They're Trying to Cut Lone Ranger's Budget, But It's Still Good, It's Still Good!

Disney might be content with castrating The Lone Ranger from production, but not the filmmakers according to THR.

In an effort to save the Western adventure (...with werewolves...) from being flushed down the toilet, director Gore Verbinski has reportedly been given a week (Seriously, that's all the time they're giving him?) to rework the Ted Elliott/Terry Rossio-penned script and present something more economically feasible.

Translation: a version of the script that isn't so damn expensive!

Problem is they've already made cuts, the trades say, and it's still far too high for Disney executives' tastes. Not to mention, both he and producer Jerry Bruckheimer already forked over some of their (pricey) upfront fees in order to salvage the project. The concern being if they keep chipping away at costs here and there, they'll essentially be developing something completely different than what attracted them to this to begin with.

Reminds me of back in Christmas of 2009 when news first broke of Spider-Man 4 dying. First it was denial from the studio front, then it was how they were trying to come to an agreement with Sam Raimi & Co. and how filming would only be delayed from spring 2010 to summer but everything would be OK and we'd still get Spider-Man 4 for May 2011. And then it was officially dead and here we are with The Amazing Spider-Man reboot for July 2012.