Following on from his turns in The Social Network and Mirror Mirror, Armie Hammer landed the titular lead role in The Lone Ranger, with Johnny Depp as his sidekick Tonto. Now he's spilled the (baked) beans on what we're in for in the new issue of Empire - and there's a new poster released by Disney today.

"It's the rock 'n' roll Lone Ranger. We're telling the genesis story. It's very true to the original - a group of rangers get ambushed and they're all killed except one, and he gets nursed back to health by an Indian scout."

He also gave us a little on the Ranger's background. "He's a lawyer who comes out West with this noble idea of what justice is, that you don't just gun down wrongdoers, that everyone deserves a trial. At first he doesn't believe in guns, but then he's like, 'Oh my God, I just got shot at! This doesn't work at all' It's amazing what getting shot at will do to you."

Empire magazine's Lone Ranger feature in this month's issue
 

Let's hope the film doesn't become a political football with sentiments like that. The Lone Ranger hits cinemas on August 9, and there's more from Hammer in the new issue of Empire, which is out on Thursday on newsstands and also for iPad and for US iPad readers.