‘The Lone Ranger’ television series aired from 1949-1957. It featured a masked hero, played by Clayton Moore, fighting injustice in the West alongside his Native American partner Tonto, played by Jay Silverheels. The show was nominated for two Emmys during its eight year run, including “Best Children’s Show.” Although the series didn’t win, Disney obviously agreed with the nomination as more than 50 years after the conclusion of the series they are bringing the classic into the new millennium as a movie.
‘The Lone Ranger’ film was set to star Johnny Depp, as Tonto. Depp was also the star of Disney’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and all four installments of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ ‘The Social Network’ actor Armie Hammer would be playing the role of The Lone Ranger.
However, production on ‘The Lone Ranger’ was recently halted due to to budgetary problems. Disney placed a $200-million spending cap on the movie. Filmmakers are struggled to reach that goal after starting with an initial budget of $250-million.
The director of the movie, Gore Verbinski, also had issues keeping to Disney’s budget when filming ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.’ ‘At World’s End’ was the third installment of the series, and the conflict was so great that Verbinski did not direct the fourth installment, ‘On Stranger Tides.’
‘The Lone Ranger’ is far from the first Disney movie to have problems keeping to budget. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told analysts earlier this week that if production costs can’t be reduced, “We think that we’re better off actually reducing the size of our slate than making films that are bigger and increasingly more risky.”
As for the future of ‘The Lone Ranger,’ everyone is talking and attempting to figure out what they can do next.
