This past weekend, Disney held their second fan-based convention, the D23 Expo, and one of their execs is talking about The Lone Ranger. Rich Ross made his first comments about putting the film on hold to Deadline, saying, "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." A pretty cut-and-dry statement, but with such a bloated budget set to the tune of $200+ million dollars, will The Lone Ranger make it out the stable?
What's even more curious is that Bruckheimer and Depp are the two key figures made in that statement. Anyone who is a fan of HBO's Entourage can see the writing on the wall. Where's director Gore Verbinski in these talks? Is it too early to make the conclusion that the House of Mouse would entertain working with another director? Deadline says that with the script's budget cuts they'd greenlight the project if they could produce the film at $215 million.
So much of The Lone Ranger's success depends on the budget, and for it to get off the ground there would need to be a lot of unhappy campers. Discussions are apparently underway, but we want you to weigh in on the discussion: Do you think Johnny Depp will want to make this film without his frequent collaborator?
Speak your piece in the comments section below.
[via Deadline]
