Gore Vebinski recently got a chance to talk to The LA Times about his upcoming film The Lone Ranger and how he envisions Johnny Depp to portray Tonto. The director, who will reunite with Johnny Depp for the fourth time, says we should not expect him to be a typical sidekick.
“The only version of The Lone Ranger I’m interested in doing is ‘Don Quixote’ told from Sancho Panza’s point of view,” Verbinski said Tuesday. “And hence I was honest early on with Johnny that Tonto is the part. We’re not going to do it [straight], everyone knows that story. I don’t want to tell that story.”
Verbinski spoke about how he would not make it a tribute to the character Fran Striker made famous over the radio in 1933, but rather cite Cervantes as the means of telling the story of The Lone Ranger. Verbinski adds that he is eager to put Depp into a character who could fight but is also a bit slippery compared to some of the boy-scout personalities around him.
“I want the version from the untrustworthy narrator who might be a little crazy — but somehow the question is, is he crazy or is the world crazy? That, I find fascinating.”
The director has said that once he is done promoting Rango, working on The Lone Ranger script is moving up on his list of priorities.
“It’s just at the primordial stage,” Verbinski said. “We’re working on the screenplay but if we can pull that off — find that story I want to tell — then it will be worth doing.”
It should be fun to see a different side of The Lone Ranger, I love the aspect of Sancho Panza’s point of view as being one of the driving forces in the film. For too long have we seen the world through the lead hero’s eyes, its about time we see what their cohort sees.
