It's The Johnny Depp News-O-Rama! Pirates 4! Mad Hatter! And Lone Ranger?!
Walt Disney Studios held a massive event today at the Kodak Theatre in LA, during which the Studios’ chairman, Dick Cook, made a string of announcements about their upcoming movies over the next few years.
And Johnny Depp was at the heart of it all.
The actor showed up on stage for a triple announcement which apparently ties him to Disney for some time. That announcement was:
• That Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 4.
• That he will star as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s next movie, Alice In Wonderland.
• Neither of those were huge surprises, but the next one was. Boy, was it.
For Depp has signed on to star as Tonto in a movie version of The Lone Ranger, which will be produced by Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Now that's surprising - not just because Tonto is traditionally a role for a Native American (although Depp's great-grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee, and of course he played a Native American in his self-directed film, The Brave), but because it's very much a sidekick role to the flashier Lone Ranger, a masked crusader for justice in the Old West. So if Disney has Depp in the second banana role, they must have someone really special lined up for the Ranger himself. And, of course, we imagine that Tonto will get a lot more to do in this movie.
Details on the timeline of all three movies are a little sketchy right now, but since Burton starts shooting in a couple of months on Alice In Wonderland, expect Depp to head into that first. That might not be a huge role, anyway.
Then, it should be onto The Lone Ranger, which has a provisional release date of 2010. Interestingly, this could put it up against Seth Rogen and Stephen Chow's The Green Hornet. Why interestingly? Well, Britt Reid - aka The Green Hornet - is The Lone Ranger's great-nephew.
Of course, The Green Hornet is a Sony movie, so it's unlikely that we'll see them team up, a la Tony Stark turning up in The Incredible Hulk, but it'll still be fun to see who wins the Battle Of The Reid Family in 2010...
And after that, then we'll see Depp return as Captain Jack Sparrow, although Pirates 4 is currently only in early development. But, given that Depp staggered on stage at the Disney event in full Captain Jack make-up and costume, it's clearly a role he's itching to get back to.
As a massive Depp fan I'm totally looking forward to all the stuff he's got lined up owever I am a little dubious about Pirates 4, but as long as they stick to the general feel of the first movie, they can't go wrong....'m well excited about Lone Ranger! I loved that show, I used to watch it all the time as a kid when it was on C4...Depp will be great as Tonto.
....apparently the word in rumoursville is that a certain Mr Clooney is tipped to play the Lone Ranger....hum.....te] ney lined up... Read More
Sounds good, I thought the pirate sequels weren't as bad as some people made it out to be (although not as good as the first.)
It would be interesting to see some of Jacks past, if not that then please, please, please drop Will and Elizabeth, they became quite tiresome in the sequels.
Looking forward to more news on it. ... Read More
Depp as Tonto? Who's gonna don the mask and hat of the Lone Ranger? Hows about Nathan Fillion. THAT would be fucking perfect casting. So there you go people, spread the idea. Whatever other sites and chat rooms you may frequent drop that suggestion/idea. Maybe some studio exec or casting agent will stumble across it, think 'oh hey thats a good idea' and make it so. ... Read More
More Johnny Depp films can only be a good thing...
... especially collaborations with Tim Burton, but a new Pirates film really needs to be a new chapter in a new story. Pirates 2 and 3 were a bit of a mess, but at least there seemed to be a real conclusion to Will and Elizabeth's story. Now maybe they can get back to basics with what made the first one great, slow down a bit and perfect the script before they start shooting and get the series back on track. I really hope this is the thinking behind doing another one, rather than just cash.
T... Read More
I think there is potential for another GOOD Pirates movies if they drop most of the extended cast - just leave Will and Elizabeth out of it, their story is done to death. If it's a simple self contained Capt. Jack movie - great. I'd love to see something pure fun like 'The Crimson Pirate' with Captain Jack at the heart of it. There is a wonderful scene in 'The Crimson Pirate' where Burt Lancaster has to attend a formal ball and schmooze the nobility, I'd love to see Jack dressed up in frills try... Read More
The Lone Ranger and Tonto are holed up in a mountain cave, surrounded by indian braves out for their blood. "Looks like we might not get out of this one alive pardner ", says the Ranger. To which Tonto replies, "YOU might not Kemasabe...".
If they work that joke into the movie they can count on my ticket :-) ... Read More
The Lone Ranger and Tonto are holed up in a mountain cave, surrounded by indian braves out for their blood. "Looks like we might not get out of this one alive pardner ", says the Ranger. To which Tonto replies, "YOU might not Kemasabe...".
If they work that joke into the movie they can count on my ticket :-) ... Read More
...Mad Hatter is a collaboration with his best friend Burton, and will only be a supporting role anyway. He's in Public Enemies with Bale for Michael Mann next year and Doctor Parnassus for Terry Gilliam (for which he donated his fee to Heath Ledger's daughter, as did Law and Farrell) and then he'll be teaming up with Gilliam again next summer for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. I could do without another Pirates movie, but he loves the character and so do his kids. What's wrong with that? At le... Read More
the last two weren't good and massively overlong, plus Jack Sparrow got tired after half way through the second movie.
Alice in Wonderland should be great givien it's the dream team of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Don't give a damn about The Lone Ranger movie as that was borderline rascist back in the day. ... Read More
