Could The Lone Ranger ride again?

Earlier this week, it was reported Disney had dumped Gore Verbinski’s $250 million Lone Ranger project on account of it costing $250 million. 

Surely, we wondered, there is a place in Hollywood for a feature that would reteam the original Pirates of the Caribbean director with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Johnny Depp, as well as up-and-comer Armie Hammer?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Verbinski and co. feel similarly, and are now working on drastically reducing the budget and finding another studio to foot the bill.

Although the director has reportedly nipped and tucked the budget to a barely-leaner $242 million, a source close to the production claims no studio will be interested unless the price tag can be reduced to around $215 million.

It is believed Verbinski and Bruckheimer have already surrendered $10 million of their fees, so it’s unknown where the rest of those cuts will come from.

Discuss: Are you still keen to see this project come to fruition?