The upcoming reboot of The Lone Ranger is finally coming together after years spent languishing in development hell. The flick is set to star Johnny Depp as the main character's Indian American sidekick, which might very well be super-racist - we're waiting to hear back from our college identity politics professor on that one. At the very least though, as of now, the film isn't planned to take place in a post-apocalyptic future, so there's that at least.
Filming is planned to begin once Depp finishes work on Dark Shadows, and Deadline is now reporting that the movie's producers have approached Armie Hammer about playing the lead role. The actor is known for playing both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, and is the great-grandson of Armand Hammer, the long-time head of Occidental Petroleum. This, of course, proves our theory that being successful in America is easy: Just make sure you're the tall, handsome scion of an oil tycoon who may or may not have colluded with the Soviets and/or contributed illegally to Richard Nixon's war chest.
Noted crook and drug dealer Peter Paul, Armie's great-granddad and one of the guys who faked the moon landing.
The Pirates of the Caribbean team of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski are already signed on for the new film, and will be working from a script originally by Pirates scribes Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, but which has since been rewritten by Revolutionary Road's Justin Haythe. So, over-the-top spectactle, filtered through a sobering look at the crumbling American dream, starring fourth generation American aristocracy and Johnny Depp in red-face. We can think of no finer reimagining of a true American icon.
