As many of you know, there has been a Lone Ranger film in the works starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer as John Reid (aka The Lone Ranger). After Cowboys and Aliens didn't do as well as hoped at the box office, They cut back the budget significantly. There was actually a point when it wasn't even assured the film would be made but its back! Originally there was going to be Werewolves and supernatural elements that the Lone Ranger and Tonto would go up against.
The budget was supposed to be around 260 Million and they cut back the CGI which may mean that they cut out the supernatural elements. I hope this isn't true, with Bruckheimer, Gore Verbinski, and Johnny Depp involved this could be next years new Pirates of the Caribbean in the West and an interesting take on the Lone Ranger.
This episode of Beyond the Trailer can tell you, better than I can, about the current development of the Lone Ranger movie and what we can expect from it:
The Lone Ranger is no Stranger to the Weird West, his forays into it, however, have usually been in comics and animated TV Shows. Joe Lansdale and Tim Truman did a Lone Ranger for TOPPS Comics that was FULL of Weird West goodness and then, of course, there was THIS which populated the Steampunk region of the Weird West. I love the old Filmation cartoons, although they weren't the best that animation had to offer.
Ill keep you informed on any new developments!
Also, I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 2012. I'm sorry the Emporium has been so quiet lately. I'll admit, Ive been getting a little burned out and needed to recharge my battery. I might still need too, but the Emporium isn't going anywhere. I might not be ready for weekly updates just yet, but I'm not going anywhere.
See you soon!
10 comments:
I'm more worried about them cutting the dramatic train scenes than the CGI werecoyotes, but it might be worth it to avoid having CGI werecoyotes. Not that I'm opposed to werecoyotes or wendigo or anything Weird West, obviously. It's just the CGI ^_^
I'm not quite sure, but that old episode of the '66 cartoon in which the Lone Ranger is in Louisiana fighting an honest-to-gosh pirate using a Nautilus-style submarine to sink Mississippi riverboats might very well be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. If the movie is like that, count me in.
I agree completely. I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they've figured out a way to do the Werewolves with practical effects, although that might look even worse. I wonder what kind of train scenes they were going to have :/
Gee, thanks for nothing, Cowboys & Aliens! But I guess the silver lining is maybe a new realization that bloated $300M budgets aren't required to make a decent movie :)
While I'm a big fan of the Lone Ranger (the Dynamite Entertainment comic series was fantastic btw) the casting of Depp as Tonto leave a very bad taste in my mouth. There are plenty of Native American actors in Hollywood right now that would make a fantastic Tonto (*cough* Taylor Lautner *cough*) I can't help but be a little skeptical of Depp's heritage, it's just seems too convenient, I may be way off here, but I hadn't heard about his Native heritage until his name was brought up for the role of Tonto. Personally, I think "Hell on Wheels" Eddie Spears or Adam Beech would make a better Tonto.
I agree, I think nothing ruins a movie more than throwing too much money at it.
Anonymous - I agree, however it is Depp's name that will bring people into this movie. If they hired a more high profile Lone Ranger they could have gone for a lesser known actor to play Tonto. Looks like they did it in reverse.
Isn't John Reid the Lone Ranger and Dan his brother?
You guys know I have a love of weird westerns, but I gotta say I'm just not thrilled by the prospect of werewolves in a Lone Ranger movie. The Ranger is already special. When you make the bad guys more interesting, you diminish the effect and appeal of the Ranger. It's like having The Punisher face Doctor Doom, or Batman fightning I don't know, The New Gods or something. It's not what the character was really intended for. The Ranger is arguably America's first costumed crimefighter. I can't help but feel he should be pitted against the kind of bad guys in the Wild Wild West show at the most. When you cross into the supernatural it becomes a clunky fit
I will decry the casting of Johnny Depp as Tonto till the day of release. He may be a good actor and a box office draw, but I foresee one of two things happening; either his antics will outshine the Ranger or they will go out of their way in an apologist manner to make Tonto so adept he becomes the main character and the Ranger the sidekick. I could be wrong, but this has the makings of a disaster.
You speak the truth Ed, When you put it that way (Thinking of The Lone Ranger as a Western superhero) you are absolutely right, he is special all by himself. I'm just afraid that audiences might not feel the same way. Over the years, at least for me anyway (perhaps unfairly) The Lone Ranger has become something of a.....and I hate to use this word, but I'm being honest here....a goofy cliche. Not because he actually IS a goofy cliche, but because he is such a character of his time who has never seemed to have advanced past a certain style of presentation. You can always expect to hear The William Tell Overture, and the "Hi Ho Silver Away!" He can't seem to escape his radio roots. I was just thinking that adding something like Werewolves might inject some fresh blood into the character. Of course that also might be overkill.
Ironically, though, some of the modern revisits to the Ranger Ive seen or read have actually been quite dark and interesting. The Legend of the Lone Ranger from the 80s was actually quite good, and I was shocked at how violent it turned out to be....especially in the scene when the rangers get slaughtered. I even had a small thrill when Reid finally put on the mask and the William Tell overture began to play.....but it also changed the film and turned it into a cartoon a little bit. They knew how to do the Reid scenes, and they knew to do the Ranger scenes, but they didnt know how to do both so that the two parts meshed organically. Also the Dynamite Comics version of the Lone Ranger is excellent. They've added a good amount of darkness without compromising the character.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Bruckheimer and co. come up with. Maybe he will go up against a villain in the vein of the Wild Wild West which would be perfectly fine with me :D
Also, thank you for the catch Ed, The Lone Ranger WAS John Reid, not Dan. Fixed :)
I had always heard terrible things about the 80's Lone Ranger, but I recently watched it as well and yeah, I thought it was surprisingly pretty good.
I've got no problem with darkening up the Ranger's opponents. The darker they are the brighter he is. I sorta see him as the Batman of the Old West.
I actually wrote a big long post about this myself... http://emerdelac.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/who-that-masked-man-is/
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