Disney Still Looking to Howl with the Lone Ranger
Deadline
http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/the-lone-ranger-saddling-up-with-johnny-depp-and-a-tighter-budget/
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A while ago we did a story concerning Disney scrapping the long talked about Johnny Depp vehicle The Lone Ranger. Why were we even covering it, you ask? Because everyone’s favorite cowboy and Indian were slated to go head up with a werewolf. We thought the project was dead in the water. Until now …
According to Deadline the studio is expected to formalize a new start date imminently and announce it is moving forward and putting Depp back in the saddle as Tonto with Armie Hammer as the title character. It looked like the studio was going to announce last week when the picture brightened for the film, but it will be this week’s business instead.
The original plan was to begin shooting this fall. That was until the studio shockingly pulled the plug on a project it feared could come in at between $250 million-$275 million. The risk of such a figure on a Western became more glaring after Cowboys & Aliens had just turned in a severely disappointing domestic gross, to be followed by an even worse offshore performance, proving the adage that most Westerns don’t travel well. On Lone Ranger there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes drama as the three principal players made concessions in their deals and worked on the script to salvage the spectacle that made the movie worth making in the first place while bringing the budget down to a more manageable figure in the $215 million range.
More soon!
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