Back in September director Gore Verbinski was in talks to direct a new version of the The Lone Ranger for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with Johnny Depp in the cast. Today its official: Disney is moving forward on Verbinski’s version of The Lone Ranger. Nothing official yet on who’ll play the Ranger, but Depp is set to play Tonto, the native warrior who finds the wounded ranger and keeps him alive. Justin Haythe wrote the script,and what we do know now is that the title character is one of several Texas Rangers chasing the outlaw Butch Cavendish and his men. The rangers are ambushed and most are killed, but Tonto finds and rescues the man who will become the masked avenger The Lone Ranger.
Adapted from the 1930's radio show, which later became a popular live-action television show in the 1950's. The Lone Ranger is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, who gallops about righting injustices, usually with the aid of a clever and laconic American Indian sidekick called Tonto, and his horse Silver. He would famously say “Hi-yo Silver, away!” to get the horse to gallop.
The project was initially announced in 2007 with Pirates of the Caribbean/Shrek screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio penning the script. A year later, in 2008, it was revealed that Depp had been cast as Tonto, and George Clooney rumored to be in talks to play the title character. Hollywood has tried to remake the Lone Ranger twice now, a 1981 film titled The Legend of the Lone Ranger and a 2003 WB television movie/pilot, both of which were not well received.
