The Lone Ranger

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  • #31
    Re: The Lone Ranger

    I lost all interest in this movie when they scrapped the werewolves.
    "Forget it, Jake. It's Hollywood."

    My YouTube channel.

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    • #32
      Re: The Lone Ranger

      Intersting article about how The Lone Ranger's low box office may have a serious impact on future high budget films. I don't have the link but here's the full text:

      LOS ANGELES (AP) — "The Lone Ranger" seems to be riding into the sunset on its debut weekend.

      The Disney Western starring Armie Hammer as the titular character and Johnny Depp as Tonto was outpaced 3 to 1 by Universal's "Despicable Me 2," which also opened Wednesday. The animated sequel collected $59.9 million in ticket sales so far, while "The Lone Ranger" earned a paltry $19.5 million.

      While Disney is likely to recover based on its other strong offerings this summer, including Pixar's "Monsters University" and Marvel's "Iron Man 3," the masked man's dismal box-office showing may spell trouble for Depp and all but ends any hope for a Lone Ranger franchise.

      "This is one and done," said Stuart Oldham, editor of the industry trade site Variety.com. "You're not going to see another Lone Ranger movie after this."

      It's a "big disappointment" for Disney, said media and entertainment analyst Martin Pyykkonen of Wedge Partners. Although the film had been set up for a sequel, "it's obviously not even going to come close to covering the production costs," the analyst said.

      Years in the making, "Lone Ranger" filming was shut down for weeks in 2011 because of soaring costs that still ended up in the $250-million range.

      Poor reviews for the film may have contributed to the sluggish ticket sales. Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper called it "slick trash," while the AP's Jake Coyle said the two-and-a-half hour spectacle "finally, exhaustingly collapses in a scrap heap of train wreckage."

      ""The Lone Ranger' is, alas, a runaway train," Coyle writes.

      It's a serious misstep for blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and megastar Depp, who partnered profitably on the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. Depp's take on Tonto has been compared unfavorably to Captain Jack Sparrow in face paint.

      "(The studio thought) if we have Johnny Depp and we transfer him over to another funny hat and call him Tonto, we're going to be OK, but it's not OK," said Gene Del Vecchio, author of "Creating Blockbusters.

      Part of the problem, he said, is that children aren't nearly as familiar with the Lone Ranger as they are with the animated characters in "Despicable Me 2" and last week's first-place film, "Monsters University."

      "Kids really need to be reintroduced to the Lone Ranger," he said. "Instead, they were introduced to Tonto in the marketing."

      The failure of "The Lone Ranger" could impact studio decisions about what to green-light going forward, and not just at Disney.

      "From a film-industry standpoint, when you peel back the onion, you're not going to take a big risk on a big-production film that doesn't have a proven franchise," Pyykkonen said, especially in light of other recent bombs including "John Carter," ''Battleship" and "After Earth."

      "What's going to take a hit is creativity in Hollywood," Oldham said. "You're going to see more sequels and more remakes after these big bombs."

      Pyykkonen said the future of the proven "Pirates" franchise could even be in question.

      "There's probably going to be some head-scratching in the Disney film studio board rooms," he said. "Like, 'We've had a few in a row here that didn't win at the box office, do we really want to do a 'Pirates' 5?"

      ___

      AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: The Lone Ranger

        Link: http://news.yahoo.com/despicable-tra...174837320.html

        The article proves the point Disney HAS NO CLUE in terms of marketing vintage fictional characters (i.e. John Carter). How the hell are you going to sell a hero created in the early 20th century (from a now and sadly late storytelling medium) and based in the 19th century, to a 21st century audience? Quite the riddle, but Bruckheimer and Company answered wrong.

        Also, comparing TLR with "Despicable Me 2" and "Monster U." isn't quite perfect. Though they were created during the Great Depression, Superman has the marketing and visibility advantage over The Lone Ranger through his seventy-five years. Has Kemosabe appeared in more than two TV series or in a long-running comic book?
        Last edited by Madbandit; 07-07-2013, 01:14 PM.
        "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

        "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

        Comment


        • #34
          Re: The Lone Ranger

          The postmortems for this film will be plentiful, I'm sure -- and who knows, it might still do well -- but if it fails, my own opinion remains that it was done in by the sentiments identified in this article:

          "The creative choices made Tonto — one of the most famous sidekicks in the history of sidekicks — the centre of the movie, and demoted the white hero on his white horse into Tonto's less-skilled, less-bright, less-brave, less-everything sidekick," emails Paul Chaat Smith, the museum curator, after seeing the movie last week.
          Puke.

          Assuming that this assessment is true -- and I have no reason to believe that it is not -- then the filmmakers' error is glaring. In a vigilante/superhero film, the most basic and obvious thing you need to do is to make the title character awesome, and spare the ideological hand-wringing.

          People don't want to see a movie about a "less-skilled, less-bright, less-brave, less-everything sidekick." They want to see a movie about a character who's awesome. Imagine if they'd made Indiana Jones a "less-skilled, less-bright, less-brave, less-everything sidekick" to some other character: Raiders would have tanked.

          There are countless reasons why films fail, of course, but the fact that John Carter failed to make the John Carter character awesome, and Green Lantern failed to make Hal Jordan awesome (the movie should have been about Sinestro, the only awesome character in it), is no small reason for their failure; arguably, it's the primary factor.

          Comment


          • #35
            Re: The Lone Ranger

            Originally posted by moviefan View Post
            "From a film-industry standpoint, when you peel back the onion, you're not going to take a big risk on a big-production film that doesn't have a proven franchise," Pyykkonen said, especially in light of other recent bombs including "John Carter," ''Battleship" and "After Earth."

            "What's going to take a hit is creativity in Hollywood," Oldham said. "You're going to see more sequels and more remakes after these big bombs."
            Anyone else find it ironic that they're pointing to the failure of existing IP and brand names as a reason not to be creative and continue to reboot and remake yet had TLR romped it home it would have proved that making franchises of existing IP, rebooting and remaking, rather than being creative, is the way to go?

            Only in Hollywood.
            M.A.G.A.

            Comment


            • #36
              Re: The Lone Ranger

              Originally posted by karsten View Post
              The postmortems for this film will be plentiful, I'm sure -- and who knows, it might still do well -- but if it fails, my own opinion remains that it was done in by the sentiments identified in this article:

              Puke.

              Assuming that this assessment is true -- and I have no reason to believe that it is not -- then the filmmakers' error is glaring. In a vigilante/superhero film, the most basic and obvious thing you need to do is to make the title character awesome, and spare the ideological hand-wringing.

              People don't want to see a movie about a "less-skilled, less-bright, less-brave, less-everything sidekick." They want to see a movie about a character who's awesome. Imagine if they'd made Indiana Jones a "less-skilled, less-bright, less-brave, less-everything sidekick" to some other character: Raiders would have tanked.

              There are countless reasons why films fail, of course, but the fact that John Carter failed to make the John Carter character awesome, and Green Lantern failed to make Hal Jordan awesome (the movie should have been about Sinestro, the only awesome character in it), is no small reason for their failure; arguably, it's the primary factor.
              Two bad examples. Neither film's protagonist was a sidekick (and why should I watch a film about Sinestro? He's the bad guy). Hell, "Man Of Steel" had a slightly flawed Superman and the film made over $500 million worldwide. I don't mind a flawed hero, but don't reduce him to a second banana. This is what TLR did to boost Depp as a marketing ploy. They should have had him as Kemosabe and had the likes of Adam Beach as Tonto. Sadly and ultimately, an pretty much outdated character will be exiled to the indifference dept. of pop culture.
              "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

              "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: The Lone Ranger

                Originally posted by Madbandit View Post
                don't reduce him to a second banana. This is what TLR did to boost Depp as a marketing ploy.....an pretty much outdated character will be exiled to the indifference dept. of pop culture.
                The question is: if we all saw this coming, why didn't everyone attached to the film?
                M.A.G.A.

                Comment


                • #38
                  Re: The Lone Ranger

                  Originally posted by Madbandit View Post
                  Two bad examples. Neither film's protagonist was a sidekick (and why should I watch a film about Sinestro? He's the bad guy). Hell, "Man Of Steel" had a slightly flawed Superman and the film made over $500 million worldwide. I don't mind a flawed hero, but don't reduce him to a second banana. This is what TLR did to boost Depp as a marketing ploy. They should have had him as Kemosabe and had the likes of Adam Beach as Tonto. Sadly and ultimately, an pretty much outdated character will be exiled to the indifference dept. of pop culture.
                  Given my praise for Man of Steel, you know that I have nothing against flawed heroes per se. On the contrary, a character very obviously can be flawed (e.g., Dark Knight) and still be awesome. But it has to be the right kind of "flawed."

                  My concerns about this film is that they diminished the Lone Ranger character needlessly, for ideological reasons that have nothing to do with enjoyable narrative.

                  The examples that I gave stand because the issue is making a lead character someone with whom an audience member can experience some wish-fulfillment, vicarous enjoyment. Those films failed in that crucial regard.

                  The Lone Ranger is not "outdated," any more than any period hero might be (e.g., Indiana Jones). This was merely a wrong-headed approach to the character.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: The Lone Ranger

                    Originally posted by moviefan View Post
                    Intersting article about how The Lone Ranger's low box office may have a serious impact on future high budget films. I don't have the link but here's the full text:
                    If Pacific Rim does well, which I hope it does, then big budgeted movies might be saved. Disney is just ****ing up.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: The Lone Ranger

                      How many decades has it been since a big-budget movie set in the desert actually made money?

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Re: The Lone Ranger

                        Rango?
                        "Forget it, Jake. It's Hollywood."

                        My YouTube channel.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: The Lone Ranger

                          Originally posted by Biohazard View Post
                          How many decades has it been since a big-budget movie set in the desert actually made money?
                          Do the Mummy films count (1999 and 2001)?

                          Just my opinion, but I don't think the location caused the failure of this particular film.

                          On the other hand, I would agree that the arid environment hurt John Carter. If you look back at Princess of Mars paintings of past decades, most depict a mush more lush and exotic Mars than the inhospitable environment that the Disney film created. They should have strayed farther from "real" Mars" and embraced a more fantasy-based vision of Mars.

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                          • #43
                            Re: The Lone Ranger

                            Originally posted by Signal30 View Post
                            Rango?
                            And an award-winning animated film to boot!
                            "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

                            "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Re: The Lone Ranger

                              Originally posted by TBEagle View Post
                              If Pacific Rim does well, which I hope it does
                              Good god, no.
                              M.A.G.A.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: The Lone Ranger

                                Originally posted by karsten View Post
                                Given my praise for Man of Steel, you know that I have nothing against flawed heroes per se. On the contrary, a character very obviously can be flawed (e.g., Dark Knight) and still be awesome. But it has to be the right kind of "flawed."

                                My concerns about this film is that they diminished the Lone Ranger character needlessly, for ideological reasons that have nothing to do with enjoyable narrative.

                                The examples that I gave stand because the issue is making a lead character someone with whom an audience member can experience some wish-fulfillment, vicarous enjoyment. Those films failed in that crucial regard.

                                The Lone Ranger is not "outdated," any more than any period hero might be (e.g., Indiana Jones). This was merely a wrong-headed approach to the character.
                                Karsten, the WB/CW network aired a pilot featuring Kemosabe some years ago, and it was wrong for the targeted demographic.

                                It's funny you mentioned Indy because "Raiders" came out the same year the sad "Legend Of The Lone Ranger" did. That film had a LOT of problems, on set and off, and lost the opportunity to gain a new generation of fans. The more times change... yet the creator of TLR also gave the character's great-nephew, The Green Hornet.

                                Personally, I wouldn't mind leaping on Mars or having a power ring to create anything...
                                Last edited by Madbandit; 07-06-2013, 01:12 PM.
                                "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

                                "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

                                Comment

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