Johnny Depp has been hi-yo'd away!

Disney will not be moving forward with a big-screen version of The Lone Ranger that was to have starred the Oscar nominee as a retooled-for-modern-times Tonto alongside up-and-comer Armie Hammer as the titular Western hero, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Guess the foundering economy doesn't discriminate among superstars.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/johnny_depp_denied_lone_ranger_movie/257937#ixzz1Utu9cnRI

The Lone Ranger Was to Meet The Wolf Man?
Sunday, August 14, 2011
By: MrDisgusting


There's a big story developing in Hollyweird that has secretly affected us genre fans.



Maybe you heard about Disney's epic The Lone Ranger, which was to be directed by the great Gore Verbinski and star acting sensation Johnny Depp.

Deadline broke the news August 12 that Disney had shut down production after the ballooning budget reached nearly $250 million. While they've since updated the story that it could be resurrected in the coming week, word on the street is that it's DEAD.





Apparently, The Lone Ranger was to be a $250 million dollar werewolf movie. Yes, you read that correctly.

An updated article over at Hollywood-Elsewhere writes that the reason Ranger's budget was so astronomically high that Disney execs decided to shut it down was because it's an effects-heavy CG thing due to being a kind of an Indian-spirituality werewolf movie -- a.k.a., The Lone Ranger Meets the Wolfman.

It was going to be at least partly about some kind of Native American wolfbeast tearing victims apart and leaving a bloody mess.





Word had it that it was going to be a Tonto show - Tonto as the top dog and more dominant than the Lone Ranger.

The driving engine was going to be Native American occult aspects worked in with werewolves and special effects. But flavored with doses of Native American spirituality in a serious way.





More speculation is that Disney got cold feet after Universal's Cowboys & Aliens performed poorly, which is interestingly timed with the death of Ron Howard's epic The Dark Tower adaptation.

The Lone Ranger was scheduled to be released Dec. 21, 2012, smack up against The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opens Dec. 14, and the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z, which was just slated for Dec. 21.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/25852

didn't they steal that plot from an old episode of Scooby Doo?

Looks like this film will be released in the year Two Thousand and Never.

A 250 million dollar pricetag (some say it's closer to 300 mil) for this movie is ridiculous.

100 million of that budget is probably for Depp, Bruckheimer and Verbinski.

Disney Exec Still Pulling for The Lone Ranger, With or Without Gore Verbinski
By Aiden Redmond
Posted Aug 22nd 2011


First it got shut down, then we heard there was going to be werewolves in it, but despite everything that's happened, The Lone Ranger might still be a possibility.



In a recent interview with Deadline's Pete Hammond at Disney's D23 Expo, Disney chief Rich Ross gave his two cents on the status of what could have been Disney's next big Western.

According to Ross, "I'm hoping to do it. I'm certainly hoping. I think it's a compelling story and no one wants to work with Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp more than me, so we'll see how it works."



Not only does Ross seem to think The Lone Ranger is far from dead, but he also failed to mention director Gore Verbinski's name alongside producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp who was slated to play Tonto.

Considering Ross' long relationship with the director who helmed the first three movies in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, one would assume that Verbinski would earn a mention.

Maybe we're just reading into things, but it sounds like Verbinski may have been one of the many things that led to The Lone Ranger's downfall.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/08/22/rich-ross-the-lone-ranger/

Given the failed success of trying to combine western with horror and sci-fi, you would think they would either write a more mainstream western story true to the original Lone Ranger, or just give it up entirely.

Disney's Lone Ranger Close to Riding Again After Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski Reduce Fees
9/29/2011
by Kim Masters


How does a movie that was considered dead and buried get brought back to life? Ask Disney's studio chief Rich Ross, who appears to be on the brink of resurrecting The Lone Ranger with star Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski all remaining on board.

After budget negotiations that dragged on until the film missed its autumn start date, the project looks like it might crawl back from the precipice thanks to some unusual financial footwork.





The fantasy Western, once budgeted at an eye-popping $250 million, will be cut down to $215 million. To arrive at that figure (and a green light), the creatives involved will reduce their fees: no $20 million for Depp, no $10 million apiece for Bruckheimer and Verbinski, as is their norm on tentpoles.

A source also says the filmmakers will sacrifice their back-end participation if the film comes in over budget, a significant incentive to run a tight ship.



One of several planned train sequences has been scrapped, and a number of CGI-heavy bells and whistles have been eliminated. But what's most surprising of all is that an insider tells The Hollywood Reporter that vendors working on the film, such as special effects houses and even hotels, are being asked to accept reduced guaranteed fees in order to secure the business of the production.





While details are sparse, top executives at other studios say they have never heard of such shared sacrifice on a major studio release. And even with all those concessions, many think the budget is still far too high -- and remain skeptical that Verbinski can meet it.

Disney has not announced whether Lone Ranger can still hit theaters by its planned holiday 2012 release date.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-lone-ranger-close-riding-241773

The Lone Ranger Meets the Wolfman

Sounds like a triple feature with Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, and Billy The Kid Vs Dracula.

Horror westerns can be good if done right(Eyes Of Fire, Grim Prairie Tales, Ghost Town '88, Into The Badlands, and more recently The Burrowers).....BUT I don't think it's the right setting for The Lone Ranger.

Hi-Yo, Get on With It! The Lone Ranger Will Probably Happen at Lower Budget
By Christopher Rosen
Posted Oct 11th 2011


After weeks of back and forth, it appears The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp will actually happen at Disney.

Deadline reports that Depp, director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer reached an agreement on the production budget, meaning filming should start sometime later this year. Disney initially balked at what was reported as a budget of nearly $250 million.

No figures are currently available but it was assumed the studio would go forward with the film if Bruckheimer and Verbinski could get the cost in the $215 million range.





Initially scheduled for Dec. 21, 2012, The Lone Ranger stars Depp as Tonto, Armie Hammer as the titular hero and newcomer Ruth Wilson as the female lead.

Written by Justin Haythe,it was reported that the script featured three high-priced train derailments.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/10/11/lone-ranger-depp-back-on-schedule/

Official: Disney's Lone Ranger Sets May 31, 2013 Release Date
10/13/2011
by Kim Masters


It's official: Disney's Lone Ranger has set a May 31, 2013 release date, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.



Budget negotiations caused the film to miss its original autumn start date.

But the Western, which was originally budgeted at $250 million, has been cut down to $215 million. As THR first reported, the creatives involved will reduce their fees: no $20 million for Johnny Depp, no $10 million apiece for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, as is their norm on tentpoles.

A source also says the filmmakers will sacrifice their back-end participation if the film comes in over budget, a significant incentive to run a tight ship.





The studio tells THR in a statement:

"Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski are such a talented combination and we're thrilled to get back to work with them on The Lone Ranger, an original and exciting new Disney adventure."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-lone-ranger-sets-may-31-release-date-248191

PHOTO: First Look at The Lone Ranger Stars Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer in Costume
3/8/2012
by Jordan Zakarin


In the initial 1949 episode of the TV series of "The Lone Ranger", each and every one of the Texas Rangers is killed in an ambush -- except for one. Gravely wounded, he's nursed back to health by a friendly Native American named Tonto, and together they would ride on to grand adventures, taking on the evil Butch Cavendish and his gang as well as loads of other bad guys.

In a strange parallel, the blockbuster movie retelling of the famed western also nearly died, only to be saved in part by Johnny Depp -- the man who had long sought to take on and redefine the role of Tonto.





After production shut down on the Disney film in August due to its sky-high price tag, budget cuts and a few compromises earned it another ride in front of the camera by late September, with a May 31, 2013 release date.

Filming began in late February, with director Gore Verbinski, the director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, settling in with stars Depp and Armie Hammer, who plays the title hero, in New Mexico.





Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who was instrumental in getting the film back on target, tweeted a photo from the set on Thursday morning, providing the first look at Depp and Hammer in their costumes.

More authentic -- and ostentatious -- than the original TV series, the two stars look out into the rocky horizon, hardened by the challenges of the wild west.

Or, so it can be assumed.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/lone-ranger-johnny-depp-armie-hammer-costume-bruckheimer-297682

It looks like they took Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow get-up and tweaked it.

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