Why ‘The Lone Ranger’ Came Back “The Lone Ranger” has been riding around the American southwest, masked and on a mission, for the last 80 years. “He’s an American icon,” according to Gore Verbinski, the director and producer of the newest iteration of the well-known saga of Texas Ranger John Reid, played by Armie Hammer, as he is forced to become an outlaw in order to battle bad guys and avenge his brother’s death. This version is told in a series of flashbacks from the point of view of Tonto (Johnny Depp), Reid’s Native American sidekick. Verbinski teamed up with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Depp, who worked together on the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, to revive the western tale. Shot largely on location in several states including New Mexico, Utah and Colorado over 153 days, the film had a series of budget challenges The Walt Disney Co. DIS +1.39% stalled production in early 2012, trimming the budget to $215 million from $250 million, but weather-based delays and the need to build massive sets complete with real working trains prompted the studio to bump the budget back up, according to people familiar with the matter. “The Lone Ranger” had its origins in a 1933 broadcast on Detroit-based radio station WXYZ. It has since been turned into a set of serialized novels, a collection of comic books and a television series starring the late Clayton Moore, who also played the character in two feature films. Verbinski phoned up Speakeasy to talk about his decision to resurrect the well known hero, why he passed on “Pirates” 5 and the importance of shooting everything in real life. Even though you’ve got shots of Monument Valley and plenty of cowboys on horseback, this isn’t a traditional western. How do you define this film? The movie is going to have to have this tremendous transcontinental message. We deliver amazing train and action sequences. Plus this is the western genre, he’s the original hero without the super in front of it. His relationship is with the laws of man and the laws of nature. Then progress comes to this place and they all jump on the train and don’t look back. You’ve dealt with films that have large casts and plenty of extras. This film is a completely different beast. I didn’t think anything would be more difficult than boats. But horses on trains, actors underneath trains, we shot it very much in the old way, putting the actors in those places on moving trains. I’ve seen a guy jump 100 different ways from a train. Why opt for the real thing? VFX and CGI seems like the norm these days. That’s exactly why. We want to have 40 men on horseback in the background of the shot. We wanted those 40 men, we tasked wardrobe with making costumes for those 40 men and dirtying up their faces. “The Lone Ranger” is an iconic story and I wanted to do it right. But along the way you had quite a journey. The elements of this film, we are 90 percent location based and the weather didn’t always comply. It was much more than the weather. You’re in the $200 million range with this film. But there’s so much good television, why go to the movies? The value is very extraordinary in this film. Everything is real. Real trains, real explosions, real actors on real horses. You decided to keep Johnny Depp’s face fully painted for the entirety of the film. Armie Hammer is masked for the entire second half. Why? We didn’t want to avoid the fact they were masked, from the outset we embraced it. These are bold characters, they’re icons in a way and that’s what you are marketing, not the soft underbelly. You’re marketing the end result. A huge part of our subtext deal directly with why does a good man have to wear a mask? We all want a hero, somebody come and fix things. But then it’s in our nature to then crucify that person. The mask protects him and the ones he love and allows him to become an outlaw and operate outside the law. The directing job for the fifth installment of the “Pirates” films went to Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. Why did you pass on it? I feel at peace with that. I hope it goes well for me. I enjoy doing movies where I’m learning something and after 3 “Pirates” movies there’s nothing left to learn for me. It is enough. I wouldn’t just want to do it to make a living, this is a hard living.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 09:34:22 +0000
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