It was a mere two months ago that we told you that Disney, in it's infinite wisdom, had pulled the plug on The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto. Well, apparently after some major retooling, the film is back on Disney's production schedule with Gore Verbinski still attached to direct and Johnny Depp still attached to star. Not only that, Deadline has confirmed that the film has been given a summer tent-pole opening date of May 31, 2013. Not only does that appear to be a show of faith in the project, but they've also moved semi-sure thing Thor 2 from July 2013 back to November 15, 2013.

At the time of the shutdown,  it had been announced that Prince Andrew Alcott (of the untitled Tarsem Singh Snow White),  Armie Hammer, had been chosen as the Lone Ranger himself and Ruth Wilson ("Luther") had just been added as the female lead. No word yet if they are returning to the fold as well.

The Lone Ranger will go into production February 6 2012. The film was originally supposed to start this fall, but that was before Disney freaked out over the reportedly $275 million + price tag and they shocked the world by putting the kibosh on the whole thing. Makes one wonder if that super massive turkey, The Tourist, made Hollywood rethink Depp's drawing power. Supposedly, Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Depp all did some financial juggling and numbers crunching and brought the budget down to around $215 million.

Johnny Depp fans don't have to wait until 2013 since he will, of course, be seen later this month in The Rum Diary.

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Johnny Depp was on the Hollywood Boulevard at a bar called 25 Degrees over the weekend when he and a  friend fell down really hard, but bounced right back up again. 

It looks like Johnny could be drunk or a bit drunk so chances are he didn't feel too much from the fall. His security was shoving the cameras out of the way but they got a great shot of him in the back of the car giving a 'salute' of some kind. It looks like his friend turned around and knocked Johnny to the ground and he fell on top of him. Who hasn't had an awkward moment like that?

Check out the video.

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Disney did WHAT? Apparently Disney has pulled the plug on a really big deal project. According to Deadline, The Lone Ranger that was supposed to be a tent-pole for the studio in the winter of 2012, has gone so far over the bottom line that Disney had set for it, they’ve shut it down entirely.

Johnny Depp had been signed (a long time ago waiting for this thing to get off the ground) to play Tonto and as recently as a month ago it was announced that one of the Winklevi (okay actually both them) Armie Hammer, had been chosen as the Lone Ranger himself and Ruth Wilson (“Luther”) had just been added as the female lead. Jerry Bruckheimer was producing, Gore Verbinski was directing. This is the combination that made billions for Disney with The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which makes the decision all the more mystifying. Apparently the studio only wanted to spend $200 million, but even after slashing $20 million from the budget, the price tag was still hovering around $230 million. When you’re talking numbers like that, $20 million doesn’t seem like a lot, but then neither does the difference between $200 and $230 million. I think we’re all jaded after listening to the government bandy about numbers in the TRILLIONS so much lately.

Part of their financial apprehension comes from the cost-overruns on John Carter, due out in March. That one cost inexcess of $300 million. It had better be damn good to justify that! Pulling the plug on The Lone Ranger is just another sign that the economy has affected even one of the more robust industries we still have left.

In the meantime, there is talk of retooling The Lone Ranger and perhaps evntually rebooting the production, which had been counting on the presence of Depp to lure ticket buyers. They should probably hurry. That’s guy’s booked solid. There are 15 more titles in various stages of production with his name attached. I wouldn’t worry too much about Depp in any case. I’m sure he’s got a “pay or play” clause in his contract (which means he gets paid no matter what.) Armie might be a little too new to the game to warrant one of those, but he’s already got another high profile gig, playing the Prince to Lily Collins’ Snow White in Tarsem Singh’s Untitled Snow White Project. (I think that’s what they should call it.)

Ricky Gervais shared some pretty fabulous news with us via his blog and I have to say, I am pretty stoked.  First of all, Johnny Depp is for sure going to be in the upcoming sitcom ‘Life’s Too Short,’ that will be co-written by Gervais.  Yes!  That is seriously, ridiculously COOL.

Ricky Gervais Invited To Host Golden Globes Again

‘Life’s Too Short‘ follows the exploits of a little person with a larger-than-life personality (Warwick Davis) who runs a talent agency for dwarf performers. The BBC2 series, in development now, is also expected to air on HBO in the States.

Okay, as if that wasn’t enough “happy” news for the day.  Ricky will be guesting on the season finale of The Office coming up on May 19.  OMG.  This is insane.  Will Ferrell…. Ricky Gervais…. BOTH!  I cannot wait!

Photo: WENN

In need of a little Johnny Depp fix? I need one daily, so don’t feel bad.  We’ve got the Super Bowl spot for this Sunday’s big game of Johnny’s new movie, Rango.

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Sadly you don’t get to see him in the trailer, it’s animated.  But he is the voice of Rango and totally adorable.  The cast is fantastic! Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Stephen Root, Ray Winstone, Beth Grant, Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton and Alfred Molina.

A chameleon that aspires to be a swashbuckling hero finds himself in a Western town plagued by bandits and is forced to literally play the role in order to protect it.

Now check out the trailer:

What do you think?  Will you see this one in theaters?

Photo: Coming Soon

Last night’s Golden Globes were good.  They just weren’t quite what I had expected. Ricky Gervais is hilarious.  His jokes are usually a hit.  This isn’t his first hosting gig for crying out loud.  So what the hell went wrong?

Ricky Gervais Gets Censored For The Golden Globes?

I think the easy answer is that Ricky picked on all the wrong stars.  He chose the ones without a sense of humor anywhere near his.  The opening monologue left him completely cold.  Aside from the boo-ish groans, it was like crickets in the laugh department.  Sure, there were some sympathy laughs, but that’s about it.

I felt bad for him.  Picking on Mel Gibson would have been a hoot.  Bashing Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie… not so much.

Watch this and then tell us what you think: