It looks like Gore Verbinski’s THE LONE RANGER, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, is headed into “over budget” territory, now venturing into the same troubled waters as many films before it, including his own PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series. That series was a gamble that paid off, however, and THE LONE RANGER is an as-yet-unproven property for modern day audiences.
If you’ll recall, THE LONE RANGER was originally put on hold for budgetary concerns, forcing Verbinski to trim some scenes out of the film to get the budget down from a costly $250 million to a “tight” $215 million. Now, it appears the film is headed right back up to its original cost, while the shooting schedule falls behind and rewrites get underway.
I can’t imagine it’s an easy task directing a big-budget tentpole release film, but sometimes you have to question just how much it takes to truly make such a film. In Gore Verbinski’s case, the director opted to have the production “construct its own locomotives from scratch rather than employ existing railroad vehicles.”
Yet with all of these developments, those who have seen the footage already shot are saying Verbinski “has a chance to do for Westerns what he did for pirate movies — make the genre popular internationally.”
Really, this isn’t anything new when it comes to mounting a major production. Many a big budget film has gone through this process and come out on top…and of course, many haven’t, including two of this years biggest disappointments in relation to cost; JOHN CARTER and BATTLESHIP, not to mention the recent news about Brad Pitt’s WORLD WAR Z going into massive rewrites and reshoots.
So, do you think this is business as usual or an ugly trend for big-budget Hollywood flicks?
THE LONE RANGER is slated to ride into theaters on July 3, 2013.