The Lone Ranger Trailer

I think I've blogged before that I have a bit of a soft spot for The Lone Ranger.  Some of my earliest conscious memories of television are watching Lone Ranger reruns on CBC before church on Sunday mornings.  And I knew, with the comic book hero genre dominating the box office these days, it would be just a matter of time.

I've got to admit, everything I've heard about the upcoming movie version of The Lone Ranger is giving me pause for concern.  I mean, when they showed that first photo of Johnny Depp as Tonto, and he had the dead raven on his head, I was one of many who went, "What the heck are they doing?"  Plus, when you heard the rumors that the budget was was $250 million, and that werewolves eventually show up, you start going, "No, no, no...that's not The Lone Ranger."

Well, Lone Ranger promotion seems to have gone into overdrive this week.  Yesterday, we got the movie poster, and again, I was disappointed.  When it comes to doing the posters for these heroes, you tend to focus on the icons.  With the Lone Ranger, what would that be?  White hat.  Black mask.  Silver bullets.  Instead, we get this.

That just kind of rubs me the wrong way.  Why are they making the dead raven on Johnny Depp's head the icon of this movie?

Today, we got our first trailer, and again, something about it just doesn't sit right with me.



I look at that, and all I can think is "All aboard the gritty reboot train!"  That's just a little too gritty for the Lone Ranger I remember.  I can't help but focus on the music.  That music just doesn't work for me.  As I said, it all goes back to the icons.  When I think of the Lone Ranger, this is the music I want to hear.



And of course, I had to scratch my head when the trailer said, "From Oscar-winning director Gore Verbinski."  It took me a while to remember that he won Best Animated Film for directing Rango.  I'm not sure if I blogged about it before, but I'm one of the few who found Rango underwhelming. 

So, yeah.  Right now, it's just striking me as having strayed too far from the source material, but I'm still mildly curious, and will probably find myself wandering into the theatre.

To recap, this production comes to us from most the same creative team behind the firs three Pirates of the Caribbean movies:  director Verbinski, writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and star Johnny Depp, who in this, plays Tonto.  The Lone Ranger will be played by Armie Hammer, who played the Winklevos twins in The Social Network.  Veteran character actor William Fichtner plays Butch Cavendish, the ruthless outlaw who murdered the Lone Ranger's brother, and Helena Bonham Carter plays a saloon owner who helps our heroes.

Wait a minute, both Depp and Bonham Carter are in this?  How is Tim Burton not directing it?

Oh, and when I was reviewing the information for this, and talking about the music and straying from the source material.  I just remembered that Jack White is making his film-scoring debut by doing the score for this.

The Lone Ranger hits theatres on July 3, 2012.