{"id":15842,"date":"2011-08-18T06:33:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T11:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=15842"},"modified":"2011-08-18T06:33:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T11:33:42","slug":"there-still-may-be-some-life-in-lone-ranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/18\/there-still-may-be-some-life-in-lone-ranger\/","title":{"rendered":"There Still May Be Some Life In LONE RANGER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Is The Lone Ranger<\/strong> not really dead, but only wounded?<\/p>\n

The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a> is stating that despite having shut down pre-production last week<\/a>, Disney has given director Gore Verbinski a week to try and rework the script for the long in development adaption of the western hero to bring its cost down to a more affordable level for the studio. Initially, the film was budgeted out to approximately $250 million, though with the fact that they are outlaying on two other expensive projects right now (John Carter<\/strong> and Oz, The Great And Powerful<\/strong>), Disney was hoping to get the final cost of the project down towards the $215 to $220 million range. Verbinski has reportedly made some trims that got the budget down to the $242 million neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Of course, during this whole discussion, many people have wondered how a western could cost so much. After all, the Coen Brothers made True Grit<\/strong> for $40 million and even the science-fiction western genre mash-up Cowboys & Aliens<\/strong> only cost $163 million. But it is easy to see why Disney would like to minimize their risk on this movie as much as possible. Despite the instant box office strength of Johnny Depp, westerns are still not much of a box office draw. Although True Grit<\/strong> made $250 million worldwide against its small budget, bigger-budget westerns like Jonah Hex<\/strong> and Cowboys & Aliens<\/strong> have been duds, earning much less than their costs.<\/p>\n

Let’s bullet point some of the major costs that are being looked at-<\/p>\n