In Contention

Tag: The Lone Ranger

  • Josh Brolin and Jonah Hex

    Jonah HexJeffrey Wells conveys the sentiments of a single source, /Film marks it as reportage and suddenly it’s considered a done deal that Josh Brolin has signed on to star in “Jonah Hex.”  It all may well be true, mind you  It probably is.  But this is the kind of thing that web masters don’t understand when high profile institutions like Variety hold off on linking to them until people are actually on the record.

    ANYWAY, I’m a step removed from Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.  Friends of a friend, so to speak.  Watched a few UFC fights with the chaps.  Good guys.  But I’ve heard zip.  If it’s true, it’s definitely a better choice than Thomas Jane would have been (gossip passed along in June).  It would also be a ballsy play for Brolin to make a hard left turn out of prestige and into the realm of genre once more with the directors of “Crank” at the helm.  But I like him for Hex.

    It’s no secret that I’m game for just about any western at this stage.  But “Jonah Hex” represents, along with “The Lone Ranger,” a branching out into typicality for the genre.  Rather than the prestige pet project here or there, we’re starting to see pop culture reflexivity, and that means a lot for the future of spurs and saddles on the big screen.  When (and if) these films start making money, studios will more and more loosen their resistance against making these films.

    But back to “Hex,” if you don’t read the DC Comics book, I certainly recommend it.  It was resurrected a few years back into a new series that is up to about #36 right now (I’ve got the full set), and rather than arcing major stories, it’s generally a one-story-per-issue kind of thing, self-contained, very pulpy, pure awesomeness.  Give it a look.

    Here is what Wells heard:

    I’m told that the deal is sealed for Josh Brolin to star in Jonah Hex, based on the graphic novel and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Game) and to be funded and released by Warner Bros. Brolin’s rep is not only denying this but claiming Brolin is “not attached,” but a voice is telling me to consider the word of a friend who tells me the deal was locked down last night.

  • George Clooney as ‘The Lone Ranger’ alongside Johnny Depp’s Tonto?

    George Clooney to star as The Lone Ranger?Okay, it’s The Sun.  I know.  But a fun rumor nonetheless.  Here’s the juicy aside, via Lumenick On Film:

    George is very keen — he’s been trying to do a movie with Johnny for a long time.  He thinks they’ll make the perfect on-screen partnership.

    Well, personally, I would find it difficult not to laugh hysterically if this came to pass.  I don’t want to say I’d hate it, because let’s face it, a Clooney/Depp team-up would be fun.  And a movie with their names above the title would make boatloads of money — BOATLOADS.  And maybe that’s the ultimate edict of Disney, steering more and more toward the tent pole route like Warner Bros. up the street.

    Anyway, here’s Lumenick’s opinion:

    …it sounds like a truly terrible idea to me. The 75-year-old radio character’s last iteration was in 1981, when Michael Horse played Tonto in one of that decade’s worst movies, “The Legend of the Lone Ranger.” The title role was the first and last film appearance of Klinton Spilsbury, who won Razzies for worst actor and worst newcomer. Let’s just pray Hollywood is celebrating April 1 a few months early.

    There’s also a bit about the Russell Crowe dual “nottingham” casting that was reported over the weekend and, to my mind, remains a bizarre idea to say the least.

  • Johnny Depp to star as Tonto in Bruckheimer’s ‘Lone Ranger’

    The Lone RangerUPDATE (11:36 p.m.): Big oops on my part.  It turns out Depp will be playing Tonto in “The Lone Ranger,” not the hero himself.  Which, frankly, strikes me as even odder.  But anyway, sorry for getting ahead of myself this afternoon.

    EARLIER: So…what do we think about this?  The news has broken out of the Kodak Theater during a Disney event this afternoon and is slowly trickling its way through the web.  Before long, it’ll likely be the biggest entertainment story of the week, maybe the month, because these things get inflated when a guy like Depp and a property like “The Lone Ranger” come together, so let’s dig into it now.

    A Bruckheimer/Verbinski/Rossio/Elliot collaboration on this material is a perfect conception and exactly what would make it work at a time when the western is struggling to make its way to relevance once again.  But I’m approaching this news with some measured reserve.  The likely reaction will be a gigantic: “That’s awesome!”  But I dunno…

    This is an exciting project regardless.  “The Lone Ranger” has quickly become one of my most anticipated films in the Hollywood pipeline and despite my ambivalence about today’s news, it still is.

    Also announced at the event, by the way, was that there will be a fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  Considering the dollars involved in that franchise, it’s certainly not a surprise, but I don’t think I’m alone when I say: “Ugh.”

    Additionally, Depp was “officially” announced as Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter in the upcoming “Alice in Wonderland.”

    Tell us what you think of Johnny Depp’s casting trifecta this afternoon.