Lone Ranger : Naissance d'un Héros [Disney - 2013]

Une petite actualité sur le casting du rôle féminin :

Ruth Wilson is in negotiations to play the female lead in Disney's Lone Ranger, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film that stars Armie Hammer as the Masked Man and Johnny Depp as Tonto. Details of her role are sketchy, but it is the female lead whose name is Rebecca. The film has a Dec. 21, 2012 release date. Gore Verbinski is directing. Wilson, a UK actress, had been in the mix for the role along with Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) and Abbie Cornish (Limitless). She has had a standout TV career across the pond, starring in the acclaimed 2006 Masterpiece Theatre miniseries Jane Eyre (she was nominated for a Golden Globe) and most recently on the BBC's Luther opposite Idris Elba.
(Source : Deadline)

on annonce Helena Bonham Carter dans le film !!!!

Citation :

Helena Bonham-Carter : patronne d'un bordel dans The Lone Ranger
Et devinez qui joue le héros de The Lone Ranger ? Johnny Depp !
Entre deux volets d'Harry Potter dans la peau de Bellatrix Lestrange, Helena Bonham-Carter a surtout tourné avec Johnny Depp, ces dernières années. Ils seront d'ailleurs dirigés par Tim Burton, mari de Madame et meilleur ami de Monsieur dans Dark Shadows, cet automne. Ensuite, elle a signé pour Great Expectations, l'adaptation d'un classique de Charles Dickens par le réalisateur d'Harry Potter 4, Mike Newell. Et ensuite ? Elle va retrouver Johnny Depp, annonce Variety !
Sans Tim Burton, pour une fois, puisque c'est Gore Verbinski, le réalisateur de la première trilogie des Pirates des Caraïbes, qui va réaliser The Lone Ranger, un western tiré d'une série télé des années 30. Armie Hammer y jouera le héros, et Depp sera son compagnon Tonto. Sauf qu'ils devraient être à pied d'égalité, contrairement à leur relation dans l'oeuvre originale. Helena Bonham-Carter jouera de son côté la "tenancière excentrique d'un bordel". Dwight Yoakam, Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale et Barry Pepper complèteront la distribution.
Sortie prévue en décembre 2012.

http://www.premiere.fr/Cinema/News-Cinema/Helena-Bonham-Carter-patronne-d-un-bordel-dans-The-Lone-Ranger-2832818

Le projet est annulé, suite à un fort désaccord entre Disney et Bruckheimer...
Je me souviens que pour Pirates des Caraibes, il y avait déjà eu des clashs entre Disney et le producteur... mais là, j'ai bien peur que cela n'obscurcisse les relations entre eux...(Et surtout; comme on peut le lire dans THR, cela risque de ternir le futur de Pirates des Caraibes et des projets avec Depp.)
Voici l'article de The Hollywood Reporter

Disney has shut down production of The Lone Ranger, its ambitious retelling of the classic western that was to star Johnny Depp

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the abrupt move to kill a project that was set to begin shooting in the fall comes amid clashes with producer Jerry Bruckheimer over the budget for the tentpole, which was scheduled to be released in December 2012. A Disney spokesman did not return calls.

Lone Ranger was heralded by Disney as a potential franchise starring the bankable Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. Gore Verbinski, director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, was set to helm.

The move is a direct blow to Bruckheimer, who has produced the four mega-hit Pirates films for Disney. It also raises questions about whether Depp will agree to reprise his starring role in another Pirates film, which is a priority for the studio.

The halt is all due to budgetary concerns, not creative differences, sources tell THR. The studio is said to have given Verbinski a firm budget number but the director balked.

“Gore doesn’t want to budge for what he thinks a movie like this needs,” says one insider.

One concern for the studio, according to an insider, is that even though Depp is the biggest star in the world, the project is a western, and the genre is having some dark days, particularly in light of the recent poor showing of Cowboys & Aliens.

“The fact that it’s a Western is a definite concern,” says one source.

While budget numbers for Ranger are hazy, Disney already has a number of expensive projects in the can, or in the works, including John Carter ($250 million-plus) and Oz The Great and Powerful, currently in production.

The move, of course, raises a slew of questions: What does this mean to the relationship between Disney and Bruckheimer, which is already under strain due to its expensive nature and Bruckheimer’s cold streak (Pirates 4 notwithstanding)? And how does this affect the studio’s relationship with Depp, the star of several billion-dollar hits for the studio, and who may now be less inclined to make a fifth installment of Pirates?

Depp has been involved with the Ranger movie since September 2008, when at a studio preview then-chairman Dick Cook brought out the actor for a surprise announcement. The double surprise was that Depp would portray Tonto, the Ranger’s Indian partner and not the Ranger himself.

The project heated up later last year when Verbinski came on board as director, and soon Hammer, riding high from his turn as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, signed on to play the Ranger.

Ranger was casting up and galloping towards an October start.

A l'instant, je viens de voir que le prix des actions Disney remonte : est-ce le signe que les actionnaires ne voulaient pas financer ce projet, et sont soulagés ?

L'article de Deadline est plus instructif notamment car il revele précisément le budget de John Carter, Lone Ranger et Oz. On y explique notamment que le film aurait coûté 232 millions, que Depp sera de toute façon payé, et que la principale crainte de Disney repose sur l'échec de Cowboys VS Aliens.
Dommage : Disney et Bruckheimer avaient ravivé le film de pirates, ils auraient pu moderniser le genre western :

EXCLUSIVE: In a stunning development, Disney has shut down production on The Lone Ranger, the Gore Verbinski-directed period Western that was to star Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the title character. Jerry Bruckheimer is the producer and the script's by Justin Haythe. I'm told this all just happened, and Disney pulled the plug because the budget, which I've heard the filmmakers were trying to reduce from $250 million--I've heard from insider that they'd gotten down to $232 million, but whatever the number, it wasn't close to the $200 million that Disney wanted to spend. This had to be an incredibly tough call for Disney's Rich Ross and Sean Bailey, but they have several huge live action bets on the table already. John Carter, the Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of John Carter of Mars with Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch in the lead role, has a budget that has ballooned to north of $250 million because of extensive re-shoots [a studio insider said the number is lower], and The Great and Powerful Oz, the Sam Raimi-directed James Franco-starrer has a budget is hovering at $200 million. Lone Ranger wasn't starting production until October, and and even though money has been spent as the picture is in pre-production (Depp is pay or play), but it was the easiest one on which to apply the brakes. The shoot was set for New Mexico. Between Depp, Bruckheimer and Verbinski, the gross outlay on the film is substantial. The film was still casting up, with Ruth Wilson, the serial killer from the BBC's Luther series, set for the female lead.

This becomes the second major Western-themed project to bite the dust, after Universal halted a mammoth adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. Is it coincidence that The Lone Ranger halted right after another Western, Cowboys & Aliens, proved to be a pricey disappointment for DreamWorks and Universal?

The development is stunning because the principals have minted money when they've worked together for Disney. Bruckheimer is the long time cornerstone producer on the Disney lot and because Depp has starred in the studio's all time biggest films, including Alice in Wonderland and the four Bruckheimer-produced Pirates of the Caribbean films. Depp and Verbinski teamed for three Pirates installments, grossing billions of dollars for the studio. Verbinski most recently directed Rango, the Paramount film that is a front runner for Best Animated Film Oscar and which grossed $243 million worldwide. Disney has four of the 10 all-time top worldwide grossing films in Hollywood history, and three of them starred Depp. That includes Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which Verbinski directed and which grossed $1.066 billion. The most recent Pirates installment also cracked the $1 billion mark this summer, and Disney's only other film on that All-Time Top 10 list is Toy Story 3.

Lone Ranger was scheduled to be released December 21, 2012, smack up against The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opens December 14, and the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z, which was just slated for December 21. It's unclear whether that factored into the decision. The studio and filmmakers are trying to figure out the next step, which would either be to shop it elsewhere or put it back together at a later date at a lower budget. Calls to Disney were not returned. The Lone Ranger has a long history, but Disney counted on Depp to make it relevant. The series began on radio in 1933, became a TV series that ran from 1949-1957, and both were wildly popular as the masked Lone Ranger and Tonto fought crime in the Old West, with the Lone Ranger calling out Hi Yo, Silver! Away!, as his horse took off.

Halting the movie is shocking because of the participants involved, but it certainly is happening with more regularity in Hollywood lately. Universal recently halted production on a version of At the Mountains of Madness that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct with Tom Cruise starring, and it also halted an adaptation of King's The Dark Tower that Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman were ready to do, in a trilogy of movies and two limited run TV series. And just this week, DreamWorks halted Southpaw, a boxing drama that has Eminem set to star in his first role since 2002's 8 Mile, with Antoine Fuqua directing. This happened after the failure of Cowboys & Aliens. While Southpaw's $30 million budget was small compared to those other cancellations (other suitors are circling for the picture), it's clear that studios are making their bets more shrewdly. Even if it means bruised feelings from stars, directors and producers accustomed to having it their way.

Oui, enfin vu les succès mitigé (voir les flops) des récentes productions de Bruckheimer, je comprends très bien que Disney fasse marche arrière (d'autant plus si le film dépasse de 50M$ le budget d'origine, prévu à 200M$ au départ... et avec Depp qui fait sa diva avec ses cachets mirobolants, ça a pas du arranger le budget prévisionnel).

Selon Variety, les studios se tourneraient plus vers une diminution drastique du budget qu'une annulation pure et simple.

Lucky a écrit:

Selon Variety, les studios se tourneraient plus vers une diminution drastique du budget qu'une annulation pure et simple.

Oui mais attention, si on se retrouve avec un POTC 4 -bis, ennuyeux avec du blabla et peu d'action, je vois mal l'intérêt du film.

250 millions de dollars pour un film qui, a priori, ne nécessite pas plus d'effets spéciaux que ça, je trouve ça tout de même excessivement cher. Je veux bien croire que Disney ait déboursé une bonne somme pour se payer Johnny Depp, mais tout de même... Quand les studios disent vouloir investir moins de 200 millions pour cette production, je trouve ça plutôt compréhensible et raisonnable, à moins que Lone Ranger ne sorte des toiles d'araignée de son pistolet ou des Avada Kedavra de son chapeau.

Pour ma part, je n'étais pas trop intrigué par le projet... jusqu'à l'arrivée de Verbinski.
Depuis, il me semble que le buzz est monté autour du film, et que le potentiel était énorme... mais évidemment Rich Ross n'a pas l'air décidé à défendre un projet initié par Cook. En tout cas, je trouve regrettable que Disney profite de l'éloignement de Depp (qui est en Europe) pour annuler le projet (à moins bien sûr qu'ils n'aient seulement avisé Bruckheimer d'un arrêt potentiel du projet en cas de dépassement budgétaire et que tout cela n'ait été monté en épingle par un Bruckheimer déçu du manque de concessions de la part de Disney... mais bon, on se souvient de la genèse de Pirates des Caraibes, et de la radinerie de Disney).

Deux solutions pour éviter la rupture entre Disney, Depp et Bruckheimer:
- Bruckheimer, Verbinski et Disney arrivent à s'entendre sur une baisse de budget.
- Disney fait appel à un co-producteur (comme à l'époque de Popeye ou de la Créature du Lac de Feu) Comme l'avait fait la Fox avec la Paramount à l'époque de Titanic
Dans tous les cas, un arrêt pur et simple serait catastrophique en terme de stratégie et d'image.

Effectivement, Variety tempère les choses par rapport à Deadline et THR, reportant les propos d'un Bob Iger qui semble préférer une poignée de gros films à une pléthore de petits projets, ''We feel we're better off by reducing the size of the slate and making films that are bigger and increasingly more risky.''

Excellent article de Movieline.
En gras, une sélection des meilleurs passages

As you may have heard, Disney shockingly put the brakes on the planned big-screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger that star Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski were aiming to bring into theaters next Christmas. The reasons were budgetary — the cost of Ranger had reportedly ballooned to $250 million — but it appears that a mere (“mere”) $20-30 million is all that separates the studio from the filmmakers. Provided some cuts can be made — a task easier said than done, as backend deals and three large-scale action scenes revolving around trains reportedly threaten the compromise — The Lone Ranger could conceivably hit theaters at some point. Unless, of course, Disney realizes it might not be the best idea anyway.

Ahead, five reasons why Disney will never spend $250 million on The Lone Ranger.

The December release date
Per THR, even at the $220 million budget that Disney wants for The Lone Ranger, the film would have to earn $800 million worldwide to hit the black when backend deals and marketing are taken into account. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln! Of the 30 films that have grossed more than $800 million worldwide in Hollywood history, only five have been released in December: Titanic, the three installments of Lord of the Rings and Avatar. Unless The Lone Ranger is a cultural phenomenon on the level of those films (early guess: it won’t be), pushing ticket sales into that tax bracket seems like an impossible task from a Dec. 23 launch. Speaking of which…

Brad Pitt, Peter Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio
Even taking that imposing box office history into account, The Lone Ranger could flirt with $800 million worldwide, provided it was lone; after all, the last two Johnny Deep-led live-action blockbusters — Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — reached $1 billion in sales around the globe. Unfortunately, it’s not. The Dec. 23 bow for The Lone Ranger places it against the second weekend of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and — just announced last week before the news of Ranger’s budgetary dirty laundry hit — World War Z with Brad Pitt. Oh, and Django Unchained, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx, which arrives two days later. Johnny Depp is one of the biggest stars on the globe, but even he could have a hard time cutting through against competition like that.

It’s a non-sequel
There’s an obvious reason why multiplexes are littered with Final Destination 5s, Transformers 3s and Harry Potter 7s: Hollywood loves a sequel. It’s often a real risk to launch something that isn’t part of a larger storyline. (For reference, see Cowboys & Aliens.) Granted, The Lone Ranger is a known property — and a veteran one, which might actually work in its advantage if you believe the success of The Smurfs — but it’s still not an easy sell to audiences, even with Depp’s background launching franchises. Perhaps Disney would be a little more open to spending between $210 and $250 million on The Lone Ranger if there was a number after its title. And sure, we could always go back to Titanic and Avatar, but those were fairly unique cases that actually underscore one critical Lone Ranger hurdle…

It’s a Western
When True Grit became a surprise box office smash in the winter, Hollywood was ready to love Westerns again; when Cowboys & Aliens become a (not) surprise box office wash-out in July, Hollywood was ready to toss the genre back into the dust bin. Which goes to show that Hollywood is finicky like a house cat with Westerns, you never know whether the audience will show up or not. It’s an older-skewing genre, and Hollywood blockbusters aren’t built for older patrons. Will millennials (especially female millennials) pay money to see The Lone Ranger when Johnny Depp isn’t even playing the titular hero — and the titular hero is a cowboy?

It’s too risky
Real talk: Even if Verbinski and Bruckheimer can get this film in under budget, and even if Disney threads the needle on the marketing campaign, and even if they find a perfect release date for the film (perhaps late spring 2013), The Lone Ranger still might wash out. When the stakes are this high, why bother taking such a risk? “It’s our intention to take a careful look at what films cost,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said recently, “and if we can’t get them to a level that we’re comfortable with, we think that we’re better off actually reducing the size of our slate than making films that are bigger and increasingly more risky.” Translation: Hi ho, Silver! Go away! A noter que la citation d'Iger est un peu différente de celle reportée par Variety...

THR rapporte ce matin que réalisateur et producteur acceptent de rogner sur leur salaire (ils sacrifieraient à eux deux 10 M de dollars) pour sauver le film.
Voici quelques extraits. En synthèse :
- Verbinski a une semaine pour réécrire le script, et principalement les scènes les plus ambitieuses
- L'équipe n'est guère optimiste quant à la possibilité de sauver le film, face aux pressions budgétaires.
- Le film, qui à l'origine devait inclure des éléments surnaturels, semble s'apparenter davantage à un western classique - incluant la scène de train la plus impressionnante de l'histoire du cinéma.
- Au cas où Verbinski serait débarqué du projet, Depp pourrait rester, étant donné son association au projet depuis 3 ans...


While the studio is giving director Gore Verbinski a week to rework the script and bring costs down significantly, many associated with the project believe the budget pressures are too drastic to salvage the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie as it was conceived and developed.
(...) A source close to the dealmaking says studio chief Rich Ross believes the "substantial budget gap" can only be bridged by Verbinski reimagining some of the bigger sequences and a few "give-backs" from the talent -- moves that those working on the film have been uninterested in making.

"It all starts with [Verbinski]," says a source. "If there is any saving this version of the movie, he'll have to find substantial savings. If he can, maybe we can hold this together." Verbinski is said to have brought the budget down to $242 million to $244 million via nips and tucks, but the source says it needs to get to $215 million to $220 million -- or less. Verbinski and Bruckheimer are said to have given up a total of $10 million from their fees, but it appears unlikely that the filmmakers will reduce the budget further.

Even at the cost Disney has targeted, the film would have to gross about $800 million worldwide to be profitable when marketing and rich backends to Depp, Verbinski and Bruckheimer are factored in. That's a tough task for a non-sequel, notwithstanding Depp's appeal and older audiences' familiarity with the Lone Ranger character.
(...)

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.

Verbinski earned a reputation for budget-busting on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films. He frequently clashed with then-physical production head Bruce Hendricks to the point that after the third Pirates -- whose budget had ballooned more than $300 million, according to sources -- the studio was no longer interested in working with the director.

If Ranger doesn't ride, it won't be the first time Verbinski loses a project because of budget reasons. He was to have directed an adaptation of the video game BioShock, but Universal put the project on hold in 2009. Verbinski is said to have called cast and crew this week to say he is trying to salvage Ranger.

Replacing Verbinski and reimagining the script would be risky, but Depp -- who also stars in Disney's Pirates and Alice in Wonderland franchises -- might stay since he's been with the project since 2008, two years before Verbinski boarded.


On apprend au passage que John Carter aurait couté... 300 M.

La phrase qui fâche. Hier, Ross a dit à Deadline combien il aimerait que le film se fasse, et combien il aimerait retravailler avec Depp et Bruckeimer. Depuis, Deadline a analysé la citation en remarquant l'absence du nom de Gore Verbinski... Ceci veut il dire que Disney aimerait continuer le projet sans le réalisateur ?
On apprend néanmoins que Disney s'est ravisé sur le budget ; ils ne voulaient pas dépenser plus de 200 M, et désormais semblent enclins à accepter un budget de 215 M.


Voici la fin de l'article qui étudie le futur du projet, et nous apprend des faits très intéressants sur Alamo, un autre western produit par Disney il y a déjà 10 ans :
If Ross's comments indicate that Disney would be open to making The Lone Ranger with another director, that is taking a big risk with Depp. Outside of Tim Burton, no director has made as many movies with Depp as Verbinski, with three Pirates Of The Caribbean films and Rango. Would Depp continue in the movie if Verbinski was moved aside or quit? Good question. The Lone Ranger is a giant risk in the first place because Westerns don't traditionally perform well overseas. In a DVD-collapsed world, a $275 million film is back to grossing 3 times its budget to earn out, and that can't be done without a big overseas reward. Without Depp -- arguably the biggest star in the world right now with 3 of the all-time Top 10 worldwide grossing films -- there is no Lone Ranger.

Verbinski clearly still wants to stay on The Lone Ranger or he would not be working so hard to conform to the studio's budget demands. Yet, despite all his hits, Verbinski has watched Universal derail his Bioshock (after he dropped out of Pirates 4 to make it), and Paramount grow nervous about Rango (even though its now a surefire Oscar Animation frontrunner). For all his success, Verbinski has a rep for spending big and holding his ground when studios want cuts and that's just not popular right now. Can The Lone Ranger be made without Verbinski? Sure, as long as Depp stays in. Should it be? Good question, again.

The answer may well lie in some Hollywood history when Disney, under a different regime, did try to downsize a Western with a different director -- and the effort failed miserably. In 2002, Disney had Ron Howard directing Russell Crowe in The Alamo, when each was coming off the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind. The studio bristled at a $125 million budget and possible R-rating, so Howard and Crowe exited. The Alamo was reconfigured by John Lee Hancock as an $80 million PG-13 film, and it grossed just $26 million worldwide.

While most barely remember The Alamo, there's a fresh reminder of the perils of pricey Westerns. The $163 million Cowboys & Aliens has only grossed $86.5 million domestic going into this weekend and isn't doing huge overseas business to make up for that. The film will be a flop that directly impacts three studios -- DreamWorks, Universal and Paramount (which has foreign). Since Disney already has put $250 million into John Carter with Pixar vet director Andrew Stanton, and another $200 million at least into the Sam Raimi-directed The Great And Powerful Oz, it is really up in the air whether the studio wants to place another even bigger bet on The Lone Ranger.

Deadline Hollywood confirme que Johnny Depp ne fera pas le film sans Gore Verbinski.

Visiblement, Gore et Bruckheimer vont (ou ont?) présenté à Disney un nouveau budget en baisse à 215 millions de $ (contre les 275 millions prévus à l'origine).

Il y a fort à parier qu'un accord sera vite trouvé...

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/disney-dilemma-johnny-depp-wont-make-lone-ranger-without-gore-verbinski-bruckheimer-bring-lower-budget-to-studio/

Deadline nous apprend ce matin qu'il y a de fortes chances... pour que le film se fasse. Le site - toujours très fiable - indique que l'optimisme est de mise et que l'annonce officielle ne devrait pas tarder.

Finalement, c'est à se demander si Disney n'a pas fait autant de bruit... pour générer du buzz.

Le projet est de nouveau sur les rails pour un budget revu à la baisse à 215 millions de dollars, ce qui reste tout de même énorme. Gore Verbinsky est toujours aux commandes et Arnie Hammer et Johnny Depp au casting.

Jerry Bruckheimmer a twitté que le projet est officiellement sur les rails. Le casting a accepté une réduction du salaire de 20% et le film sortira le 31 mai 2013 aux U.S.A.

merci de l’info

La production sera lancée dans un mois et demi, et James Frain de la série True Blood incorpore le casting.

Oui, enfin James Frain, il a aussi joué dans Les Tudors... et surtout dans Tron Legacy (pour rester chez Disney).

Oui, ce n'est effectivement pas un nouveau venu chez Buena Vista : il a aussi tourné dans Flash Forward, Grey's Anatomy et Empire (ABC), The Front Line et Titus (BuenaVista UK et Irlande), Everybody's Fine, Robinson Crusoé et Piège Fatal (Miramax) et La Vengeance de Monte Cristo (Touchstone)

Première image pour le film !

Sympa le costume.
Quand à Johnny Depp, il va encore nous sortir un rôle de composition là ^^

Quel horreur... On dirais du Sparrow bis... quel originalité

Disney aurait mieux fait d'annuler se film, ça sent là aussi la grosse gamelle.

avec Depp en tête d'affiche , avec Gore Verbinski, je pense pas qu'il risque d'y avoir de gamelle! son dernier film RANGO etait vraiment géniaaall !! et là on est un peu dans le même genre d'ambiance western !!!