The Lone Ranger May Have a Director!

Disney is eyeing Mike Newell, 67, for their next franchise

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

According to Production Weekly, England-born director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is "in talks" to helm Disney's big-budget live action version of The Lone Ranger, which will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun).

The film will be the first Hollywood production of the iconic George W. Trendle creation in more than 25 years, since Klinton Spilsbury portrayed the namesake in the 1981 flick The Legend of the Lone Ranger (pictured below), which was a major flop.

The original Lone Ranger, a masked Texas Ranger who travels with his Native American comrade Tonto, was developed by writer Fran Striker for its radio premiere in 1933. After nearly 3,000 episodes on the air, The Lone Ranger was converted into a popular TV series that ran from 1949 to 1957, before the star of that show brought the character to the big screen in 1956.

This anticipated update--written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy)--had initially been proposed back in March 2002 by Columbia Pictures, but red tape tangled the development of the $70 million project, before Disney purchased the rights in 2007.

Last September Disney announced that Johnny Depp (who starred in Newell's Donnie Brasco) will play Tonto, though no one has signed on to play the Ranger himself, despite rumours that George Clooney was interested. Newell's current project is another feature film adaptation, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, based on a popular 2003 video game and due in theatres in May 2010.