So until I watched the trailer in front of LINCOLN the other day, I had more or less completely forgotten that THE LONE RANGER even existed. It was, granted, the same trailer we’d seen before. But still – it’s still so strange that we’re getting a big budget version of this story, one to which I have such little personal connection or investment, that I just plum forgot it was even releasing. Of course, the fact that hasn’t been much promotional material at all didn’t exactly help matters.
But I imagine that’s all going to change soon as we ride closer to the six month mark prior to THE LONE RANGER’s release, and this trailer is definitely one way to get the ball rolling. Whilst the last centered on the importance of trains as described in a powerful voiceover from the always-impressive Tom Wilkinson, today’s trailer takes the other track and centers on an expansion of the relationship between Armie Hammer‘s John Reid (aka The Lone Ranger) and Johnny Depp’s Tonto. One thing’s for sure: the movie looks beautiful. Bleakly, stunningly so. Director Gore Verbinski has only become better at the filmmaking craft with every project he’s done – here’s to hoping that he and his PIRATES screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were able to rein themselves in when it came to story length and pacing.