Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Budget Cuts Detailed For Ranger

Go inside the deal that saved the western tentpole "The Lone Ranger" after $45 million in budget cuts with producer Jerry Bruckheimer

In an exclusive chat Bruckheimer told THR how the savings came about. The initial budget zoomed well past $260 million and the studio  demanded it be brought down to $215 million.


To get to that number the film's production plans was reworked. The big crowd scenes with lots of extras were adjusted to be done all together, same with the smaller scenes with Tonto (Johnny Depp) and the Lone Ranger (The Social Network's Armie Hammer). They nixed plans to shoot in California and are now trying to get tax breaks to shoot in New Mexico and/or Louisiana.

There were payment deferments by Bruckheimer, star Depp and director Gore Verbinski as well as various high-level vendors and creative people. If the budget goes over, they will all share the burden on overages including the studio.

In terms of the script with the  Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road)'s re-writes. a sequence involving a supernatural coyote attack, and a small animated piece was cut. The 2 train sequences which were rumoured to have been pulled are still there but have been trimmed.

Production is now eyed for a Febuary start

Finally, Bruckheimer says they're in the outline phase on Pirates of the Caribbean 5 He has a script, but "we decided we could do better"

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