In a move that proves even the mightiest of celebrities can fall by the wayside when money becomes an issue, Disney has pulled the plug on The Lone Ranger, a film which was looking to be one of their major tentpoles for 2012. Johnny Depp was set to headline as Tonto, pairing back up with the ultra successful director of Pirates of the Caribbean
, Gore Verbinski. Deadline says what got the film killed was the massive budget, which was looking at over $250M+(!!!), and Disney was like "Oh hell naw!!!". Attempts to trim it down to $232M simply weren't enough, as Disney was looking for something in the ballpark of $200M. Seriously, how does a friggin' Western cost $200M? Is this Wild Wild West with giant robot spiders all over the place? It's not the casting, that's for sure. Armie Hammer(The Social Network
) may be more in demand now than ever, but he can't cost all that much. The rest of the cast consists of Tom Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter, and James Badge Dale, not exactly bank busting stars. What this boils down to is that studios aren't going to keep spending money like water hoping for a hit. There have been way too many big budget flops lately(hi Green Lantern. You too Cowboys & Aliens) to justify it. Look at what happened to At the Mountains of Madness
with Guillermo Del Toro. Or a more recent example is Ron Howard's adaptation of The Dark Tower
. Too much risk to justify the costs.But there has to more to it than just that. The Depp/Verbinski pairing all but promises a $500M global haul. My personal opinion is that Disney got cold feet at the crowded December 2012 month, which promised to blunt The Lone Ranger's numbers. The Hobbit, Django Unchained, Life of Pi
, and Judd Apatow's Knocked Up
spinoff are all set up for the same month. There's still some hope that the film will be picked up by another studio, and frankly I'd be surprised if it isn't. It's going to have to come at a much lower price, though.
