Lone Ranger

Just read that the new Lone Ranger movie will commence filming in February of 2012 and be released in May of 2013. Johnny Depp and others have reduced their salaries to make this film change from an on again, off again project to a full blown "on again" project. New Mexico will be the first filming location. Unknown what else is planned at this time. Depp indicates that the character of Tonto will not be portrayed as a second class person and looks forward to what he thinks will be a fun movie. Guess all of that remains to be seen and hopefully the finished product won't be something to make most or all of us groan. Bullfrog Bill

Howdy Bullfrog!!

Well, we all know that Johnny Depp can play both comedy as in The Pirates Of The Carribean and we've seen him play drama as in the Ninth Gate( I think), so he definitley has the talent. Now, we can only hope that he sticks to the script and doesn't try to introduce the Pirate Captain character into Tonto!! I can't imagine why the studio would want a star of Depp's magnitude to play the supporting role in this film, so something tells me that we're gonna be seeing a whole lot more of Tonto than in the originals.

Ed

Ed, my guess is since they have a vertual unknown, Armie Hammer, playing the Lone Ranger, they needed someone with Depp's star power to play Tonto, so this new movie doesn't end up a bust like the Klinton Spillsbury film.

They signed Hammer after Depp so this was going to be a Depp starrer, instead of two equal stars playing the leads. That doesn't sound so good to me. And they settled on $213 MILLION to make this movie. Are they out of their minds? Everyone wants to 'reimagine' success, so we get these lame movies. I was a fan of the old Green Hornet TV series but the new movie was so bad I couldn't watch more than a third of it, and I will watch most anything. Look at how they screwed up something as simple as The Wild Wild West. What a train wreck.

Howdy Pards!!

Nightlinger, you may have just hit on something there!! Why would they sign Depp to the supporting role FIRST, unless you have plans of making HIM the star of the film???????? Unless they had Brad Pitt in mind for the starring role, something don't add up here!! I guess we'll just have to wait and see what their thinking is, but 213 million dollars sounds a little over the top to me. If they mess this up as bad as they did The Wild Wild West, it will not only turn off fans of the old westerns, but could turn off the younger fans of the newer ones!!

Ed

You Pards have brought up some interesting points concerning The Lone Ranger. From what I've gathered following the "news" on this movie, right from the get go, it was to be a Disney Studio movie. Jerry Brockmeyer (spelling ?) selected as Director and the idea was to make a feature film based very closely on what the tv series was like. Brockmeyer and Depp are great friends, Disney Studio has made a ton of money with Depp being the Pirate etc etc etc. Naturally, so to speak, Depp was first cast and even Depp was excited about a Lone Ranger and Tonto movie staying close to the tv series. Since that point, lots of massaging of ideas, with Depp being falsely accused of wanting Tonto to be a female (he would still play the role) and wind up getting married to the Lone Ranger. Of course, being news out of Hollywood, the only thing you could believe is the fact you can't believe anything until production is underway. Depp has taken the liberty to put forth lots of input about how he thinks the character of Tonto should be played. Whether we're still in the massaging mode here or not, I don't know. I feel that Depp has fallen victim to the Hollywood Syndrome, where he now either feels obligated or just want to make a lot of noise, but he seems hell bent on making sure Tonto comes off as a whole lot more than just the Lone Ranger's sidekick. Time will tell whether this movie has any merit. I know I'm in almost exclusively my own minority here with my opinions of the the modernd day versions of 3:10 To Yuma and True Grit, two films I saw at the movies, two films that will not be in my DVD collection. I doubt seriously the new Lone Ranger will find a place on my DVD shelf either. Curiosity will take me to the movies to see the new Lone Ranger and a personal admiration for Johnny Depp based on an experience I had at Disneyland back when Depp's first Pirate movie had the world premier. A red carpet was spread clear down main street. Movie fans stayed behind a rope on the sidewalk on one side of the street, media types stayed behind a rope on the other side of the street. When Depp came down the red carpet, he was hounded by the media. He told them, "I'm staying on the other side with the fans. They buy the tickets, have made me a star, so pardon me while I shake hands and pose for pictures with the people that mean the difference between having a career and not having a career. I can talk to you media people anytime. Tonight I'm here for the fans." And he did just that, despite numerous attempts by media people to pull him away. He took his time walking down main street and made lots of people very happy with his kind manner. For that alone, I put Depp a lot higher on the ladder than most modern day actors. Now I fear he may have fallen for the "bully pulpit" idea that his way of thinking is the only way of thinking when it comes to making movies, politics or any other subject that the Hollywood crowd seems to embrace. Here's hoping the new Lone Ranger will be a surprise on the upside, Johnny Depp backs off and remains a member of the human race and we all have something to celebrate in 2013. Bullfrog Bill

Howdy Pards!!

Bullfrog, Tonto being a female and marrying the Lone Ranger????????????????? Gee-My-O-Nellie!! Let's not even go there!!!!! There was a time when you could trust Disney studios to turn out great family oriented adventure, western. and fantasy films, back in the day when Walt and his brother were running things, but I believe Walt's brother has passed on now and it leaves me wondering if there's anybody left in authority there, who knows how to do that. I would sure hate to see a studio with Disney's reputation through the years, mess up something as near and dear as The Lone Ranger!!!!! Well, like you said, Here's hoping Disney sticks to their guns and turns out another memorable Disney project that evokes cheers instead of jeers!!

Ed

Howdy....Gents and Ladies....

I was just passing thru and had to stop and visit...I hope that they do The Lone Ranger justice and produce a movie that is worthy of this icon...

Depp would not have been my choice...due to the fact that I'm worried that he will bring a little of the Captain Jack to Tonto.....but I will still go to see this movie....I have been a huge fan of the Ranger for as long as I can remember....and nothing could be as bad as the Lone Ranger the WB network had a some while ago.....

I never saw the WB version but I have seen stills from the TV movie and The Ranger and Tonto look like models for GQ!

If you get a chance....go to youtube and search WB Lone Ranger....you will find a few videos about it.....it is a true piece of pucky.....

We've had a discussion on another thread about the lack of manly men playing leads in Hollywood. In trying to think of remake casting we couldn't think of anyone who could replace Wayne, Stewart, Scott, Walker, Ford, the list goes on. Even Selleck, Elliot, Eastwood, and the last generation of manly men are getting long in the tooth and there are no replacements around the corner.

You know....I have said that as well in the past.....I can't really think of many known actors that could really take over for those guys....same too.....

I had heard that Gunsmoke was in the works to be made into a major film....

With Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the roles of Matt and Kitty....

I just can't see that.....

Well, fellas, I have picked up a smattering of "blarney" or "grapevine speculation" about this thing---which may or may not be true. What I have heard, though, is that the Tonto-as-woman concept was a notion thought up by another film company trying to crank up an LR movie of their own, and that one was "skunked" by Disney & Bruckheimer in the same way Kevin Costner TRIED to skunk "Tombstone" when he set out to do "Wyatt Earp".

It is also strong in the rumor mill that the Depp version of Tonto is that he is basically a "keeper" to an engaging but "not quite right in the head" cuckoo named Reid, who wears a mask and rides around the west on a white horse like a Knight Errant trying to do "noble good deeds". It is Tonto's job to protect this loon from himself. In this respect Gore Verbinski's "take" on the Lone Ranger is that he is Don Quixote and Tonto is Sancho Panza. This is the kind of arrogance that Hollywood shows all too much of these days. They don't consider that the characters were created to be KID icons and that adult believability was never part of the original intent. Nobody as a kid CARED if the whole concept of the masked man and the silver bullets and such was HOKEY! It was just FUN!!!! But these clowns now have to be condescending and sarcastic and BELITTLE the original concepts. That wasn't SO bad when they took on Zorro, but this approach seems "a bit much" in this current context.

It is also said in some corners that the story line of this centers on the Lone Ranger's silver bullets. How so? Well, SUPPOSEDLY this spin gets a little into the supernatural and horror mode. SUPPOSEDLY. Ever hear of Skinwalkers? Naguals? Diableros? Yep. You got it; werewolves. Years ago , in one of those old James Warren comic magazines like Creepy or Eerie, I read a story called "The Last Werewolf In Texas", about a kid on the frontier trying to avoid being killed by an outlaw werewolf. As the satory wound down, the boy was cornered by the Evil monster, which was closing in on him with slavering fangs. Suddenly a shot rang out! The werewolf grabbed his chest and fell over dead. The boy looked up---astonished and delighted---- and hollered "You got here! You got my message!". And the Lone Ranger, reloading his Peacemaker , said "We sure did, son. We sure did". Then ; "Hi-Yo Silver, Away!"

I got a feeling (if these rumors about this flick are true) that somebody else besides me remembers that old comic magazine story.

This Lone Ranger thing is really starting to piss me off (excuse my French). No one calls Batman 'hokey' and he wears a mask AND a cape. Hokey is one way you do something, something that can be done in many different ways. I want to believe that this won't be a bad movie but every time I hear something new, it makes me wince. I wish now that Depp wasn't involved because it seems his take has nothing to do with the things that made the character and stories legend.


Antonio Banderas' Zorro movies were, for me, great fun that captured the essence of the original stories and movies. And he had a cape and mask also.


A story I heard several years ago was that a man was driving home on a Saturday afternoon and his car went off the road and flipped over. He wasn't trapped or seriously hurt but disoriented. A gloved hand reached in and helped him out of the car. He looked up and there was Clayton Moore, dressed as The Ranger, on his way back from an appearance, who saw the accident and stopped to help. That must have been a real rush.

That was in August of 1986..




LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- A motorcylist who was knocked to the pavement in a hit-run accident was amazed to see through glazed eyes that the Lone Ranger had come to the rescue

``I didn`t know what to think,`` said Robert Pat Humphries, 22, who suffered injuries to his legs. ``But there he was, in his mask and everything.``

Clayton Moore, who starred in the Lone Ranger TV series, and his wife, Connie, were heading to a motel Saturday night when they came upon the accident scene. ``He got out and asked me how I was doing and tried to make me comfortable,`` said Humphries.

Still dressed in trademark mask and Western garb, Moore began directing traffic and helping emergency personnel. Humphries was released from a hospital after treatment for lacerations and a badly bruised leg. Moore, 73, promised to bring him a silver bullet as a memento.

Howdy Pards!!

This would have been about 5-6 years after Jack Wrather ( the owner of the Lone Ranger character) obtained a court order to stop Clayton Moore from wearing the Lone Ranger mask and Moore was forced to start wearing Foster Grant sunglasses instead. After the dismal failure of the Klinton Spillsbury film, Wrather probably wished he had've kept his big fat mouth shut!! The above article sounds just like something Moore would'ave done. It's a shame he didn't have Silver along with him!! Then he could'ave chased the motorist down, who hit the motorcyclist and chewed him out or kicked his butt or shot him in the keister er sumpthin!!

May the GOOD LORD bless and keep Clayton Moore!! He taught many generations of young boys, whut wuz right and whut wuz wrong and whut wuz good and whut wuz bad in this ole world.

Ed

Yep. Rocky Lane has got it nailed. The incident with the motorcyclist happened about 25 miles from where I live and it was all over the news. We here in this area just loved it. People were driving past and looking stupefied as Moore directed traffic. He kept his word about the silver bullet.

With all the talk about the new Lone Ranger movie, I am going to repeat something I posted on the old forum. I had invisioned the basic story line of the 1981 movie should have gone something like this:


With Tonto no longer riding with The Ranger (Jay Silverheels passed in 1980), Reid feels it's time to pass the mantle to a new duo. After finding replacements, Reid retires to the silver mine and ranch he has owned for years. He tells them if they ever need him to just send him a message. The movie follows whatever new story can be written. As we approach the end, the new duo does indeed need help to complete their adventure. At this point we see a man enjoying retirement, planting a small garden, a man with years but still in amazing shape. Into one of the furrows he is plowing drops a silver bullet. The farmer picks it up and walks to his house. He enters the bedroom and opens a trunk. Inside is an outfit comprised of a blue set of clothes, a white hat and a mask. Slowly he dresses, similar to Lee Marvin's Kid Shaleen rebirth in Cat Ballou, first the clothes, then the guns, the mask, and at last the hat. As he walks through the door, much like the last scene of John Wayne in The Searchers, he whistles. A horse whinnys and from over the crest of a nearbye hill you see the great horse Silver come toward his longtime companion. After saddling Silver with the familiar black tack we have known, to the strains of The William Tell Overture the original Lone Ranger rides out to help the new recruits. End the movie however you want but after the story ends it's the original Ranger who rides off shouting the classic Hi-Yo Silver, away (that's not 'hokey' to us and new fans have a more contemporary Ranger to look for in the future).


That's how I would have bridged the gap between the old and the new Lone Ranger. I wonder if, with video capture, you could still do it with Clayton Moore? That would be an interesting CGI effect.

Ron,
TEN out of TEN Pard,that,s a helluva opening scene,I actually got a wee bit emotional reading it,it paves the way for just about any "take" on The Lone Ranger,old or new,but,I must admit to really wanting Tonto to be there,he was always integral to the Series.
So Ron,maybe a wee rewrite of your opening scene,with Tonto helping on the Ranch,now these two galloping along to the sound of William Tell,now that would be something to see,and could open up any story following,AND,please just let it be what it is,A WESTERN.
Davy,westernnut.
ps,See Ron,you,ve done it again,I cant stop thinking of The William Tell Overture,ha!

Howdy Pards!!

Nightlinger,Davy, I think you're on the right track there. I think that was part of the problem with the Klinton Spillsbury film. Fans of the original, like us, were turned off by all the publicity of Clayton Moore not being allowed to wear the mask and not being involved in the film. The powers that be, need to reconcile this division. They can do this, like they did in The Legend Of The Golden Gun. Hal Holbrook played the part of the legendary hero/outlaw in that film, who trained his replacement and then passed the costume and gun on to him and a new beginnng takes place. Along with the bad publicity in the Spillsbury film, they changed the Lone Ranger's costume!!!! THAT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE!! As Nightlinger touched on, that costume IS the Lone Ranger. The producers of the Batman and Superman films were intelligent enough to realize this and were successful in their attempts to keep these characters alive. The character of the Lone Ranger is a legend, just like the above characters and HE MUST WEAR THAT COSTUME!! Even though Clayton Moore has passed on, it would be simple to dub his voice into the new film. They took care of the horse situation, by having the younger heros horse killed, which forced him to have to catch and train a new one.
It could work!!

Ed

The comment on the Legend of the Golden Gun....is how I also thought would have been a good way the mask could have been passed on......with new meeting old....if only.....

But I totally agree with the costume/suit.....that is a part of the Ranger as is Superman's costume is to him......at least in the Klinton movie....it was not to bad......
I just thought his hair was to much from under his hat...




But...this was just wrong.....

We'll see see what we'll see. Oh, BTW, a new Superman flick is in the works. People were saying you don't mess with Superman's costume.

Well....they have.





He's not going to have his red trunks anymore. Aint Hollywood grand?





Maybe they are long in the tooth, but I'd opt for Mark Harmon in a western any day over a bunch of these pretty boys. Same with Liam Neeson. Josh Brolin. Dennis Haysbert. Michael Biehn tends to work. Jeff Fahey. But, again, all getting on UP there.

Howdy Rocky Lane!!

Well, if they've set the picture in 1869, as you say Pard, they've already screwed up!! The 1873 Colt Peacemaker wasn't invented until 1873!!!!! I'm under the impression that the original Lone Ranger series took place in the late 1870's or 1880's, since he wore 2 1873 Colt Peacemakers with the 5 & 1/2 inch barrel, which was the artillery model and was only created after the 7 &1/2 Army model was adapted. If the producers want the film to be authentic, then the Ranger will have to be equiped with the Remington percussion .44 model, like those shown in Hell On Wheels or a Navy .36, which was also a percussion model. They will also have to be using Spencer or Henry golden boys, because the Winchester lever action( the gun that won the west) was also not invented until 1873. Since both of the above handguns were cap and ball firearms and didn't accept the self contained cartridge we are familiar with today, what use would the Ranger have for a cartridge belt with shiney .45 long Colt cartridges in the cartridge loops????? Here we go again!! Another bunch of Hollywood dumb A--es, that apparently never even bothered to watch I episode ot the Lone Ranger series!!

Ed

C'mon, Ed! It's no different than The Comancheros, where they had Colt SAA's and Winchesters in the 1840s!