So why did Disney get cold feet about The Lone Ranger?

The Playlist has some ideas to share:

Hollywood is heading into an unusually thrifty mode these days, with several big potential projects, like Guillermo del Toro‘s “At the Mountains of Madness” and Ron Howard‘s “The Dark Tower” being scrapped since the start of the year. But of all the big movies in the works, one that reunited the producer, writers, director and star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, which has taken over $3 billion worldwide theatrically alone, seemed to be a safe bet. And yet “The Lone Ranger,” which was to star Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, to be directed by Gore Verbinskiand produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, has been shut down by Disney after concern over the film’s budget, said to have risen to a whopping $232 million (that itself cut down from an original $250 million price tag).

Jeffrey Wells wrote over the weekend that the film was “a kind of an Indian-spirituality werewolf movie” with extensive CGI, hence the gigantic budget, based on his ready of a 2009 draft of the film by ‘Pirates’ writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. It’s been no secret that the film, like the swashbuckling franchise, would involve supernatural elements, but we’ve read the same draft, and Wells doesn’t have it quite right: there are supernatural wolves, and a legion of coyotes, but they’re not strictly speaking werewolves. Instead, the major supernatural element in the script involves the Wendigo, a cannibalistic Native American spirit capable of possessing humans.

As such, the effects workload wouldn’t have been any higher than the average blockbuster —of course there would be heavy CGI elements, but probably far less than something like, say, Disney’s other forthcoming tentpoles “John Carter” and “Oz: The Great and Powerful”—and the fantastical elements, at least in Elliot and Rossio’s draft (Justin Haythe has since come on board to rewrite) aren’t massively prominent, the film being more of a straight action Western.

So the idea that the film’s hit a speedbump because it’s stacked with CGI isn’t accurate, the reasons being far more varied. We suspect that the film will still move ahead at some point—Depp’s likely to be on a pay-or-play contract, and Disney won’t want to take that hit without getting something out of it. It might even make its October start date if the budget can be trimmed down enough (although whether Verbinski comes along for the ride is more of a question mark—as Warners did with “Akira,” the studio may go after a younger, cheaper helmer who can bring the film in on a budget). But how did that budget get so big? And why did Disney start to feel so nervous about something which only a few months ago seemed like a sure-fire hit?

Disney stops work on The Lone Ranger!

Deadline has the details:

In a stunning development, Disney has shut down production on The Lone Ranger, the Gore Verbinski-directed period Western that was to star Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the title character. Jerry Bruckheimer is the producer and the script's by Justin Haythe. I'm told this all just happened, and Disney pulled the plug because the budget, which I've heard the filmmakers were trying to reduce from $250 million--I've heard from insider that they'd gotten down to $232 million, but whatever the number, it wasn't close to the $200 million that Disney wanted to spend. This had to be an incredibly tough call for Disney's Rich Ross and Sean Bailey, but they have several huge live action bets on the table already. John Carter, the Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of John Carter of Mars with Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch in the lead role, has a budget that has ballooned to north of $300 million because of extensive re-shoots [a studio insider said the number is lower], and The Great and Powerful Oz, the Sam Raimi-directed James Franco-starrer has a budget is hovering at $200 million. Lone Ranger wasn't starting production until October, and and even though money has been spent as the picture is in pre-production (Depp is pay or play), but it was the easiest one on which to apply the brakes. The shoot was set for New Mexico. Between Depp, Bruckheimer and Verbinski, the gross outlay on the film is substantial. The film was still casting up, with Ruth Wilson, the serial killer from the BBC's Lutherseries, set for the female lead.

Where have some of the most interesting filmmakers of the last decade gone?

This is an older article, so apologies in advance if you've seen it already or if some of the information feels a bit dated, but I stumbled upon this over at indieWIRE while doing some research and wanted to share it with you all:

So after a five year absence, “Little Miss Sunshine” directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farisare returning with “He Loves Me Not,” a whimsical-sounding project—described as a mix of “Adaptation” and “Weird Science”—written by actress Zoe Kazan that will star herself, her boyfriend Paul Dano and possibly Jeff Bridges if all goes well. Fox Searchlight announced it had picked up the picture and it would shoot later this summer. Finally!

Rewinding the tape a little bit, earlier this year it was reported that James Franco may or may not be directing an adaptation of “Blood Meridian” which seemed to be news to producer Scott Rudin (he owns the rights and it appears that Franco’s take on it was unsolicited). What we were more concerned with was: what did this mean for Todd Field? Director of two great little dramas, “In the Bedroom” and “Little Children,” the actor/filmmaker had been developing the aforementioned bleak and bloodyCormac McCarthy novel for what felt like ages. Both stories made us think of Field, Dayton/Faris and a host of other directors who haven’t made a film in years for one reason or another. So here’s five filmmakers who haven’t made a feature-length film in over five years, some of the reasons why, and what they are cooking up next.

Martin Scorsese is still trying to edit Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘Margaret’!

Here's the information, via Film School Rejects:

This year, movies like Battle: Los Angeles, I Am Number Four, Hoodwinked 2 (did anyone even see the first one?), another Tyler Perry movie, Red Riding Hood, and the Justin Bieber documentary all easily made their way into theaters. Know what hasn’t come out this year (or the past couple) while films like Something Borrowed get their big studio pushes?

Margaret.

Kenneth Lonergan‘s follow-up to his brilliant debut, You Can Count on Me, has had a notoriously rough time making it to theaters, both due to legal issues and a dispute over final cut.

The film was shot almost six years ago. The editing process has been called a nightmare. Lonergan has a three-hour cut that Fox Searchlight isn’t too keen on releasing. Why? Because they won’t release a version over two hours long. Lonergan has final cut, which hasn’t made the situation any easier. Great talents such as Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese, Scott Rudin, and Sydney Pollack did passes on the film to get it down to a shorter length.

And right now, Scorsese is doing another edit of the film with Lonergan.