Today Disney officially announced that The Lone Ranger is back on track. The family action flick staring Johnny Depp and to be directed by Gore Verbinsky will now begin production in early February of 2012 for a May 31st, 2013 release date. The film had been green lit early in the year and had actually begun the casting and pre-production process. A few large set pieces had already begun construction. In mid-August Disney stunned industry observers when they halted production on the film.
Disney's primary concern was the bloated $250 million dollar budget. That, combined with the fact that Dreamworks/Universal's Cowboy's & Aliens hardly showed up at the box office which made Disney a lot less willing to drop a lot of money on an unproven project. Finally, It seems that Disney and the films producer, Jerry Bruckhiemer have come to an understanding on the budget that will allow them to move forward.
Over the past couple weeks we have been telling all our Twitter followers that this was on the horizon. The buzz among the New Mexico film community had always been very positive. Local blogarazzi, OneHeadLightINK had been telling us from the beginning that The Lone Ranger would ride again. In fact, on the opening day of the D23 Expo on August 19th, OneHeadLightINK sent us this direct message:
Major props on that.
-Admiral Duke
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