Despite previous reports stemming from a now mysteriously missing Production Weekly tweet, director Mike Newell has revealed that he was in fact never in talks to take the helm of Disney’s long-gestating “The Lone Ranger.”
The project, which presumably still has Johnny Depp attached to star as the titular hero’s sidekick Tonto, was announced over a year ago with the link to Newell hitting the internet in April of last year. The director has now revealed news to the contrary, but does note that he would kill for the job.
“They’ve never talked to me about ‘The Lone Ranger,'” Newell tells MTV adding that upon hearing of the potential George Clooney-Johnny Depp team up, he told his agent “geez, if that’s what they want from it, boy would I kill for that.'”
Clooney has since left the project with developments few and far between. The last update saw “Revolutionary Road” scribe Justin Haythe brought on to rework the script but as that only happened two weeks ago, the project is surely far off any major steps into production. Furthermore, Depp is booked solid until at least mid-2011 so don’t expect this sure-to-be Western-“Pirates Of The Caribbean” any time before 2012.
So what’s up next for Newell? The director tells MTV that he’s currently in the process of developing the previously announced adaptation of “The Terminal Spy” though there’s “still work to do” namely trying to capture a necessary “dynamite piece of casting.”
The film reportedly centers on the mysterious circumstances behind the 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-Russian spy who, from his deathbed, accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of being behind his poisoning. Newell noted a desire to capture the “ambitions” and “unstraight narrative” of “Syriana” and the simple but “immensely dynamic entertaining” nature of the ‘Bourne’ franchise.
The project isn’t set in stone though — Newell adds that it’s “a work in progress” and “a long way from a start” but with Warner Bros. bringing David Scarpa on board to help for the project described by Variety as being in an “advanced stage of development,” perhaps Newell is just playing it cautious.
The director also has his Jake Gyllenhaal-led “Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time” hitting theaters this May.