THE LONE RANGER just wrapped a nearly 150-day shoot, weathering the storm, literally, throughout the process. Now, director Gore Verbinski is taking the film to the editing room, readying the first big-screen adventure of the famed character since 1981’s THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER.
“It’s a dysfunctional buddy movie,” says Verbinski. “It’s two guys who start literally and figuratively handcuffed together who end up on the same mission with completely different world views. They sort of rub off on one another. But they have plenty of disagreements.”
“This is all about two guys who are on the same path, but who have come from two very different worlds,” says Armie Hammer about their dynamic.
Much has been said about the odd appearance of Johnny Depp as the Comanche Indian, Tonto, with many making comparisons to his now immortalized creation of a certain Pirate. But, Depp is quick to discount any similarities, saying “I’m a long way from Jack Sparrow,” while Verbinski says that Tonto “is an odd-shaman, an outcast from his own tribe, who has created his own mystical world.”
“The challenge was to turn the story on its head and reinvent it,” says Verbinski, who says the story is narrated by Tonto. “Everyone has heard about the Lone Ranger, but not from the only other who was there — Tonto.”
Hammer will debut the first trailer for THE LONE RANGER on Tuesday’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno, so expect it to hit the net shortly thereafter. I’m looking forward to seeing some images in action as I want to be excited about this. Right now, I’m still in the “cautiously optimistic” camp, but I’m hoping the trailer will get me to the “f*cking pumped” stage.
THE LONE RANGER gallops into theaters on July 3, 2013.