t worried. They’ve got Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, Ouija and Candyland all still in various stages of production/development and they’re letting Clue go out on its own with Gore Verbinski‘s production company Blink Wink. In fact, screenwriters Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama have just been hired to take the murder mystery structure and adapt it on a global scale. Read more after the jump. Read More »
Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer and Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy director Gore Verbinski are really, truly making a new Lone Ranger, in which Johnny Depp will star as a sort of revisionist Tonto, with Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) playing the titular ranger. Now two Western veterans, Dwight Yoakam and Barry Pepper, are in talks for the film. Just for good measure Helena Bonham Carter is likely to join the cast, thereby making Lone Ranger a bridge between Johnny Depp’s major movie worlds, Tim Burton and Pirates of the Caribbean. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 by Angie Han
Ruth Wilson will be breaking into the boys’ club as the female lead of Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer as the Texas ranger and Johnny Depp as his sidekick Tonto. Although Wilson’s name may be unfamiliar to most Americans, she’s known in the UK for her work on the BBC’s Luther and the Masterpiece Theatre miniseries Jane Eyre. Wilson was selected over Jessica Chastain and Abbie Cornish, who were also being considered for the part, and is currently in negotiations. Very few details have been revealed about her character, named Rebecca.
Unlike the earlier versions of the property, Verbinski’s Lone Ranger will be told from Tonto’s perspective — “Don Quixote told from Sancho Panza’s point of view,” as Verbinski has described it. The film will hit theaters December 21. [Deadline]
After the jump, B.J. Novak joins The Dictator opposite Sacha Baron Cohen a.k.a. Borat, and Peter Mullan takes on an action thriller.
Read More »
Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 by Angie Han
We’ve already discussed at this space the ways in which Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer seem like excellent choices to play the Lone Ranger and Tonto, respectively, in the new The Lone Ranger film. Now another actor may be joining the mix as well. Tom Wilkinson is reportedly “in early talks” for a major part in the Disney Western, which is being directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Read more after the jump.
Read More »
Next Christmas, get your “Hi-yoo Silver!” on as Disney has now set a holiday release date for The Lone Ranger. Directed by Gore Verbinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as Tonto, the film is scheduled to hit the big screen on December 21, 2012. Read more after the break. Read More »
