From “Yo-ho-ho” to “Hi-ho, Silver”
Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, best known for penning the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, are in final negotiations to write a live-action big-screen film version of “The Lone Ranger,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie will be made by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films in association with Entertainment Rights.
“The Lone Ranger,” which is owned by Classic Media, started as a 1930s radio show and expanded to movie serials, TV shows, comics, toys and more.
The hero started out as one of a group of Texas Rangers pursuing Butch Cavendish and his gang of outlaws. The villains ambush and believe they have killed all the Rangers. But an American Indian named Tonto finds the sole survivor and nurses him back to health. The Lone Ranger, wearing a mask and riding a stallion named Silver, pairs with Tonto to bring Cavendish’s gang and other ne’er-do-wells to justice.
The Lone Ranger has many IMDB film credits to his name, but he hasn’t had much big- or small-screen success in the modern era. The 1981 film “The Legend of the Lone Ranger” has a “box-office flop” tag on IMDB. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie was such as failure that star Klinton Spilsbury never worked in Tinseltown again.
The 2003 TV movie “The Lone Ranger” didn’t fare much better. (One pithy IMDB user claims “the horse was the best actor in it.” I admire that individual’s snark.)
But Elliott and Rossio are experienced in taking old-fashioned action fare and turning into movie success. They also wrote “The Mask of Zorro,” a movie that has the undying gratitude of millions of men for introducing Catherine Zeta-Jones to the world. (And let’s face it ladies, Antonio Banderas in a mask isn’t too hard on the eyes.)
Plus, Elliott and Rossio managed to script at least one really entertaining movie based on a Disneyland ride. (That’s one trilogy that definitely follows the law of diminishing returns.) Surely the sharp-penned duo can do something with that masked man, even if his signature battle cry is “Hi-ho, Silver, away!”
-BAM
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