The big “to do” surrounding The Lone Ranger is quite funny really. I mean, a $250 million film based on a classic radio and TV show character battling werewolves? Have werewolves really become so popular to the point anyone thought that was a good idea? Then again, I guess we could ask Universal if the boardgame “Battleship” is popular enough 80+ years after its inception to warrant a $200+ million price tag for the Peter Berg-directed “adaptation”? It’s not like it really matters.
If you can make enough lunch boxes and toys to guarantee enough money at the worldwide box-office nowadays, quality doesn’t really matter. However, it’s strange to think if they were making the exact same movie for $25 million with practical effects I’d be far more intrigued. Frankenstein and the Three Stooges had run-ins with crazy characters… why not the Lone Ranger?
No matter. You can forget it. The Hollywood Repoter brings word that werewolves are out and trains are in. Kim Masters reports, “The original script included werewolves and other supernatural creatures from Native American myths. Those bells and whistles have been jettisoned, but according to sources who have read recent drafts, three massive action set pieces involving trains remain, including one described as the biggest train sequence in film history.” The best part about all this… the budget has hardly… budged.
“Verbinski is said to have brought the budget down to $242-244 million via nips and tucks” writes Masters. Oh wow, a whole $8 million eh? That’s the difference between filming werewolves vs. trains? Makes me wonder how Buster Keaton was ever able to get The General made for $750,000 back in 1926? Based on inflation that would be $9,391,262 in today’s dollars and that film had some spectacular moments. Still, Disney isn’t biting on that $242 million price tag. Nope, director Gore Verbinski needs to get it down to around $215-220 million — or less. Masters says Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are said to have given up a total of $10 million from their fees, but it appears unlikely the filmmakers will reduce the budget further.
At this point I’d like to start one of those online petitions (that never make a difference no matter how hard people try to push them) and suggest they forget the CG junk and make The Lone Ranger vs. the Wolfman, co-distributed by Disney (probably through Touchstone) and Universal, bring back Benicio del Toro and get someone like J.A. Bayona or Guillermo del Toro to direct on a budget of no more than $20 million, which is how much del Toro spent making Pan’s Labyrinth. Forget the giant noisy blockbusters, make a crazy film, with a big star like Johnny Depp and tell a story that’s just as fun to follow as it is to watch despite how silly it may be. Just think, in Part 2 the Lone Ranger and Wolfman could team up and take on Dracula… ON A TRAIN!
