'The Lone Ranger' is Back on Track at Disney?

The time to break out those cowboy hats and famous Lone Ranger masks is almost upon us, right before Halloween.  Deadline reports Gore Verbinkski's The Lone Ranger could lock up a new deal with Disney as early as next week.  Yeeeeehaw!

Disney originally pulled the plug on the Johnny Depp vehicle months ago due to an extravagant budget reaching nearly $250 million.  Fortunately, Depp, Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer reworked their deals, and the studio was able to trim the film's budget down to around an estimated $215 million.

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Production for 'Lone Ranger' Shuts Down

Walt Disney Studios shut down the production of Lone Ranger, a big-budget film with the talents of Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp in the cast and Gore Verbinski in the directing chair.  According to a report by Deadline, Disney halted the production (the film was in preproduction mode and filming was slated to start in October) due to budget concerns.  

Disney wants the budget for the film to be closer to the $200 million mark, rather than the current $250 million.  Verbinski and the production team are trying to find ways to cut off the extra money, but still haven't came up with sufficient cuts to meet the studio's heads demands.  The budget concerns may not be jerks and not give filmmakers what they need for their vision, but an economic decision.  

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'Lone Ranger' Update Finds a Writer

Before today, it had been more than a year since we had an update about The Lone Ranger. That would be strange even if this were just some run-of-the-mill potential blockbuster, but for a Disney-Jerry Bruckheimer movie that has had a signed contract for Johnny Depp since 2008, this lack of news is hard to figure.

I think we need to look internally. Disney has had an eventful year, unloading its president Dick Cook (a Depp favorite, incidentally) and replacing him with Rich Ross, who seems to be much more oriented around the bottom line. That has its good and bad points, but at least he stopped McG's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea reboot and a Wild Hogs sequel, plus a silly Robin Williams mid-life comedy. The Lone Ranger adaptation is also a Mike Newell project, and he has no dobut had his hands full with Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, so it could be that Disney never intended for this movie to happen any sooner, but everybody knew how busy Depp would be so grabbing him way ahead of time was the only way to do it.

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Disney Moving Up the Next 'Pirates' Movie?

Disney's "Hi-yo, Silver" may have turned into a "Whoa." Jerry Bruckheimer - who ought to know - says the House of Mouse may delay its Lone Ranger flick with Johnny Depp as Tonto so we can see Johnny Depp reprise Captain Jack Sparrow.

Bruckheimer tells Empire, "Disney's priority is to get Pirates made. That's a great franchise for them and for us too. Beloved, with a great character and Johnny's really excited about coming back to Captain Jack." The last we heard about Depp's involvement with the fourth Pirates - which one would presume might lead to fith and sixth entries in the series - the actor was going to get something like $55 million to resume the role. I'd be pretty excited, too, if I were in his shoes.

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'Prince of Persia' Director Up For 'Lone Ranger'

If it stands up, there's a lot of sense in hiring Mike Newell to direct The Lone Ranger. He's directed a Harry Potter movie and recently shot next summer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for Jerry Bruckheimer, and Bruckheimer is also leading the charge for Lone Ranger. In short, he's got experience as a do-what-the-producer-wants filmmaker on massive movies.

That's not to say he's in any way deficient as a director, just that he works very well for producers with big aims. That's not an easy trait to find, because directors so often want to do things their own ways. Newell's also really versatile - Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral - so I think he can be relied upon to give us the most crowd-pleasing Lone Ranger that the script allows. Production Weekly (via Worst Previews) broke the news, saying Newell is in talks for the first of what should be a few Lone Ranger filcks. Johnny Depp is the new Tonto, which signals a little comic relief from that character where Jay Silverheels never really provided it, and to answer that time-honored question - "Who was that masked man?" - we just don't know.

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