The ‘Lone Ranger’ Faces His Greatest Battle: Disney

It was a rough August for the latest Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Gore Verbinski collaboration, Lone Ranger.  After all, Disney announced it was putting the movie on indefinite hold because of its escalating budget, which lead to all kinds of rumors about the film’s big-budget storyline (including several outlandish rumors about supernatural beings and werewolves, which have absolutely no business being in a Lone Ranger film in my opinion).  Even though the calendar has flipped to September it doesn’t seem like Lone Ranger has any luck this month either.

Both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter have published stories about the current production issues that Lone Ranger is having.  According to both articles, Bruckheimer and Verbinski are submitting a $215 million budget to Disney, lower than their original $240-$275 million budget but not quite the $200 million that Disney has requested.

Some might ask, “What’s $15 million to a huge corporation like Disney?”  But Disney has little faith in a big-budget western (and rightfully so — look at Cowboys & Aliens.  If you think that’s an isolated incident, tell me the last time a western made $200 million at the domestic box office.  Oh wait, you can’t — it’s never happened).  You also have to take in account that Disney currently has two other huge-budget films, Oz the Great and Powerful and John Carter, in the works.

One of the possible solutions for Disney is to replace Verbinski with a director with a cheaper fee, but it appears Depp — known for his loyalty to his directors — will not make the film without Verbinski.  So Verbinski doesn’t want to do the film if the budget is brought down to $200 million, which Disney wants him to do, but Depp won’t make the movie if Verbinski doesn’t direct it.  But surely Disney wants to keep in Depp‘s good graces if they ever want him to appear in another Pirates of the Caribbean film — and Disney also doesn’t want to tick off Bruckheimer, who is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood.

So we’re at a crossroads on Lone Ranger: will it get made?  My gut tells me that whenever there’s money to be made it’ll happen.  It’s up to Disney to decide at what point it will feel comfortable that it’s making money.