Lone Ranger Movie Scrapped Western Fans Rejected

Sad, but true Western movie fans plans for Disney's remake of the classic "The Lone Ranger" are scrapped. The remake was to star, a personal favorite of the Back In Time Trading Post, Johnny Depp as Tonto and relative newcomer Armie Hammer. Hammer has starred in "Billy: The Early Years," as well as, "The Social Network".

Those in the know think that Disney has balked due to poor reception of the recent "Cowboys and Aliens", which we here at Back In Time Trading Post never realized was supposed to be a Western. We have to think that many others would place it more in the Sci-Fi realm too. Sources also site an unwillingness for director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) to compromise his vision. Which apparently in Hollywood speak, means Disney asked him to lower his budget and he said no.

In the Back In Time Trading Post opinion, Disney made a poor choice. If they want to make a comparison or are worried about box office results then lets look at a movie that would be considered comparable. How about the recent remake of the classic John Wayne western "True Grit". To quote a January 10, 2011 article that western, "has racked up a mighty $110 million in 19 days, surpassing the final grosses of "Unforgiven" and "Maverick". In terms of estimated attendance, it topped "Brokeback Mountain" on Saturday and eclipsed "Tombstone" on Sunday." Now there is a comparison.

That said let us take a look at the Pirates of the Caribbean gross box office. The three movies grossed worldwide profits of  $929,541,224.00. Obviously Gore Verbinski's large budget was justified in the profits.

Therefore, Back In Time Trading Post says to Disney, you might just want to rethink this decision.