Timothy Olyphant for The Lone Ranger?

We all know that Johnny Depp will be playing Tonto when Gore Verbinski shoots his adaptation of The Lone Ranger for Disney, but what we have yet to find out is who will play the popular cowboy riding side by side with Depp’s Tonto. Names that have been linked to the role are George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Well now, The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Verbinski, fresh off of promoting Rango, mentioned Timothy Olyphant as a candidate to play his version of The Lone Ranger. Verbinski says Olyphant, who voices The Spirit of the West in the animated western, is “right” for the role of “The Lone Ranger” and it “sounds like a good idea”.

When pressed if he has made up his mind on getting Olyphant on board Verbinski said, “It’s an odd couple, the two of them together. Getting that tone right is going to be a blast.” Verbinski also mentioned that he envisions a different perspective of the story than the usual way most of us have seen The Lone Ranger and Tonto dynamic.

“The only version of Lone Ranger I’m interested in doing is ‘Don Quixote’ told from Sancho Panza’s point of view. 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. 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. It’s just at the primordial stage. 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.”

Source: movies.ie