SHOCKER! Disney Halts ‘The Lone Ranger’ With Johnny Depp And Gore Verbinski – Deadline.com.

Disney allegedly halted production of “The Lone Ranger” because of the $200 million price tag.

*sputter* $200 million???  Two hundred million DOLLARS to make a western where two guys ride on horses firing guns at other guys on horses?

Guys, you don’t have to use actual silver for the bullets.

I’m truly baffled.  Westerns used to be the bread and butter of Hollywood because you got the most bang for your buck.  A standard western town lot, some horsies, some guns, a lot of money for the stunt men… and bang, you’ve got a movie.  There’s no reason on God’s green Earth that a western should be costing Lord of the Rings prices.

“The Lone Ranger”, if you focus on STORY, should be the kind of cheap film that a studio uses to balance out the gaudy tentpoles.  Something tells me I don’t want to see a Lone Ranger that costs $200 million-plus.

I certainly don’t want to see a 3D Three Musketeers movie that needed to add CGI war blimps.