Actor/musician Dwight Yoakam has been a fun and sometimes scene-stealing presence in films (he was one of the best parts of Panic Room), but unfortunately, Deadline is reporting that he has dropped out of Gore Verbinski‘s big-budget adaptation of The Lone Ranger.  The western, based on the classic radio- and TV-serial, stars Johnny Depp as the Native American Tonto and Armie Hammer as the eponymous masked hero.  Yoakam was set to play one of the film’s villains, but has now left due to a scheduling conflict.  We should hear some casting news on his replacement in the very near future since filming is set to begin this month.

The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Ruth Wilson, James Frain, and Tom Wilkinson.  The Lone Ranger opens May 31, 2013.  Hit the jump for casting news on Michael Bay‘s Pain and Gain.

Earlier this summer, Gore Verbinksi‘s adaptation of The Lone Ranger was rounding up its cast.  Johnny Depp was signed on to play Tonto, Armie Hammer was playing the Ranger, and the movie was lining up Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson (Luther), Dwight Yoakam, Barry Pepper, and Helena Bonham Carter for supporting roles.  But then Disney pumped the brakes and wanted a lower budget, they eventually got it after some protracted negotiations, and now pre-production is back underway.

However, this delay moved back the start of production which meant that scheduling had changed for the actors.  Depp and Hammer never really left, and now it looks like Verbinski is trying to get his other actors back.  Deadline reports that Wilkinson has returned to play the villain Latham Cole while Wilson is still playing the movie’s female lead.  Disney is talking again with Carter, Pepper, and Yoakam as well as James Badge Dale.  Production on the $215 million cowboy movie begins in February 2012 for a May 31, 2013 release.

It looks as if director Gore Verbinski’s (Rango) take on The Lone Ranger may soon be upping its cast by three. Already starring Armie Hammer in the title role, Johnny Depp as his trusty sidekick Tonto, and Tom Wilkinson as a railroad tycoon, the pic is now close to landing Helena Bonham Carter, Barry Pepper, and country star turned actor Dwight Yoakam. Per Heat Vision, the trio is currently in talks to join the pic as a brothel madam, military officer, and gang leader respectively. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Disney’s adaptation of the classic character is set to begin shooting in mid-October of this year in Texas and New Mexico.

The Lone Ranger is penned by Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) and will center on the plight of a Texas Ranger (Hammer) who is left for dead by Yoakam’s gang, only to return as the masked title character. As for the film’s potential new additions, Carter can currently be seen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Pepper has a role in Terrence Malick’s untitled romantic drama with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Javier Bardem, and Yoakam is currently lensing director Billy Bob Thornton’s drama Jayne Manfield’s Car alongside Kevin Bacon, Dennis Quaid, John Hurt, and Robert Duvall.

Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam and Tim McGraw have boarded the cast of the indie drama Dirty Girl starring Juno Temple.  According to Variety, the film “is set in 1987 in Oklahoma, features a high school tramp seeking the father she never knew who runs away with a closeted gay boy who wants to escape going to military school, portrayed by newcomer Jeremy Dozier.”

While the logline makes it sound like the film is a parody of an indie movie, first-time writer-director Abe Sylvia’s script was on the Black List (a list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood).  Jovovich will next be seen in Resident Evil: Afterlife, and Macy will next be seen in Marmaduke.  One of those films could use more zombies and the other could use more talking animals.