Corona | Coming Attractions

Disney has now released the second trailer for The Lone Ranger. As is the case with second trailers, this one goes into the movie's story and set-up, providing us with the first lines of spoken dialogue by Armie Hammer (The Lone Ranger) and Tonto (Johnny Depp). We also get to see that this western will be heavy on action set pieces, items blowing up and crazy, wacky situational comedy as the director and producer's earlier work, Pirates of the Caribbean.

But does the Pirates template work on the Lone Ranger? What are your thoughts on the trailer and does it win you over to go see the movie on its opening weekend?

Today the first trailer for the new Lone Ranger movie debuted online, giving us our first taste of what Johnny Depp's Tonto looks and sounds like. Sure, that other guy is in the trailer too (Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger), but let's be honest: we're all more interested in the sidekick of the Ranger.

The trailer also provides some insight into the direction of this Lone Ranger movie. Gore Verbinski already carved out a name as a high octane action director for movies set in historical times (his Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy grossed well over one billion dollars at the box office.) Judging from the action scenes you'll shortly see in the Lone Ranger trailer, Verbinski has brought the same kind of treatment to the old west as he did with pirates on the high seas.

And hey, Helena Bonhan Carter has red hair in this film.

Yesterday a crew member died while working on the set for The Long Ranger. Initial reports were first mentioned by gossip sites, which quickly spread across the blogosphere. Later in the day the movie studio issued a press release confirming the story was indeed true.

"We regretfully confirm that a Lone Ranger crew member has passed away after being taken to a local hospital. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues at this time, and our full support is behind the investigation into the circumstances of this terrible event," read the studio announcement.

The incident occured on a day when none of the movie's cast were on the set. Eyewitness reports claim that the victim was a diver that was working on a tank when something went horribly wrong. Paramedics were called to the set and tried to revive the individual but failed in their attempts.

Disney has shifted the release date of the Lone Ranger film back more than a month from its original opening date. Instead of debuting in theaters on May 31, the picture will now come out on July 3.

Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins, Michael Clayton) is in advanced discussions to play the film's principal villain, Latham Cole. Also in talks to join the cast are Dwight Yoakum, Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter and James Badge Dale.

May 31, 2013 is the new release date for Disney's The Lone Ranger, six months later than its earlier December '12 schedule. Filming is slated to begin in early February next year.

Gore Verbinski has been given one week to find a way to reduce the budget for Lone Ranger down to somewhere between $215 million to $220 million dollars.

That's what THR is claiming in the Thursday edition of the trade magazine. Reportedly Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have already reduced their pay by about $10 million between the two of them (and won't drop it any further.) Also gone is a subplot involving werewolves and Native American legends, but apparently there remain three huge action sequences (including what one insider claims is the mother of all train chases.)

Even with all of these revisions, the estimated price tag for Lone Ranger still comes in in the low $240,000,000s. There's still more fat that needs to be trimmed before Disney will give the director a greenlight.

According to a report published by Deadline, Disney has stopped active development on its Lone Ranger movie over a ballooning production budget. Sources tell the site that Lone Ranger had a budget of $250 million dollars, and could go even higher to $275 million. Disney wanted the makers of the film to find a way to reduce the cost of the production down to $230 million. Unfortunately, no one could find the way to save money and so the film has been grounded.

There remains a possibility that more financial shaving could still happen, and if so, the studio may start it up again. [Full story]

English actress Ruth Wilson (Luther, Jane Eyre) is in talks to play the female lead, a character named Rebecca. According to Deadline, Wilson emerged as the top candidate over other competitors such as Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch) and Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life).

Disney has staked out December 21, 2012 as the release date for The Lone Ranger. Now confirmed to play the Ranger is Armie Hammer (The Social Network), and of course Johnny Depp is still with the project and slated to play Tonto.

Opening one week earlier on the 14th is the first of the two Hobbit movies. Ang Lee's Life of Pi is also set to open on the 21st.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has revealed the logo for the movie on his official website and there was a small surprise: Disney is dropping "The" from the title and running with just Lone Ranger.

Bruckheimer's site also states that the official artwork is "coming soon" but if this isn't a preview of it, we doubt that the forthcoming marketing material will look very different from what's on Mr. B's website.

It's official: Johnny Depp will reunited with his Pirates of the Caribbean director pal Gore Verbinski on Disney's The Lone Ranger movie. The plan is for Depp to play Tonto in te Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film. An ETA for when the movie is expected to go into production wasn't mentioned; Verbinski is still in post-production on his animated feature Rango (which stars Depp in the title role.)

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is in negotiations to helm The Lone Ranger for Disney. This would reunite him with his Pirates star Johnny Depp, who is still attached to play the Indian Tonto in the film, as well as producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Verbinski is finishing work on Rango, an animated movie that features the voice of Johnny Depp as the movie's main character, a gecko lizard.

It's been over a year since any news has taken place on this project but now The Hollywood Reporter is stating that screenwriter Justin Haythe is in talks to write the script. Haythe adapted the novel Revolutionary Road into script format and has been working on other developing projects, like Jekyll at Universal.

When entertainment rumors appear in a British tabloid first we are more likely to take said gossip with a larger than typical dose of salt, so when The Sun newspaper states that an "insider" told them that George Clooney will play The Lone Ranger opposite Johnny Depp's Tonto, we're throwing away the teaspoon and pouring directly from the open salt shaker into our mouth. Not that it's a bad match-up by any means but it's just that the old adage "Burned once, shy twice" is our motto when it comes to showbiz gossip from the pages of one of these publication.

All that said, The Sun's source added, "George is very keen -- he's been trying to do a movie with Johnny for a long time."