The Lone Ranger teaser trailer that debuted during the Comic-Con panel this past summer is now enjoying its release to the masses thanks to Disney. One of the lingering issues about the film - other than the budget cuts, racial-insensitivity issues, and worries that Depp was simply rehashing his Jack Sparrow character - has finally been put to bed.
Despite having Gore Verbinski - who saddled up with an Oscar last year for another western, Rango - at the helm of this western adventure, many have become leery of Verbinski's reported vision of turning this into a dysfunctional buddy adventure rather than a gritty western. But from what we see in the trailer that came out today (coupled with the poster that was revealed yesterday), it appears Verbinski may have hit the nail on the head with a dusty, dirty vigilante story that comes nowhere near the old-timey buddy western we feared.
Of course it's too early to tell, and there's never a guarantee that a movie's tone will match that of its trailer, but if the film turns out anything like what we see here, I think we're in for a great, action-packed thriller featuring plenty of exciting characters with Armie Hammer as the titular lawman and Johnny Depp as an eccentric American-indian-warrior version of his side-kick, Tonto. Take special notice of the stuffed crow hat Depp wears. It is apparently crafted after a famous painting by Kirby Sattler called "I Am Crow," which displays an almost identical piece of winged headwear that reportedly has supernatural qualities. Verbinski has described Tonto as a strange shaman-like figure who has created his own mystical world after being outcast from his tribe.
It's also worth pointing out that the trailer reveals no evidence of the odd casting call put out for extras while filming in Colorado over the last year or so that sought out such peculiar body types as women weighing 400 pounds or more, men measuring 7'9" or taller, adult twins height 4 ft. or shorter, limbless persons (either no arms or no legs) as well as little people 3 to 4 ft. tall.
The Lone Ranger is set for wide theatrical release on July 3rd of 2013. You can watch the trailer below or head over to apple.com to see it in hi-def.
The Lone Ranger Synopsis: From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, comes Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' The Lone Ranger, a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice--taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.
