Disney has released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for director Gore Verbinski’s upcoming film The Lone Ranger.  The story focuses on John Reid (Armie Hammer) surviving an attack, being saved by Native American warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp), and the two teaming up to fight injustice.  This new featurette chronicles the heavy location-based production, as we see the enormous lengths to which Verbinski went in order to make the majority of The Lone Ranger practically.  In fact, this featurette shows Depp falling completely off of his horse mid-stride during a stunt, and we get a look at the actor’s bruising that occurred as a result.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film also stars Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, and Helena Bonham Carter.  The Lone Ranger opens July 3rd.

Disney has released a new featurette for the upcoming feature The Lone Ranger, and it’s an excellent example of why I’m looking forward to the film.  In this featurette, we see Armie Hammer performing a pretty hairy-looking stunt that involves standing atop a towering platform in the middle of the Utah desert, with only a harness keeping him from plummeting to the bottom of a canyon.  Most directors would shoot this sequence on a soundstage with plenty of green screen, but The Lone Ranger’s Gore Verbinski has shown a fantastic propensity for crazy practical stuntwork in his previous three Pirates of the Caribbean films, and I’m eager to see that same production value on the screen in The Lone Ranger.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film also stars Johnny Depp, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter.  The Lone Ranger opens July 3rd.

Disney has finally settled on a director for the upcoming fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and it’s a somewhat surprising choice.  We learned earlier this month that Disney had narrowed the director list down to Fredrik Bond (The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman), Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki), and Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman), and now Deadline reports that the directing duo of Rønning and Sandberg has landed the job.  Rønning and Sandberg are best known for helming last year’s Norwegian action/adventure film Kon-Tiki, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  Hit the jump for more.

Unlike its broadcasting cohorts, CBS doesn’t typically use its upfronts as a time to frantically throw the everything and the kitchen sink out there in the hopes one sticks.  CBS knows its audience, and it’s steadily successful because of it.  What is so interesting with this year’s upfronts then is that they actually did shake things up a little: they didn’t pick up another NCIS spinoff, and they overlooked Beverly Hills Cops.

Instead, CBS is adding two single-camera comedies (The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams, and We Are Men with Kal Penn) and a limited series run of Hostages, a Jerry Bruckheimer production.  Though most of the CBS schedule will look familiar (crime shows, canned laughter comedy), these new additions add a level of interest to CBS’s schedule not usually seen.  Hit the jump for the schedule details.

Shortly before producer Jerry Bruckheimer hit the CinemaCon stage in Las Vegas to talk about The Lone Ranger (watch the new trailer here), I landed a short video interview with him on the red carpet backstage.  Since I knew my time would be very limited, I decided to ask the most important question first: What will it take to get Bad Boys 3 made!

In addition to asking about a Bad Boys sequel, he also discussed his reaction to seeing the finished cut of The Lone Ranger, how they decided which footage to show at CinemaCon, and the status of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and National Treasure 3.  He says they’re working on scripts for both, with a team of writers working on National Treasure 3 and Ted Elliot/Terry Rossio and Jeff Nathanson writing Pirates 5.  Hit the jump to watch.

A new image from director Gore Verbinski’s upcoming The Lone Ranger has been released.  The film stars Armie Hammer as the titular hero and Johnny Depp as his trusty sidekick Tonto, and judging by the two trailers we’ve seen thus far, Verbinski has turned in a rather epic take on the Western genre.  Producer Jerry Bruckheimer shared this new image on his Twitter, and it’s a nice silhouette of what appears to be our titular character on horseback as he rides away from a rising fire.

Hit the jump to take a look at the image.  The film also stars Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter.  The Lone Ranger opens July 3, 2013.

It appears that the Top Gun sequel may be dead.  Director Tony Scott, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and star Tom Cruise were all enthusiastic about returning for a fighter pilot follow-up, and The Town scribe Peter Craig had even been drafted to craft a screenplay, but sadly Scott’s death earlier this year looks to have put the project in limbo.  The New York Times (via The Playlist) reports that Top Gun 2 “has fallen apart,” dashing hopes of seeing a Maverick/Iceman reunion onscreen.

However, Paramount is still moving forward with plans to release a 3D version of the original Top Gun. NYT adds that the studio is considering a February release for the post-converted pic, possibly with a one-week exclusive showing on domestic IMAX screens.   Though I know many were looking forward to seeing what would transpire in Top Gun 2, I can’t help thinking that the follow-up is better left untouched now that Scott is no longer with us.

In a recent interview with Geoffrey Rush, the Pirates of the Caribbean star confessed he had no idea when the fifth installment would be going forward.  But now we know where it’s going, at least.  Pirates of the Caribbean 5 appears to be headed to Puerto Rico to start shooting this November. That’s good news, since the status of the film is somewhat in flux, with Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) possibly returning to direct and the script in the process of being finalized. As we all know, the next installment (and the franchise itself) sets its course by its star, Johnny Depp.  Should we expect to see him in Puerto Rico this fall?  Hit the jump for more.

Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) has signed on to direct the paranormal police thriller Beware the Night.  According to The Wrap, Derrickson will also rewrite the script: “The story is set in a paranormal world and follows a New York police officer investigating real life demon possessions, exorcisms and werewolves after dark.”  The project is housed at Screen Gems, but The Wrap hears producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Carribbean) and Disney are involved in some capacity, Beware the Night could be a much bigger production than your typical supernatural flick.  The lead role was reportedly offered to Mark Wahlberg, but he passed.  [Update: The Wrap updated their report.  Paul Boardman will co-write the screenplay.  Bruckheimer's name is now omitted from the report, and the edited text states Screen Gems is in negotiations with Disney for the rights.]

Derrickson followed up the low-budget Emily Rose with would-be tentpole The Day the Earth Stood Still.  Derrickson returned to small-scale horror for his latest film, Sinister, which hits theaters on October 5.

Disney’s The Lone Ranger hasn’t exactly had an easy road to production.  After the rights to the feature iteration of the classic television story changed hands a few times, they ended up with Jerry Bruckheimer at Disney with a script by Pirates of the Caribbean scribes Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio.  Naturally, Johnny Depp was brought on to play Tonto, and director Gore Verbinski was hired to take the helm.  Production hit a snag when the budget ballooned to a reported $250 million, but after Bruckheimer, Depp, and Verbinski put their heads together, some trimming was done and the film was back on track with Armie Hammer as the titular ranger and Tom Wilkinson as the film’s villain.

Bruckheimer has provided a new production update on the now-filming Lone Ranger, revealing that they’re incredibly close to the end of principal photography after a whopping 125 days of shooting.  He also shared some gorgeous photos from the New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona sets.  Hit the jump for more.

Last summer, Disney halted The Lone Ranger until the production was willing to reduce the budget from $250 million to $215 million.  After removing sequences and principal players Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski agreed to rework their deals (less salary up front, more on the back-end), the trio reached the $215 million budget, and Disney gave the movie a green light.  So naturally, the production has ballooned back up to $250 million if not more.

Hit the jump for more on what ails The Lone Ranger, which also stars Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter. The film is due out July 3, 2013.

The first official image from The Lone Ranger has been unveiled. The film had a very public rocky road to production, but filming is finally underway in New Mexico on the big budget adventure pic. This image gives us a look into what director Gore Verbinski has in store for the classic character, and unsurprisingly Johnny Depp seems to have crafted an entirely different Tonto. This iteration has some pretty intense face paint and, naturally, a dead bird on his head. Everyone’s familiar with the stories about how Disney almost fired Depp for his take on Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean (also directed by Verbinski), so I’ll hold off judgment until we see this Tonto in action. For what it’s worth, I think Armie Hammer looks great as the title character. He’s got that everyman quality and “reassuring sense of justice” feel down pat. Verbinski is a really solid director (Rango was one of the best films of 2011) so I’m pulling for The Lone Ranger to be a fun flick. Despite the ridiculous budget, he’s assembled an impressive cast for the film and I’m eager to see more.

Hit the jump to check out the image. The film also stars Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, and Helena Bonham Carter. The Lone Ranger opens May 31, 2013.

When last we reported on the status of Top Gun 2, Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (Thor) were supposedly set to draft the sequel. Apparently that never happened and now Peter Craig (The Town) will be starting from scratch. Not to worry, Mr. Craig, because Tom Cruise has thoughts on what the sequel could be about and just how big a role Maverick would play in it. Concrete plot details are non-existent at the moment, but it does seem likely that Cruise will return along with original director, Tony Scott. Top Gun 2 is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and David Ellison’s Skydance Productions for Paramount. Hit the jump to see what Cruise and Scott’s take would be on the sequel’s plot. 

Horses are in, apparently. Steven Spielberg’s War Horse hits theaters later this month, and now comes word that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is shopping a movie package for an adaptation of Doug Stanton’s war tale Horse Soldiers. The true story takes place during the Afghanistan War and centers on 12 elite special forces soldiers and CIA operatives who secretly invaded Afghanistan after 9/11. The operatives aided the Afghan fighters in capturing the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and toppling the Taliban. Oh, and they arrived on horses, hence the title.

Deadline reports that Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs) wrote the initial script, which was subsequently rewritten by Peter Craig (The Town). Nicolai Fuglsig is onboard to direct, in what could be his feature film debut. The renowned commercials direct is also attached to direct the thriller Brass Monkey, as well as a futuristic take on Robin Hood. Bruckheimer has been out this week pitching the project to studios, so we should find out where it lands relatively soon. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the book.

Major studios are talking about tightening their belts and being more selective in their projects because the DVD revenue market has dried up and nothing has come along yet to replace its riches.  However, one can’t help but be amused that for Disney, belt-tightening meant trimming the cost of The Lone Ranger from $260 million to $215 million and that paying $215 million for a movie based on a serial western from the 1950s is good financial sense.

The wrangling over the budget was done in public and we tracked every ludicrous step.  Eventually, the two sides came to an agreement and the film was re-scheduled from December 21, 2012 to May 31, 2013.  Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently explained why production was shut down at the 11th hour, how they got the budget down to a “reasonable” number, what was cut from the script, and provides a minor update on Pirates of the Caribbean 5.  Hit the jump for what the prolific producer had to say.  The Lone Ranger will star Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Ranger.