Veteran character actor Johnny Depp hopes his Tonto will help reverse decades of Hollywood’s negative image of Native Americans.
Depp, who is part Cherokee, will pay the Old West adventurer in Disney’s big screen action comedy The Lone Ranger and tells Entertainment Weekly: “I think it’s going to be good, when we have a chance to put it up on its feet.”
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer with team with original Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski as director. “What we’ve got so far screenplay-wise is really great, really funny,” he said.
“I always felt Native Americans were badly portrayed in Hollywood films over the decades,” he says. “It’s a real opportunity for me to give a salute to them. Tonto was a sidekick in all the Lone Ranger series. [This film] is a very different approach to that partnership. And a funny one I think.”
No release date has been set. The lead role has yet to be cast.