The Lone Ranger: Jerry's Deal & It's The Critics Fault

Yahoo reports that fallout over the poor performance of Gore Verbinski's big-budget re-telling of "The Lone Ranger" continues...

Disney is reportedly talking with producer Jerry Bruckheimer about restructuring his deal for "Pirates Of The Caribbean 5".

The new deal will likely strip away the final cut privileges he had on the previous films in the series, as well as limiting the budget on the next film.

The franchise has earned nearly $4 billion at the global box office across four films--but Disney involvement in the new sequel is front and center this time out with the hiring of  "Kon-Tiki" duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg who were able to make the Oscar-nominated "Kon-Tiki" look far more epic and expensive than its limited budget would suggest.

It's expected this film's budget will be closer to $200 million rather than the $250 million that was once suggested.  The duo will work using Jeff Nathanson (Men in Black 3) soon polished the script ahead of production in New Orleans next year.

 Meantime the big difference between the big-budget box-office failures of Disney's "John Carter" and "Ranger" are the reviews. Film critics weren't gushing, but a good many were still taken with "Carter" .

'Ranger' also has its defenders, but most critics ripped the $250 million-budget film to shreds. Now, those behind it are blaming film reviewers for the lack of turnout to see the film.

Star Johnny Depp tells Yahoo UK:

"I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we even released the film. I think the reviews were probably written when they heard that Gore (Verbinski) and Jerry [Bruckheimer] and I were going to do 'The Lone Ranger.' They had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I didn't have any expectations of that. I never do."

Bruckheimer adds:

"I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie. The audience doesn't care what the budget is — they pay the same amount to see the movie if it costs a dollar or $20 million. It's unfortunate because the movie is a terrific movie, it's a great epic film. It has lots of humor. Its one of those movies that whatever critics missed in it this time, they'll review it in a few years and see that they made a mistake."

Finally, co-star Armie Hammer says:

"While we were making it we kind of knew that people were gunning for it. I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain to jump on the bandwagon to try and bash it. They tried to do the same thing with World War Z; it didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie."