Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Werewolves Rattled Ranger?

The decision made by Disney to halt prep work on Gore Verbinski's film version of The Lone Ranger until its reported $250 million budget was brought down to a more reasonable $200 million left many perplexed...


Both price tags seemed quite high for a western, even with Johnny Depp cast as Ranger's (The Social Network's Armie Hammer) Tonto.  The reason for the costly price tag according to a source- werewolves!??

An unnamed writer on WriterActionBBS (via Hollywood Elsewhere) says "It was always going to be a big  Bruckheimer CG movie with traditional Bruckheimer elements… it was never going to be a semi-traditional western...it was never going to be Zorro. It was going to be a Tonto show mainly. Tonto as the top dog and more dominant than the Lone Ranger. Tonto and the Indian spirits like Obi Wan Kenobi and the force. The driving engine was going to be Native American occult aspects worked in with werewolves and special effects. But flavored with doses of Native American spirituality in a serious way."

The disappointment of the big-budget "Cowboys & Aliens." has given the studio cold feet. The original 2009 script by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio  had werewolves in it--as did Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road)'s re-writes

I hate the notion of werewolves for Ranger--Is the budget battle a blessing in disguise?

I think the picture will get made at some point--It's just a matter of whether everyone will compromise or walk....

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