Back in August, Disney shelved its planned film for The Lone Ranger due to its huge budget of $275 mil. at the highest (after Cowboys & Aliens bombed, they were worried about doing a Western film with such a high budget). But now, Deadline (who's been covering progress on the film ever since it was shelved) is reporting that Disney will form a new start date for the Western, with actors Armie Hammer (Lone Ranger), Johnny Depp (Tonto), producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski confirmed to return. The film will begin production early next year in New Mexico, so it definitely won't reach its proposed release date of December 21st, 2012. The new budget for the film will be $215 million, much lower than the proposed $250-275 mil.
Well, it took a week longer than I thought it would, but Disney has finally reached a meeting of the minds on The Lone Ranger with director Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The studio is expected to formalize a new start date imminently and announced it has green lit the film that puts 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. I don’t think Disney was able to salvage its December 21 release date because production won’t start in New Mexico until early next year.
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The Lone Ranger revived? Sound off your thoughts below in the usual place.