It may just be me, but there seems to be a curious disinterest surrounding The Lone Ranger. Perhaps we’ve read Depp-as-Tonto too long, or maybe it’s just leftover Pirates ennui. I’d like to think this bodes well for the reboot/remake — no one saw the fun (and it was fun) of the first Pirates of the Caribbean coming. We all smelled a bomb.
Ranger is certainly attracting an interesting Pirates-esque cast, though. According to Variety, the wonderful Tom Wilkinson is in talks to join. He would be playing (what else?) a railroad tycoon who plays “a prominent role” in the film. I’m guessing that prominent role is villainous. Has there ever been a nice railroad tycoon in all of Western lore?
I’d like to think Gore Verbinski is being super sly, and casting the man who was recently James Reid for a good mythological reason. If he doesn’t give the railroad tycoon the Reid name, thus marking him as a bad seed of the righteous do-good clan, then I will be super disappointed.