Hollywood press tours can be chaotic enough without a little extracurricular activity in the mix. But according to Armie Hammer, there was at least one junket where things went hilariously off the rails. In a recent Podcast episode, the actor shared a story from before the 2025 movie schedule, recalling how he was effectively banned from promotional appearances, likely for Disney’s The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp, after getting the Pirates of the Caribbean star “super stoned” before a press day.

On the July 28 episode of his Armie HammerTime podcast, the actor chatted with his assistant and cohost, Ashton Ramsey, about the “most trouble” he’d ever gotten into on a set. As Ramsey put it:

Ramsey teed up the story by calling it “the most trouble that you ever got into,” recalling that The Social Network actor had essentially gotten Depp “super stoned” before the day’s interviews. The Call Me By Your Name star said the incident had immediate consequences:

Hammer didn’t elaborate on how Depp reacted in the moment, but it’s not hard to imagine the studio wanting its leads alert and ready for hours of repetitive press questions.

The 38-year-old The Man from U.N.C.L.E. actor didn’t name the project outright, but the timing — along with multiple mentions of working with Depp during the same conversation — strongly suggests he was referring to 2013’s The Lone Ranger, available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. In that film, he and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory star shared top billing, and the Crisis actor recalled that during that period he was “smoking upwards of 15 to 20 joints a day” and often tried to get others just as high:

This isn’t the first eyebrow-raising headline for Armie Hammer, who’s weathered everything from highly controversial allegations — including claims of cannibalistic fantasies — to sexual assault accusations. However, those specific claims never led to legal action. He’s spoken openly about the heightened cannibal rumors, as well as revealing painful experiences with childhood sexual abuse and a past suicide attempt. These days, the Los Angeles-born performer says he can look back on that turbulent chapter with a bit more humor. And while the controversy left a lasting mark on his career, 2024 saw him start easing back into acting, with a new Western set to release later this year.

Whether or not The Lone Ranger press team truly had to keep its two stars on opposite sides of the junket schedule forever, the story now lives on as one of those only-in-Hollywood anecdotes, part cautionary tale, part comedy. It’s a reminder that even the most carefully managed movie campaigns can go sideways when off-screen chemistry turns into off-script behavior.

Armie Hammer’s first big-screen role post-controversy, Frontier Crucible with William H. Macy, does not yet have a set release date, but it wrapped in January, so it's safe to say that if it doesn't land this year, the 2026 movie schedule is a pretty safe bet.

In the more than 100 years that Walt Disney Company has been making films and television. They have created some of the most iconic heroes. in the history of cinema and every good hero needs a good sidekick. Unfortunately, not every great hero gets a great sidekick.

Some Disney sidekicks are incredible. They add something much needed that the hero lacks, making the team even better in the process. Sometimes, however, sidekicks are just annoying hangers-on that we could all do without. Here are some of the most annoying Disney sidekicks. 

Phil - Hercules

Following the success of Robin Williams as the Genie, hiring comedians to play wise-cracking sidekicks became the norm at Disney for a bit. Phil is a perfect character to be played by Danny DeVito, but he's not a great character for any Disney movie. He's rude and inappropriate and it seems like every time he has something to say it's not something you're going to want to hear.

Koda - Brother Bear

Koda is a young bear in Brother Bear who is accidentally adopted by the movie's protagonist. Koda is actually a tragic character and the entire movie is about setting up the little guy for heartbreak. Unfortunately, it doesn't land, in part because Koda never stops making a nuisance of himself. 

Sergeant Demetrio Lopez Garcia - Zorro

The overweight bumbling cop has become a trope that we've seen countless times, and it's never not annoying. Sergeant Garcia in Disney's old Zorro TV and films was just a guy doing what the powers that be told him, as he tried, and repeatedly failed, to capture Zorro. It's honestly a shock his superiors kept him around so long.

Tito - Oliver and Company

Cheech Marin is a great comedian but his performance as Tito in Oliver & Company is not one of his career highlights. Tito's continual attempts to flirt with Georgette the poodle, voiced by Bette Midler, just get frustrating and it's just not as funny as it might have looked on paper.

Gurgi - The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron was a massive Disney failure that is now a largely forgotten Disney movie. And that's a good thing because Gurgi, the small fuzzy creature with the world's most annoying voice, deserves to be forgotten. His voice and grammar are just two annoying things on top of each other. Even a heroic sacrifice doesn't save Gurgi, it would have been better if he'd stayed dead. 

The Gargoyles - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Gargoyles of The Hunchback of Notre Dame are mostly annoying because if the three comic relief characters were simply removed from the film, it would be a much better movie. Their humor is in direct contrast to the serious tone of the rest of the story that should have been embraced rather than trying to make it more "kid-friendly" with wise-cracking sidekicks.

HeiHei - Moana

HeiHei the rooster is barely a character. He nearly gets eaten by Dwayne Johnson's Maui, and that might have been a better fate. He's a largely unnecessary character and it's not clear why it was decided that the chicken got to go on the adventure while Pua the pig, who probably would have helped out more, had to stay home. 

Tinkerbell - Peter Pan

Tinkerbell is an iconic Disney character, so including her on a list of annoying sidekicks might seem strange, but she's actually sorta terrible. Tink is perpetually jealous of Wendy, and as a result, she's actually the cause of most of the terrible circumstances the rest of the characters have to endure. 

B.O.B. - The Black Hole

The Black Hole was Disney's answer to Star Wars and it has, fittingly, been relegated to a largely forgotten corner of history. B.O.B. was the movie's attempt to give us a C-3PO or R2-D2-like character, and while B.O.B. was well designed, the decision to have him voiced by Slim Pickens gives us a robot with a Southern twang which just never sounds right.

Abu - Aladdin

Abu isn't the worst sidekick in the world, but the little monkey can't even follow basic instructions. He was told not to touch any other treasure in the Cave of Wonders, but he didn't listen, and as a result, he almost killed himself and Aladdin. Bad movie monkey.

Launchpad Mc Quack - Ducktales And Darkwing Duck

Launchpad McQuack found himself a sidekick to both Scrooge McDuck on Ducktales and Darkwing Duck. How he got both gigs considering the one talent he purports to have, as a pilot, always results in a crash, is beyond me. He's just annoying for getting two shows when it would have been nice to do something different in one of them.

Major David Q. Dawson - The Great Mouse Detective

Dawson is basically the Watson to Basil of Baker Street's Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, Dawson comes from the Nigel Bruce school of "Watson is a big dumb idiot" which is the most annoying version of Watson there has ever been. Why would somebody as smart as Basil hang out with this guy?

Terk - Tarzan

To a certain extent, Terk in Disney's Tarzan is supposed to be annoying. She's like Tarzan's sister, and sisters can certainly be annoying. Unfortunately, maybe Rosie O'Donnell does her job too well because, in the end, she is so annoying you just want her to stop. 

Timon and Pumbaa - The Lion King

Before you break out the pitchforks and torches. This is not about Timon and Pumbaa from the original animated The Lion King, but specifically live-action remake, which is far from the best of Disney's live-action remakes. While the movie is technically impressive for the way it digitally recreates the animals, the characters largely add nothing new to the story, so they're annoying because you want to see something new happen here, and it never does. 

Le Fou - Beauty And The Beast

Beauty and the Beast is one of the best Disney animated movies, but that doesn't save it from having annoying sidekicks. Clearly, Le Fou hangs around Gaston because Gaston likes to have somebody this dumb around so he looks smarter. You want the little guy to wise up and realize that he's being mistreated, but he never does, which makes him all the more annoying. 

Archimedes - The Sword In The Stone

Archimedes is Merlin's pet owl in The Sword in the Stone. It's basically his job to spend the whole movie telling everybody else why they suck. He's a real stick in the mud, which is fine, but that's really all his character does for the entire film, and it gets old fast. 

Ben -Treasure Planet

Ben's saving grace in Treasure Planet, one of IDsney's biggest failures, is that he only appears near the end of the movie. If a character this loud and annoying, unlike any other character in the film, had been in more of the movie, Treasure Planet would have been worse for it.

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather - Sleeping Beauty

The three fairies of Sleeping Beauty spend more of the film's runtime bickering with each other than they do taking care of Aurora, which is supposed to be their job. It really makes one wonder if their plan to take Briar Rose away and hide her was even a good idea. Maybe they should have given the job to somebody else. 

Pintel and Ragetti - Pirates Of The Carribbean Franchise

You probably don't even remember the names of Pintel and Regetti, the pirate duo who work for Barbosa in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. They're fun and interesting in the first film, but their success brought them back again and again, and with each succeeding film it becomes clear nobody knows what to do with them. 

Anastasia And Drusella - Cinderella

Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother is a truly evil woman who does terrible things to the heroine of the film. Her daughters, however, seemingly learned nothing from her, as they are just spoiled brats. How even a mother could love their annoying behavior is a real question.

Zini - Dinosaur

Zini is the comic relief sidekick of Disney's Dinosaur. Why does a movie about dinosaurs trying to outrun their extinction have a comic relief character? The world will never know. The fact that the lemur best friend of protagonist Aladar is mostly concerned with getting a date, just makes the whole thing even more bizarre. 

Mushu - Mulan

Eddie Murphy does a fine job as the voice of Mushu. He's pretty funny a lot of the time, but he's also the cause of most of Mulan's problems, something that he eventually apologizes for, but never really learns from, making the fact that he ultimately gets what he wants really annoying. 

The Mad Hatter - Alice In Wonderland

Casting Johnny Depp in a live-action Alice in Wonderland is fine, deciding that, because you cast Johnny Depp, you must make the Mad Hatter a much bigger part of a movie where there's no reason for it, is less fine. Depp is so important to this movie and its sequel that he barely qualifies as a sidekick, which makes him an even more annoying sidekick. 

Mater - Cars Franchise

Honestly, Mater isn't that annoying in Cars. He grows on you and you find him lovable by the end, even if you don't at the beginning. What makes him ultimately annoying in Cars 2 is that he worked so well as a sidekick in the first movie, he got promoted to main character in the sequel, and that's where the wheels come off this tow truck. He should have remained a sidekick.

Gusgus - Cinderella

The mice in Cinderella are sort of all annoying because a great deal of the film's runtime is focused on them and not the title character. But Gusgus is the most annoying in the lot because his particular comedic focus is "being fat" which is far more annoying than funny.

Meeko And Flit - Pocahontas

Pocahontas has more than a few problems, but its animal sidekicks are certainly among them. Maybe if these were talking animals they'd be more interesting, but they largely exist to inject silly in what was supposed to be a much more serious movie.

Thumper - Bambi

Bambi was a revolutionary Disney movie when the studio produced it back in 1942. It's beautifully animated, with the scenes of nature as breathtaking as the real thing while the animation of animal characters was done with a level of perfection not previously seen by Disney or anybody else. And then Thumper has to get in there and be so loud all the time and just ruin the beauty of it. 

Cogsworth - Beauty and the Beast

Cogsworth is certainly supposed to be a bit annoying, as he plays against the easy-going Lumiere. He's basically your micromanaging boss if your boss was a bipedal clock. He does ultimately redeem himself by the end of the movie, but it takes a long time for him to get there as he's really annoying up until that point.

Tonto - The Lone Ranger

Disney's The Lone Ranger movie actually cast Johnny Depp as Tonto in a movie that came out in 2013. That's a thing that happened. Just because Johnny Depp wearing a funny hat in a Disney movie worked once, did not mean this was something we needed twice. It's an annoying performance that just never ends.

Bagheera - The Jungle Book

Bagheera means well. He's just trying to do right by Mowgli, but his "my way or the highway" style of parenting is going to be really annoying to anybody who has seen that not work, and it very much doesn't work in the movie either. 

Woola - John Carter

John Carter is one of the most expensive movies Disney has ever made. It's also one of its biggest live-action flops. None of that is Woola's fault. The movie has several problems that resulted in its failure, but the overly eager puppy dog that is actually a massive Martian monster certainly doesn't help matters.

Flounder - The Little Mermaid

Flounder seems like a really nice guy. He's friendly, and Ariel clearly likes him. The problem is that he doesn't do anything that's particularly useful for the entirety of The Little Mermaid, which makes him really annoying as his screen time could have been given to anything else and been better used.

Some of the sidekicks are useless, others are actually detriments to the hero and everything they're trying to accomplish, and still others are just people we don't want to listen to anymore. For every amazing Disney sidekick, there's an annoying one. And honestly, the heroes can do better.

A look back through the Academy Awards history shows that, in general, the Academy doesn’t make too many egregious mistakes. We all love to talk about Oscar snubs, and movies and performances that we think should have won, but even though they are far from perfect, usually the Academy doesn't nominate many truly bad movies. There are times, however, when the Academy goes off the rails. This is our list of the worst movies that have been nominated for Oscars. 

Batman Forever (1995)

For Batman Forever, Joel Schumaker took over as director in the 3rd film of the ‘90s Batman franchise from Tim Burton. Film critics and fans alike felt like the film was a big step back from the two previous, but it was still nominated for three Academy Awards. It lost Best Sound to Apollo 13, and lost both Best Cinematography and Sound Editing to Braveheart. 

102 Dalmatians (2000)

You can’t blame Disney for going back to well with 102 Dalmatians, after the huge success of 101 Dalmatians. The results were not good, however. The movie didn’t completely bomb at the box office, though it didn’t come close to its prequel’s numbers. Also unlike the first movie, it was a critical failure and it has not held up over time, at all. Still, it was nominated for Best Costume, which is not a ridiculous nomination, but it is a bad movie. It lost to Gladiator.

Norbit (2007)

Norbit provided Eddie Murphy with one in a string of Razzie nominations and awards when it came out in 2007 and with good reason, it’s terrible. Even Murphy recognizes that it is bad. Sure, the legendary funnyman plays multiple roles, naturally, but that doesn’t redeem the film. While Murphy wasn’t nominated for an award, his makeup artist, the legendary Rick Baker, was nominated. Though he lost to Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for La Vie en Rose.

The Sting II

The Sting II is one of the worst sequels of all time. It takes all the charm from the original movie and trashes it. The one redeeming thing about the movie is that it employed a similar score to the first, based on the ragtime music that was such a hit in the first movie. It was nominated for that score, written by the great Lalo Schifrin by lost to Yentl. 

Click (2008)

There are two types of people in this world, those who love Adam Sandler movies and those who don’t. For those that don’t, they will never understand how a movie like Click made over $200 million at the box office. They will also never understand how it was nominated for an Academy Award, but it was. It lost Best Makeup to Pan’s Labyrinth at the 2009 ceremony. It is, to date, the only Sandler movie to ever be nominated for an Oscar, which is a shame, because the actor really did deserve one for Uncut Gems. 

The Lone Ranger (2013)

2013’s The Lone Ranger with Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp was a disaster with critics and at the box office. There really isn’t a lot to praise about the movie, but it did pick up two nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Those aren’t egregious nominations, but still, it’s not a good movie. It lost to Gravity and Dallas Buyers Club, respectively. 

Pearl Harbor (2001) 

Leave it to Michael Bay to make a movie based on one of the most consequential events in world history, throw most of the actual history out, wedge in an ill-conceived love triangle, and release it on the unsuspecting public. Pearl Harbor is rightfully trashed for its poor telling of the story of the bombing, but hey, explosions! It was nominated for an astonishing four Oscars and won one! It won for Best Sound Editing and lost Best Visual Effects (Black Hawk Down), Best Song (“If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.”), and Best Visual Effects (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring).

The Boss Baby (2017)

The Boss Baby isn’t the worst movie on the list, but Academy Award nomination-worthy? C’mon! Sure, it’s cute, and Alec Baldwin voicing a baby in a suit is inherently at least a little funny, but it’s not high art or even mid-level art. It made a ton of money but lost Best Animated Feature Film to Coco.

Angela’s Ashes (1999)

The biggest sin Angela’s Ashes commits, if we’re honest, is that it doesn’t live up to the book by Frank McCourt that it’s based on. The performances by the actors are good, and the score by John Williams, for which it was nominated, is very good too. The movie just falls flat. It doesn’t have the “life” that the book has. John Williams has won five Oscars in his legendary career, but he lost this one to John Corigliano for The Red Violin.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

The first Poltergeist movie scared everyone. It holds a vaunted place in Horror movie history for good reason. Poltergeist II, on the other hand, didn’t and doesn’t. Still, like its predecessor, Poltergeist II was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 59th Academy Awards, losing to Aliens. 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Now it’s just getting ridiculous. With all apologies to people who actually enjoy the Transformer movies, even by that franchise’s low standards, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a terrible movie. It did garner a nomination, somehow, for Best Sound Mixing. Thankfully, it didn’t actually win anything, losing to The Hurt Locker. 

Cimarron (1931)

Generally thought of as one of the worst Best Picture winners of all time, Cimarron is a movie that simply hasn’t stood the test of time in any way. It’s most notable for being the first Western to ever win the award, and the only one to win for almost 60 years when Dances With Wolves won in 1990. It was also nominated for six other Oscars, winning an additional two. 

Alien 3 (1992)

David Fincher is well known for his distaste for Alien 3, his directorial debut. In the canon of the Alien franchise, it’s probably the worst of all the movies. Yet, it still managed to get nominated for an Oscar for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, losing to Death Becomes Her in what was admittedly a pretty thin year for the award. 

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Yes, wesa had to go there. There is no defense of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Of the nine movies that make up the core of the Star Wars franchise, The Phantom Menace is the worst. There can be no debate here. That said, it did set a new standard for CGI effects, for better or worse, and was rewarded with three nominations for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound. It lost all three to The Matrix. 

The Wiz (1978)

The Wiz, despite a surprisingly good performance by Micheal Jackson, is a bit of a rambling mess. Sure, many Gen Xers have fond memories of watching it on cable, but if you revisit it, it doesn’t hold up. It was nominated for four Oscars, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Score. It lost in all four categories. Luckily, there is a new version on Broadway, and who knows, maybe it will inspire a better film in the future. 

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

You may need to read this twice: Fifty Shades of Grey is an Oscar-nominated film. More of a phenomenon than a good story, the book Fifty Shades of Grey took the world by storm and of course, Hollywood had to adapt it. But it’s a silly story, and it’s a bad movie. Still, the Weeknd was nominated for Best Song for “Earned It”, but lost to Sam Smith’s "Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre, which isn’t even the best Bond theme of the Daniel Craig era. 

Flashdance (1983)

Flashdance is certainly a relic of its time in the early 1980s. Part music video, part movie, it’s really remembered more for its soundtrack than anything that happens in the movie. That’s because it’s not really a good movie. The dance sequences are great and Jennifer Beals' performance is great, but the story is…kinda boring. Appropriately, the one nomination it did receive was for Best Song for “Flashdance... What a Feeling” by Irene Cara. It won. 

Country Strong (2010)

Remember that time Gwyneth Paltrow fancied herself a country singer? The truth is, she actually did a pretty great job in Country Strong, but her singing didn’t save this bad movie. One of those songs, "Coming Home"  was nominated for Best Song, however. It lost to “We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3.

Blonde (2022)

Ana De Armas’ performance as Marilyn Monroe deserves all the praise and nominations she received for it, but that doesn’t mean Blonde is a good movie. It’s a weird movie, to be sure, and it’s a bad movie. Despite that, De Armas did get nominated for Best Actress, as she should have been. She lost to Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Suicide Squad (2016)

It’s a little mindboggling that 2016’s Suicide Squad was nominated for as many awards as it was since it’s a pretty weak movie in the grand scheme of things. Sure, Margot Robbie is great as Harley Quinn and has reprised the role multiple times since and the music is great. So was the hair and makeup, according to the Academy, which bestowed an Oscar on the film in 2017 for it. 

W.E. (2011)

Did you forget that Madonna had a moment around 2010 when she tried her hand at film direction? The Material Girl didn’t exactly kill it in her two attempts, but the second, W.E., which wasn’t a good movie, did earn a nomination for costume designer Arianne Phillips, but lost to Mark Bridges for The Artist.

Vice (2018)

Let’s just get this out of the way – Christian Bale and Sam Rockwell are fantastic as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, respectively. Both were rightly nominated for acting awards for the film, as was Amy Adams. The film garnered a total of eight nominations in 2019, winning for best hair and makeup. The movie, despite all the awards, just doesn’t hold up. 

Thank God It's Friday (1978)

Thank God It's Friday is really just one big commercial for an admittedly great soundtrack. Riding on the heels of the monster success of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, Thank God It's Friday features “Last Dance”, the Donna Summer disco banger that was nominated for, and won, the Oscar for Best Song. But just listen to the song, and don’t bother with the movie. 

The Swarm (1978)

When you have a cast that includes some of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time, including Michael Caine, Fred McMurray, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, and many others, you’d think you’d have a hit. Instead, it’s a movie about a swarm of bees terrifying those legends and is one of the worst movies ever made. It didn’t wasn’t a hit, but it did receive a nomination for Best Costume Design, losing to Death on the Nile.

Patch Adams (1998)

Patch Adams is a blockbuster that actually sucks. Somehow it still was nominated for Best Original Score, which is about all that can said for it. It lost to Shakespeare in Love. Okay, Robin Williams was pretty good too. 

The Affair of the Necklace (2001)

Anytime a movie makes less than $1 million on a $30 million budget, it’s easy to see why no one remembers it. The French Revolution-era film starring Hilary Swank is totally forgettable, but was nominated for Best Costume Design, losing to Moulin Rouge!

Hollow Man (2000)

Paul Verhoeven’s take on The Invisible Man, Hollow Man starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue chased the director out of Hollywood for years, and he himself didn’t even like it. It was good enough to earn a nomination for its special effects but lost to Gladiator in 2001.

The Blind Side (2009)

Even before the recent controversy over The Blind Side, it wasn’t a very good adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book. Sandra Bullock is a bright spot and for that, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her performance is not enough to save the movie, especially now after we’ve learned that the film’s subject, Michael Oher, says that he was cut out of the earnings. 

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

Anchors Aweigh is a movie of its time and place. It was released just a few weeks before the end of World War II, with patriotism at a fever pitch in the U.S. Linking Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly together in a musical about the U.S. Navy was a surefire way to produce a hit. It was a hit, garnering five Oscar nominations and winning for Best Score. But in the 21st Century, it’s just dated and silly. 

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas is really only notable for Jim Carrey’s charm and its makeup and costumes. The movie won Best Makeup, which makes sense, and was nominated for two other awards. Still, it’s best to just stick with the cartoon from the 1960s. 

Dr. Doolittle (1967)

Dr. Doolittle is a charming movie for kids, but it’s not a great movie beyond that. It’s also quite dated. It’s one of the weakest movies to ever be nominated for Best Picture, plus it was nominated for an astounding eight other Oscars! It lost Best Picture to In the Heat of the Night, thankfully. 

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Okay, so The Godfather Part III’s only real crime is that it isn’t anywhere close to as good as the two legendary Godfather movies that preceded it. Is it the worst movie on the list? Of course not, but it still grabbed its nominations based on its lineage, not its merits. 

So there is it, our list of movies that really had no business being able to call themselves Oscar-nominated films. 

Tragedy can strike anywhere, even in Hollywood. In fact, it sometimes happens on film sets. Even though all sets have serious safety precautions in place, horrible accidents still happen and sometimes actors, crew members, or both, are killed. Here is our list of some of those tragic stories when people died on a film set.  

These entries are hard to read, but it is important to remember the victims who died doing the work that they loved and dedicated their lives to. 

Rust

The most notable death in recent years on a movie set is, of course, the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. Hutchins was killed when actor Alec Baldwin fired what he thought was a prop gun at the camera. Tragically the gun was real and fired a single projectile. Hutchins was shot in the chest and the bullet traveled through her and director Joel Souza was struck in the shoulder. Despite life-saving efforts, Hutchins was killed. 

Deadpool 2

Stunt performers are always at risk on film sets. The brave men and women who fill in for the stars on stunts put their lives on the line all the time, sometimes with tragic consequences. For Joi “SJ” Harris, this was the case while filming Deadpool 2. Harris was doubling for Zazie Beetz in a motorcycle chase scene when she lost control and crashed. The crash killed her. 

The Right Stuff

Stuntman Joseph Leonard Svec, a military veteran and skilled parachutist was killed performing a jump during the filming of The Right Stuff in 1983. Part of the stunt involved smoke, and Svec was rendered unconscious by it. He failed to open his chute and was killed when he hit the ground. 

American Made

Tom Cruise is famous for doing his own stunts, but during the filming of American Made, it was stunt pilot Alan D. Purwin, and his co-pilot Carlos Berl who were killed in a plane crash as they were returning to an airport after filming concluded. 

Blade Runner 2049

Construction sites anywhere are dangerous, and film sets are no exception. In 2016, while breaking down a soundstage used for Blade Runner 2049 in Hungry, a construction worker was killed when the stage collapsed on him. 

The Expendables 2

The Expendables franchise is known for its over-the-top stunts, explosions, and action sequences. It was just such a sequence during the shooting of The Expendables 2 that killed a stuntman and critically injured another. While the second unit was filming an explosion, stuntman Kun Lieu was killed and fellow performer Nuo Sun was hospitalized after something went wrong and they were too close to the pyrotechnics. 

The Dark Knight

Director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy has some of the best action sequences ever put to film, but sadly, one of those scenes came at a deadly cost. While filming a car chase scene for The Dark Knight, cameraman Conway Wickliffe was killed when the SUV he was filming crashed into a tree. 

XXX

Vin Diesel did a lot of his own stunts in XXX, but one he didn't do had tragic consequences. Stuntman Harry O'Connor was killed while doing a second take for the parasailing stunt on a river in Prague. O'Connor struck a pillar on a bridge over the river and died, but he did successfully complete the stunt on the first take, which was used in the movie. XXX is dedicated to O'Connor. 

Proof Of Life

Actor David Morse was lucky, but, unfortunately, his stand-in, Will Gaffney, was not. In a scene Morse was scheduled to film, a truck Gaffney was riding in went over the edge of a cliff while filming Proof of Life in Ecuador. Morse had left the production for a few days to visit his dying stepfather when the accident occurred. Morse praised Gaffney and his family and the film was dedicated to the young stand-in. 

Top Gun

Stunt pilot Art Scholl was one of the best in business when he signed on to work as a pilot and cameraman for Top Gun. While filming a "flat spin" scene in the movie, he lost control and his plane crashed into the ocean. Scholl's body was never recovered and the film is dedicated to him. Sadly, it was a case of life imitating art, as it was the same kind of spin that killed Goose (Anthony Edwards) in the movie. 

The Bodyguard

Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner's movie, The Bodyguard was an enormous hit, helped by the huge success of the song "I Will Always Love You" from the movie's soundtrack. Production came at a cost, however, as a crew member was killed during the filming when he was crushed between two lighting cranes. 

Gone In 60 Seconds 2 (1989)

1974's Gone In 60 Seconds is a b-movie cult classic. It inspired the 2000 remake starring Nicolas Cage, but the director and creative force behind it, Toby Halicki was tragically killed filming a sequel in 1989. Halicki was killed filming a dramatic stunt in the movie when a telephone pole fell on him, crushing him. The sequel was never completed, but his widow was a producer on the Cage-led remake.

Red Heat

Director and stuntman Bennie Dobbins was an accomplish stunt coordinator with big credits to his name, including The Running Man and Commando. It was on another Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Red Heat, that Dobbins died after suffering a heart attack while filming in Austria at age 55. 

Twilight Zone: The Movie

One of the most infamous on-set deaths happened during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Actor Vic Morrow and the two child actors he was working with, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were killed when a helicopter stunt went wrong and the helicopter crashed on top of them. Director John Landis and other members of the crew were charged with involuntary manslaughter but were acquitted at trial. Like other films on this list, production continued despite the deaths.

The Squeeze

The Squeeze is justifiably not remembered as one of Michael Keaton's best films. It's not a very good movie, and worse, it's most infamous today because of the death of stuntman Victor Magnotta, who was killed performing a car crash into the Hudson River. Magnotta was trapped in the car underwater and drowned. 

Rambo: First Blood Part II

The Rambo franchise has produced a fair amount of injuries throughout the years, but in one case, a special effects specialist was killed. Clifford Wenger was an industry veteran, but in a effect gone wrong, he was tragically killed while filming Rambo: First Blood Part II. During an explosion, he lost his footing and fell into the water in Mexico where he was submerged for five minutes before the crew could get to him. 

For Your Eyes Only

Even the James Bond series isn't immune to tragedy. While filming For Your Eyes Only, during one of the most exciting sequences in the movie, a bobsled being driven by stuntman Paolo Rigon overturned on the track with Rigon trapped underneath. Rigon succumbed to his injuries. 

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora! tells the dramatic story of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. While rehearsing, pilot Guy Thomas Strong was killed when his plane crashed as he and other pilots depicted the Japanese raid. His plane dove nose-first into a sugar cane plane. 

Catch-22

Second unit director John Jordan was a daring filmmaker. While filming You Only Live Twice, Jordan lost a foot when he lost his footing and it fell into the rotors of a helicopter during the famous "Little Nellie" scene. Undeterred, he was again filming a flying sequence for Catch-22 when he fell out of the airplane he was filming from. 

Hell's Angels

Howard Hughes' epic 1930 film Hell's Angels was groundbreaking. It was, in a way, the first action movie. Production, however, was dangerous. In a time before there were many rules and laws around this kind of thing, it seems like the production flew very much by seat of it's pants and as a result, three pilots were killed in the filming, and Hughes himself sustained serious injuries when a plane he was flying crashed. 

The Crow

Brandon Lee's death while filming The Crow is possibly the most notorious of all time. Lee, son of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, was killed when a projectile was fired from a weapon on set at the actor. Because the gun was not properly loaded in rehearsal, a bullet was stuck in the barrel of the weapon and when a blank was fired, it pushed the stuck bullet through the barrel and into Lee's stomach, killing him shortly after. 

Vampire In Brooklyn

The Eddie Murphy movie Vampire in Brooklyn is not one of the comedian's finest movies, nor was the production of it, either. In one of the more terrifying examples on this list, stuntwoman Sonja Davis fell 42 feet to her death in a falling stunt gone wrong. According to a lawsuit filed by Davis' mother, the airbag Davis was supposed to land on actually made her bounce high in the air, slam into the building she was falling from, and land back on the ground, killing her. 

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

No one would expect a death on a movie set, but especially not a movie about the life of Mr. Rogers. Still, soundman James Emswiller died during the production of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood when he had a heart attack and fell off a balcony during filming. 

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter sounds like it had a total nightmare of a production. First, stuntwoman Olivia Jackson was almost killed in a motorcycle stunt gone wrong, and then Ricardo Cornelius was crushed and killed by a Humvee later in production. 

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger was not a great movie, though at least it was saved by its ending. Sadly, one person died while the film was in production. A diver named Michael Bridger suffered a heart attack and drowned while cleaning a large water tank that was used for filming. 

Midnight Rider: The Gregg Allman Story

Sarah Jones was working as a second unit camera operator on the production of Midnight Rider: The Gregg Allman Story when she was struck and killed by a freight train on a train trestle in 2014. Other crew members were also injured in the accident. The film's director, Randall Miller, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison because of the accident. A producer was also convicted. The silver lining to come out of this horrendous accident is the Safety For Sarah movement, which has highlighted the dangers some crew members face on film sets. The film was never finished. 

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

A crew member helping strike a set for G.I. Joe: Retaliation was killed when the scissor lift he was working on tipped over and caused his death. Yet another example of how things one wouldn't think would be all that dangerous can turn deadly in a hurry. 

Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection

In the '80s, Chuck Norris made a whole bunch of B action movies, including Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection. Tragedy struck the production when a helicopter carrying crew members crashed, killing all five on board. 

Fitzcarraldo

There may be more notorious a production than director Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. The film has become more legendary for the insane stories about the filming than for the movie itself. Numerous injuries occurred during the filming, and one indigenous man was killed when he drowned. 

The Sword And The Sorcerer

1982's The Sword and the Sorcerer has become a cult classic over the years, and even in its time was one of the most profitable films of the year. Shot on a shoestring budget, it sadly had deadly consequences when a stuntman named Jack Tyree performed a fall from an 80-foot cliff in Los Angeles but missed the airbag and was killed. 

The Final Season

2007's The Final Season, starring Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, and Rachel Leigh Cook, is a feel-good story about a high school baseball team. Sadly, during filming, cameraman Roland Schlotzhauer was killed while shooting aerial shots for the film. The pilot and a producer were injured in the accident but recovered. 

Braddock: Missing In Action III

Chuck Norris' Missing In Action franchise was a staple on late-night cable in the 1980s, but it came with a tragic backstory for Braddock: Missing in Action III. While filming in the Philippines, four crew members were killed in a helicopter crash. 

Stunt performers and other crew members generally operate in safe conditions and take their safety very seriously. Sometimes, however, things go wrong. We can only hope that all these tragic deaths can teach the industry how to be safer on set. It's also long past time that stunt performers get their own category at the Oscars, as many have called for, for years. 

As much as I do still enjoy watching the best superhero movies, there have been plenty of times, especially recently, when I felt we have seen too many reboots of the same comic book characters. However, on the flip side, there are many comic book characters whom I believe we have not seen enough of, as they remain stuck with just one ill-fated or unfairly overlooked big screen adaptation.

I thought of several comic books movies, and one wholly original superhero flick, that are not exactly classics, but have the potential to be iconic if they were reintroduced or reimagined for a new audience. Maybe one day our list of upcoming superhero movies will include new takes on some of the following titles.

Dick Tracy (1990)

Director Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, which also stars Beatty in the title role, is not a film we would call particularly “underrated” — even if it was previously misconceived as a flop — and one we actually would call a classic, especially for its stunning, visually accurate recreation of Chester Gould’s detective comic strip — a concept predating Sin City’s stunning production design. 

However, the Oscar-winning crime thriller — also starring Al Pacino and Madonna — is the last we have seen of the 1930s gumshoe on screen, but Beatty would tease that the character’s return is imminent as recently as 2023, as reported by Den of Geek, which we hope means soon. 

The Shadow (1994)

Another bizarre, 1930s-set crime drama from the early ‘90s (that was comparatively less successful, however) was The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin as a man who fights evil with supernatural abilities, including invisibility and telekinetic manipulation. As the star of his own comic book, a popular radio program, and various film serials, there is plenty of source material to base a new movie off of this mysterious vigilante, who was, apparently, a large influence on Batman’s creation. Could Sam Raimi’s cancelled reboot have been the last chance to see the characters' return to the big screen? Only The Shadow knows.

The Phantom (1996)

Yet another iconic pulp hero character who inspired a not-so-well-received, 1930s-set adventure film in the '90s was The Phantom — a name passed down between several generations of lone avengers in a purple costume, but worn by Billy Zane’s Kit Walker in director Simon Wincer’s adaptation, which also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones. The property was recently revamped as a modern-day miniseries that aired on Syfy in 2009, but I think there is room for another reimagining on the big screen if put in the hands of the right writer, director, and, especially, costume designer.

Barb Wire (1996)

According to Hulu’s biographical miniseries, Pam and Tommy, what sealed Barb Wire’s downfall was a leaked sex tape featuring star Pamela Anderson and then-husband, Tommy Lee, that placed the couple under heavy scrutiny. 

However, it also could have something to do critics like Roger Ebert panning it for shamelessly ripping off the plot of Casablanca, but adding Mad Max-style action and suggestive leather clothing. Regardless, the titular, dystopian bounty hunter from Dark Horse comics does not deserve to live in such infamy and, with female-driven superhero movies being more popular and acclaimed than ever, now is the time to give her another shot.

Steel (1997)

Another comic book character who deserves another chance on the big screen is DC’s John Henry Irons, whose origin as Superman’s successor and eventual ally was thrown aside when Shaquille O’Neal portrayed him in a cheap-looking suit of armor in Steel. While Wolé Parks' performance on Superman & Lois is certainly an improvement, it has not helped people forget about what is still considered an endurably infamous low point for the genre. If there are not any openings for the Superman: Legacy cast, hopefully James Gunn and Peter Safran at least keep a spot in the DCU’s future open for Steel’s cinematic return at some point.

Mystery Men (1999)

There are a few relatively underrated superhero movies on this list, but few that deserve to be revisited more (in my humble opinion) than the sharp, star-studded satire, Mystery Men, which I am convinced would have been a bigger hit if it came out at a time when comic book flicks were more prominent, like… now. 

Thus, I think fans of this quirky, action-packed comedy should start a movement to ensure it be reimagined, perhaps as a more faithful adaptation of the comic that inspired it — led by a man with a flaming carrot for a head, as Syfy recalls — and even one that goes darker when it takes shots at superhero tropes.

Painkiller Jane (2005)

Originally created for Event Comics by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada in 1995, indestructible cop-turned-vigilante Jane Vasko has been portrayed twice on television: first in a Syfy original movie starring Emmanuelle Vaugier (depicted as a soldier named Jane Browning, for some reason), and later by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines star Kristanna Loken on a short-lived series that also aired on Syfy. 

Unfortunately, Painkiller Jane still has yet to earn a more profound spot in the pop culture zeitgeist, which could be easily fixed if Hollywood gave her a big screen platform to show-off her deliciously devil-may-care attitude and intimidating brand of justice.

The Spirit (2008)

With co-director Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller brought the aforementioned Sin City to life with stunning visuals that made it one of the best movies of the 2000s, but when he used the same technique for his adaptation of Will Eisner’s influential noir comic strip, The Spirit, he forgot to add a comprehensible narrative and compelling characters. 

However, the titular, ghost-like vigilante (Gabriel Macht) is, himself, a compelling character with an intriguing backstory that, if put in the right hands, could be translated well to the screen. Hopefully, audiences would be willing to be open-minded to the idea of revisiting the material.

Jonah Hex (2010)

Another example of a DC character whom you could say was redeemed on TV is Jonah Hex, whose portrayal by Johnathan Schaech on Legends of Tomorrow is considered an improvement on Josh Brolin’s performance in his own feature-length debut — including by Brolin himself, probably. Yet, the story of this badly scarred, Confederate Solider-turned-bounty-hunter with a gift for speaking to the dead most definitely has the potential to inspire truly a badass big screen western.

Dylan Dog: Dead Of Night (2011)

In between Superman Returns star Brandon Routh’s own redemption moments in the Scott Pilgrim cast, as The Atom on Legends of Tomorrow, and the Kingdom Come version of Clark Kent in the Crisis of Infinite Earths crossover event, he tried his had at an entirely different kind of comic book character by playing the title role of Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. 

Unfortunately, the adaptation of Tiziano Sclavi’s paranormal detective series has suffered from poor reviews, low box office returns, and a failure to outgrow its obscurity since. Perhaps a darker, more faithfully surreal approach to the source material would help Dylan Dog take a bigger bite out of the zeitgeist.

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Perhaps the most iconic and easily recognizable hero on this list is The Lone Ranger, who originated from radio serials in the 1930s and whose most recent big screen adventure is not remembered fondly for multiple reasons — its star, Armie Hammer, being one of them. I have no doubt there are still audiences itching for another adventure starring John Reid, Tonto, and his horse, Silver, and would love to see that wish be granted. 

The Meteor Man (1993)

A film that I believe is one of the best superhero movies not based on a comic (but was eventually adapted to ink for Marvel) is The Meteor Man — writer, producer, director, and star Robert Townsend’s dramedy about a schoolteacher who becomes a hero to his crime-ridden neighborhood, after a glowing green space rock’s strike gives him amazing powers.

Also featuring future Marvel star Don Cheadle in an early role, this funny, thought-provoking depiction of inner-city life with a sci-fi twist deserves to be seen by modern audiences, and since it is impossible find on streaming right now, an MCU reboot might do the trick.

If the campy cult favorite, The Toxic Avenger, can make a comeback in the upcoming Peter Dinklage-led remake, then any of these forgotten films can and should be able to do the same. 

It’s hard to stick the landing. The thing that people will remember most after they watch a movie is the ending, so making that ending work is just about the most important thing there is. Even if the rest if your story is perfect, if the ending leaves people unsatisfied, it can tarnish the entire project.

Then there are the movies that go the other direction. Sometimes a movie is, overall, honestly not that great, yet somehow, when it comes to act three, it pulls it out of the fire. In most cases, this probably doesn’t save the movie; it's still bad, but it still has value as a movie with an incredible finale. Here are some examples of bad movies with amazing endings. 

Before going further, it's important to note that we're staying away from twist endings here, as they can frequently change one's perspective on an entire film and make us see "bad" parts in a different light. in this case, we're talking about movies that are still mostly bad when the credits role, even though the ending was surprisingly good.

The Lone Ranger

On paper, it's easy to see why The Lone Ranger was a popular idea. The director of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie returns and re-teams with Johnny Depp for another pulp adventure, this time swapping pirates for cowboys. Unfortunately, this time Depp's antics get the better of him and he draws the wrong sort of attention away from the titular hero. Of course, the movie has other issues as well. 

And then that music starts and everything changes. When the "William Tell Overture" begins to play and the Lone Ranger goes racing for that train, the movie shifts into the adventure it's been trying to be. The ending is so good it makes the rest of the movie's issues that much more frustrating. The Lone Ranger even ends with some surprising emotional resonance as we watch an elder Tonto walk slowly off into the distance for the entirety of the credits. 

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

At this point, little needs to be said about the Star Wars prequels. While they've received somewhat of a reevaluation in recent years, it's hard to argue the movies are great. The first two-thirds of The Phantom Menace seem to have little going for them except for the cool digital effects of a pod race sequence.

But we all love "The Duel of the Fates," don't we? From the moment Darth Maul comes face-to-face with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, we get what is generally considered the best lightsaber battle in the entire franchise. John Williams music adds that extra bit of emotion, as it nearly always does. The only problem with the ending is that it isn't just this fight, but it's easy to overlook the rest because this sequence is so good.

Monsters University

It's hard to say that any Pixar movie is truly bad, but Monsters University is one of the studio's entries that you've likely largely forgotten about. While seeing Mike and Sully together on the screen after Monsters Inc. has its charm, it's just difficult to understand while watching it why this was a Pixar prequel worth making.

But it is, because the ending is the point. When Mike is forced to face the fact that he's not the monster that he's always wanted to be, it is absolutely heartbreaking. That emotional resonance that Pixar is so known for comes through despite everything that came before, and because it does, the rest of the movie flies by on the power of this sequence.

Godzilla (2014)

When we go to see a Godzilla movie, then we're expecting a Godzilla movie. In other words, we want to see the giant monster destroying things. If we're going to focus the story more on human characters, then it should be their reaction or response to Godzilla that we're dealing with for the most part. Unfortunately, none of that is the story we get for most of 2014's Godzilla, and the title character is barely in the movie. This was clearly an attempt to pull a Jaws by keeping the monster hidden, but it just doesn't work here 

But we know that the movie is building up to a giant monster fight, and at the very least, when we get there, the fight does not disappoint. It's complete kaiju madness, and at this point it's all anybody remembers from that movie.

Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines

The first Terminator is an iconic film, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day is even better. But after that, the Terminator franchise fell off a cliff, and it started with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Whatever magic the first two installments had is missing here. 

However, when it comes down to the end, T3 makes itself memorable by going where the previous films were unable or unwilling to go and finally giving us Judgement Day. Perhaps it's because the end is so unexpected that it works so well, but the conclusion is memorable, and in a good way.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is one of those movies that has obtained cult status as one of the most hilarious, and insane, of Will Ferrell's comedies. It's a movie that didn't really need a sequel, but if it was going to get one, there would be an audience for it. However, while the movie isn't without its moments, most would agree the sequel didn't quite live up to the "legend."

That is, until the end, when Anchorman 2 gives us the the local news brawl to end all local news brawls. Every time you think the movie has run out of characters and cameos to include, another group shows up to add to the mess. The sequence goes so far overboard it's impressive.

A bad ending can ruin an otherwise good movie. Antithetically, a great ending rarely saves a bad film. If you agree that these movies are bad outside of their ending, you likely wouldn't love to watch the whole movie again. If, however, you found these on streaming, you might skip ahead just to re-experience the great ending one more time. 

Disney is one of the best studios when it comes to making film franchises. It's remarkable how many of the studio's properties has seen at least one sequel, and how many of those have been remade over the years. There are more Flubber and Love Bug movies than you probably think and let's not even talk about how many damn Air Bud films there are in the universe. Even these relatively small ideas became bigger franchises over time. Sometimes these franchises come to be because of the success of the first film, but frequently studios go into a project expecting to make more. From the moment Disney added a subtitle to the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, it was clear it smelled a franchise.

However, even the best get it wrong once in a while. Sometimes the franchise idea doesn't work out. There have clearly been times when Disney thought they had the next best movie property, but instead, just had a movie, and a less than successful one at that. Here are five examples of franchises that even the all-powerful Walt Disney Company couldn't make happen.

The Lone Ranger

How more clear could it possibly have been at the beginning that Disney had big plans for The Lone Ranger. The film brought together the writers, director and star of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for another action adventure summer blockbuster that simply swapped out the classic pirate archetype for the American cowboy. Also, like the Pirates movies, it was all based on a property people had at least heard of before.

In the end, The Lone Ranger was evidence that making lightning strike twice isn't easy. The movie was incredibly expensive to produce and thus, it struggled financially from the outset. There are many potential reasons for this. Johnny Depp's over-the-top performance as Tonto is one. The hit-and-miss nature of the modern western is another. The fact that The Lone Ranger, as a name, simply doesn't resonate the way it once did may be the biggest factor. I didn't actually think this movie was as bad as many did. The climactic action sequence on the train is actually really good. But there certainly wasn't enough interest to make a sequel ever happen.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Lone Ranger thing really should never have happened because Disney should have learned that lesson years earlier. Back in 2010 the studio took the director and the star of the popular National Treasure movies and brought them back to make a film based on another well-known character, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. While the movie has essentially nothing to do with the segment from Fantasia that Disney fans know, save one scene involving brooms, it was an attempt to turn that name into a new action franchise.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice wants to be a franchise so badly it even has a post-credits scene to help set up the future installments that would never happen. 2010 seems to be about the point when Nicolas Cage started to make a transition from Hollywood headliner to "slightly crazy dude that will star in almost anything." Whether The Sorcerer's Apprentice lack of box office reception was a cause or an effect of this change isn't really clear. In the end, the movie just wasn't very engaging and it's certainly not the kind of movie that leaves you wanting more.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Generally speaking, if you give your movie a subtitle, and it's not a sequel itself, then it's because you expect to be making other films of the same title in the future. The fact that this movie was based on the video game reboot, titled The Sands of Time and not the original Prince of Persia video game from the 1980s is really irrelevant to your movie.

If you remember at all that somebody made a movie based on the Prince of Persia video game series, you still may not remember that the film was made by Disney. While it's actually one of the better film adaptations of a video game, it certainly didn't attract enough interest to greenlight another movie. Maybe it's because they cast Jake Gyllenhaal as a guy who was supposed to Persian? The film had Disney's worst Memorial Day Weekend box office total to date, and that doesn't get you sequels.

Tomorrowland

While Disney's success turning theme park attractions into successful movies basically starts and ends with the Pirates of the Caribbean series, there has been no end of attempts to make the theme park successful fodder for the movies. Such was the case when Tomorrowland hit the screen.

While Tomorrowland had a familiar name, it was essentially an original project as the area at Disneyland and Walt Disney World from which it takes its name doesn't have a story of its own. It starred Britt Robertson and George Clooney and imagined a progressive and futuristic city where all of the world's greatest minds could work together for the betterment of all.

The film was inspired by the futurist ideas of Walt Disney that were exemplified by his creation of Tomorrowland, but the future for the movie itself would be far less optimistic.

John Carter

A corollary to the above rule about putting subtitles in your movies is that if you're making a movie based on the first book of a long-running series, you're probably at least aware of the possibility that you might make the other books into movies too. You don't turn Princess of Mars into John Carter, thinking you won't continue the story.

I actually like John Carter and wish that the film had done well enough to warrant those sequels, but I'm in the minority in this. While Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars books are some of the most popular science fiction stories of their era, the fact is that they're just not super popular today, and a movie with the utterly boring title of John Carter isn't going to draw in those who aren't familiar with them.

John Carter wasn't even a terrible flop, making nearly $300 million around the world. If it hadn't cost so much to make we might have still seen this franchise be born, and there have even been rumblings something could happen with it, but I'm not holding my breath.

The production budgets for Hollywood blockbusters have skyrocketed in recent years, which makes sense when you consider what goes into making a movie like Justice League or Avengers: Infinity War. That said, some big summer movies have racked up some pretty insane expenses, such as Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger reboot, which came out back in 2013. According to the film's star Armie Hammer, The Lone Ranger even spent a portion of its budget on a yo-yo world champion who was hired to accomplish just one trick with a pocket watch. The Call Me By Your Name star explained:

So even though Tom Wilkinson picked up the trick pretty quickly, the folks at Disney had signed him on and had to keep paying to keep the yo-yo champion around for the duration of the shoot. It likely didn't seem like a big deal at the time of production, mainly when explosions and massive set pieces were eating up the budget much more quickly, but the guy did one quick task and was signed on for the duration of the entire production. It makes it easy to see how movies sometimes lose money even when they make a decent amount at the box office.

During his THR roundtable with other industry heavy-hitters, Armie Hammer did not provide the exact price range to keep a world champion of yo-yo on retainer for a big budget Hollywood movie, but we do know that it only adds to an already staggering figure. The Lone Ranger cost a whopping $215 million for Disney to make, and it just grossed $260 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Considering advertising and other costs that come after the production, that is generally considered a box office flop, as well as a perfect reminder that a high production cost will often eat into a potential blockbuster's bottom line.

The poor box office performance for The Lone Ranger ultimately had a significant impact on the overarching direction of Armie Hammer's career. After taking aim at the way critics treated the film upon its release, Hammer moved on to smaller projects like Free Fire and Call Me By Your Name. The almost-Batman actor has a fascinatingly bizarre history with big-budget movies, but his more intimate work seems to be paying off now with awards consideration and avalanches of critical praise.

Given the fact that it does not look like we will get to see a second Lone Ranger anytime soon, I guess we can all look back on that pocket watch trick fondly as a standout moment from Gore Verbinski's 2013 reboot. As for Armie Hammer, you can currently catch him in award contender Call Me By Your Name, which is now in theaters.

Conventional wisdom states that if you want to start a franchise, you have to give the people what they want. In some cases, like Marvel's Cinematic Universe, this has more or less been met with exactly what folks wanted at the multiplexes. But in other cases, such as the DC Extended Universe, it's been a rockier road to such a level of success.

And then there are the honored dead, who had high hopes and a gleam in their eyes, only to stumble down upon the starting gate and thus rob themselves of the loftier goals they aimed to achieve. Here now are 12 films that plotted out their futures, but couldn't get the people's votes, ultimately leaving their dreams unfinished.

King Arthur: Legend of The Sword

If we're going to talk about failed franchises, where's a better place to start than King Arthur: Legend of the Sword? With six films planned to adapt this fixture of English literature, the first film pretty much killed all hopes of such a cinematic universe faster than you could say, "Merlin." Blame the film's $175 million production budget, as well as its unreported marketing expenses, as the $134 million international take couldn't even cover the production alone. Guy Ritchie just doesn't seem to be able to catch a break, as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. also failed to launch a sequel of its own, though on a smaller scale.

Dracula Untold/The Wolfman

Most folks are already writing about the death of Universal's Dark Universe, what with The Mummy being bandaged up as a domestic failure. But what people seem to forget is that the Universal Monsters canon has been home to two other supposed failures in the modern era: 2010's The Wolfman and 2014's Dracula Untold. While The Wolfman wasn't explicitly supposed to set up an entire universe's worth of films, Dracula Untold literally went into reshoots to add a scene that would tease a world of gods and monsters. A fat lot of good it did them, as the film's been officially erased from the Dark Universe canon.

John Carter

As you continue to read this list, you're going to see quite a few franchises that had a lot of built-in sequel potential based on literary source material. With 12 books to adapt from, John Carter could have been a series that was still in theaters to this day. Of course, that was what director Andrew Stanton and the folks at Disney were hoping to do when they set out to adapt the series in 2012, but the underwhelming reception compared to the film's massive marketing spend and production budget didn't allow for a return to Barsoom anytime soon. These days, the property is with another rights holder, and a reboot is possible. But to the fans of Disney's take on the film, this is of little solace, as that incarnation was dead on the vine almost from the first showing.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Alan Moore hates every film incarnation of one of his comic books. The man hated V for Vendetta, he wouldn't even let his name grace Zack Snyder's Watchmen and he certainly wasn't a fan of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That last one is probably the movie most die-hard Moore fans would agree on hating, as the film's modest financial success wasn't considered good enough to push for a sequel. But not only did the sequel to "LXG" never happen, it basically pushed Sean Connery into retirement. So if there wasn't enough of a reason to salt the earth that the film walked on, this pretty much sealed it.

Ender's Game

Young people can be fickle. One moment, a property like Divergent is on top of the world. The next, it can't even find the wind in its sails to finish a series of proper film adaptations. Though they were lucky to have gotten where they did, as Lionsgate's other attempt at cashing in on the teen market, Ender's Game, couldn't even make it past Earth's atmosphere before stalling out. Now part of the reason could have been the backlash surrounding the author of the source material, Orson Scott Card, and we wouldn't be surprised if that factored into the decision somehow. But seeing as the film only made $15 million worth of profit on paper, without accounting for whatever other expenses were incurred with selling the picture, it looks like money killed this beast.

Super Mario Bros.

You knew this was coming, as one of the earliest instances of sequel baiting most movie fans of this age can remember is the fact that Super Mario Bros. ended with the promise of a return to the Mushroom Kingdom. Of course, when you don't even recoup half of your budget, and your two lead stars had to get drunk on the set to even make the first film a complete product, you're basically promising empty air. Still, with the film garnering a couple fans here and there in the modern age, maybe someone will try to reboot this dinosaur of a franchise.

The Golden Compass

Now here's a movie that already had a natural tease for a sequel built into it, and yet it somehow it managed to go out of its way to beg for another installment. New Line's The Golden Compass was the first of what should have been three films based off of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Alas, the adaptation of the film pissed off fans to no end, as it not only watered down key elements of the source material, but it changed the ending to screw folks out of a truly spectacular cliffhanger. Instead of getting some more Daniel Craig/Nicole Kidman action, as well as Lyra's jump from her dimension to ours, we saw our intrepid adventurer merely comfort her friend, committing to the cause of fighting the villains in the next movie.

Beautiful Creatures

In the case of most of the films on this list, sequels were denied despite the fact that the films that were released made somewhat of a profit on the surface. But in the case of Beautiful Creatures, a cancellation was all but certain from the first weekend of release. The film debuted in 6th place on the same weekend films like A Good Day to Die Hard and The Identity Thief debuted. If you can't compete against films like those, you're already screwed. But if you're a young and hot literary franchise trying to make your bones not too long after Twilight had its hands on the pulse of cinema, then you shouldn't have bothered even showing up.

Van Helsing

Oh that crazy Universal Monsters universe. If Van Helsing succeeded the way that Universal had intended it to, we not only would have gotten a sequel of some sort, but we also would have also received a TV series out of the deal. Back when Universal spent the $160 million to make this monster mash, the plan was to reuse some of the sets to make Transylvania, a proposed NBC series that would have been set in the world of Hugh Jackman's supernatural hunter. But, for one reason or another, despite almost doubling its budget, the series was doomed to die alongside Kate Beckinsale's character, leaving fans to stare into the sunset as its ghost was reunited with Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

If you ever wondered why Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events found itself encountering a dismal end itself, perhaps you should Meet The Fockers. With the Ben Stiller/Robert De Niro sequel debuting a week after the film version of this tragic tale took the stage, the Baudelaire siblings found themselves trumped by their greatest enemy of all: a happy ending. While time would be kind to the film, and a Netflix show would eventually come out of the wreckage, A Series of Unfortunate Events was dealt the cruelest hand of all by being stranded with its one and only film.

The Lone Ranger

If you thought John Carter was the biggest sore spot on Disney's modern box office record, we'd like to remind you that The Lone Ranger actually exists. By the ingredients alone, it looked like the Gore Verbinski/Disney machine was about to start printing more money again, as their pairing on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise proved to be quite fruitful. But horrible buzz and an uninterested public doomed this film to merely recoup its budget, and a $45 million profit on the top. Compared to the Pirates films, this was obviously nothing, as even the fourth film managed to cross the $1 billion mark. So naturally, the Armie Hammer/Johnny Depp adventure was buried in an unmarked grave and paved over to make way for a really big water tank.

The Rock has been set to play the role of villain in the Shazam movie for quite some time, however, we're still waiting to see who plays the hero. Recently, Dwayne Johnson was asked who he'd like to go up against in the forthcoming Shazam movie, and the People's Champ had one, really solid, idea. He didn't technically give the name away, but he dropped the actor's biggest role to date, The Lone Ranger. The Rock vs. Armie Hammer, I could totally get behind that. Jonhson explained why he thinks Hammer could be a great choice...

The Rock dropped the Lone Ranger name to We Got This Covered, and while Dwayne Johnson was clear that no conversations have been had at any level to actually bring Armie Hammer into the film, and that he has no idea if Hammer would even be interested in the part, he is one of "a handful" of potential actors that Johnson thinks would be a solid choice for the title character of Shazam.

It's certainly not a bad choice, of course, that might be why Armie Hammer's name has already been attached to another potential hero within the DCEU, Green Lantern. While Hammer insists that nobody has ever spoken to him about taking on the role of Hal Jordan, his name has been rumored as being in the running for some time. Hammer seems to be open to the idea on its face, so if he's willing to be the Green Lantern, perhaps he's equally willing to play Shazam instead.

The Rock has been on board to play the role of Black Adam for years but the Shazam movie seems to be one of the films on the backburner of the DCEU. Shazam does have a current release date of April 5, 2019, putting it a couple of years away. There's still plenty of time to cast a title character, though if Warner Bros. wants a name it would probably be best to get that person signed up sooner rather than later.

What do you think of Armie Hammer as Shazam? Let us know in the poll down below.

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To paraphrase Mark Twain: "The reports of the western’s death have been greatly exaggerated."

Sure, unlike the first sixty years of Hollywood – from the 1900s to the 1960s – the Western genre might not define cinema in quite the same way anymore. But the repeated declarations that the genre is dead are way off. Ever since 1992’s Unforgiven, movie enthusiasts have written off the western as a has-been. But over the last 24 years there have been a number of films that prove it’s still excelling.

To celebrate, here are 10 of the best Westerns of the last 20 years, which prove there’s still plenty of life left in the old horse yet.

True Grit

While John Wayne won his only Oscar for his performance in the 1969 version of True Grit, the Coen Brothers’ version pretty much exceeds it in every fashion. Jeff Bridges even outshines Wayne’s take on Rooster Cogburn, while Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld are just as revelatory in their supporting roles. As you’d expect, Roger Deakins brings the Western back to life through his exemplary cinematography, while Carter Burwell’s score is still underrated to this day. As is Joel and Ethan Coen’s subtle script and direction, which results in a more faithful adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel, which means that it's bleak yet touching. Its $252.2 million box office return also scoffed at suggestions the western had perished.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Rightfully praised for having arguably the greatest title in movie history, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford never received the acclaim that it deserved after it grossed just $15 million from its $30 million budget. But it was still roundly praised by critics because of just how brooding its story-telling is. The fact that it possesses captivating visuals doesn’t hurt. It’s really like watching poetry in motion. Once again, Roger Deakins is in charge of the shimmering, beautiful cinematography, while Brad Pitt stoically leads the way, and the well-rounded ensemble each dovetail into the plot with aplomb. A modern classic, in every sense of the word.

The Proposition

The Proposition is absolutely brutal. From a script by Nick Cave – yes, that Nick Cave – director John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless) is unflinching with his various depictions of violence, which includes murder and rape. But while the subject matter is admittedly difficult, you still can’t take your eyes off the film. There are great performances dotted throughout by the likes of Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, and, in particular, Danny Huston. Yet, in amidst the bloodshed, there’s still a beauty that shines through, while Hillcoat’s homages to Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and other greats of the genre all coagulate together to create something truly unique.

Django Unchained

It was written in the stars that Quentin Tarantino would direct his very own Western. The Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs filmmaker has long spoken about his admiration for both Rio Bravo and the films of Sergio Leone, while various traits of the genre have been dotted throughout his previous work, too. Django arguably is Quentin Tarantino’s most stylish film to date, and every scene builds upon the last before the film ends at a deafening but thoroughly engrossing crescendo. While it might be a little bloated, Django Unchained is always, and unrelentingly, entertaining, and you can sense just how much fun Tarantino has making the audience uncomfortable.

Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt’s contemplative Western might not have the immediate impact or relentless action from other entries in the genre, but it becomes more and more hypnotic with each passing scene. Reichardt’s direction is pitch perfect, while Chris Blauvelt’s cinematography manages to find beauty in amidst the barren location. The ensemble of Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, and Will Patton make the film more and more intimate through their subtle performances and characterization. At times it’s, admittedly, ponderous, but it’s still beautiful to watch unfold, and, if you let it, Meek’s Cutoff rewards viewers that actually invest in it.

The Lone Ranger

A quick look at The Lone Ranger’s Rotten Tomatoes score of just 31% would have you believe that the Gore Verbinksi directed blockbuster Western was a failure. Something that’s also underlined by its $260.5 million box office return, after Disney was believed to have spent around $375 million producing and marketing it. And after the first hour of its 2 and a half hour running time, that all looks to be the case. But, once it settles down, The Lone Ranger actually becomes a hugely enjoyable and rollicking Western that is full of spectacle and action, and is thrilling to watch unfold. The Lone Ranger really is an underrated blockbuster gem. Give it another try.

Open Range

A stark reminder of just how talented Kevin Costner is both as a director and actor, Open Range is a throw back to the Westerns of old. The gun fighting sequences in particular are gorgeous to look at, with Costner using wide shots and a surprising amount of blood to showcase the vivid realism. In fact, Open Range’s final gunfight has been roundly lauded as one of the best gunfights in the history of cinema. Plus, with Robert Duvall, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, and Diego Luna all contributing sublime performances, it’s almost impossible not to become engrossed by everything that Open Range has to offer.

The Homesman

There’s obviously something about the Western genre that brings out the best in cinematographers. Like Roger Deakins in True Grit and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Rodrigo Prieto’s work as cinematographer on The Homesman allows Tommy Lee Jones’ direction to glisten. The Homesman is also unique as it explores the lives of women in the American West. But that doesn’t stop Jones from being just as unflinching, ruthless, and unsentimental as previous entries to the genre. And while Tommy Lee Jones paints his version of the west in a stark and barren light, which is at times haunting and unsettling, it's still always captivating.

Slow West

This is the third time that I have written about Slow West in the last month. One was to include it in my Top 10 of 2015, the other was to write about how underappreciated it was, while now it’s to insist that Slow West is one of the best Westerns of the last 20 years. It’s pretty obvious how much I love the film, which is all the more remarkable considering that it comes from first-time writer-director John MacLean. Inventive and bold, beautiful and gritty, all with a surreal edge that makes it fearlessly unique, Slow West is also boasted by the fact that it stars Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and the always underappreciated Ben Mendelsohn. Basically, if you haven’t, you need to watch Slow West now.

No Country For Old Men

While the bulk of the entries on this list are set in the 1800s or early 1900s, No Country For Old Men is the only Western that’s even remotely modern. But I couldn’t help but include it because, as its four Academy Awards can testify, it’s a bona-fide masterpiece. In fact, it could even be argued that it’s the Coen Brothers’ finest work to date. Where to start? Well, that man again Roger Deakins proves that he’s a genius as a cinematographer, while the Coen Brothers somehow keep No Country For Old Men thrilling, tense, and utterly absorbing throughout its entire two hour running time. Its just magnificence all over, and Javier Bardem’s turn as Anton Chigurh is probably the most terrifying to have ever been committed to celluloid.

Last year was a pretty fantastic one for movie music. Directors like David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino and Ben Affleck made not only fantastic films, but also beautifully crafted soundtracks that blended perfectly with the story and visuals on screen. The mix created some stunning, haunting, exciting, uplifting and thrilling movie music moments that we will remember for years to come. As a result, 2013 had a lot to live up to, but looking back on the last twelve months reveals that this year’s crop of filmmakers were more than up for the task.

As I’ve done for the last four years, I’ve taken a detailed look back at all of the films that have hit theaters this past year searching for the best movie music moments I could find. While there was a large crop to choose from, I’ve narrowed it down to my 10 favorites of the year. Will yours make the list? Read on to find out!

Stoker

"Duet" by Phillip Glass

Uncle Charlie, the character played by Matthew Goode in Chan Wook-park’s dark horror Stoker, is a man that Winston Churchill may have described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. His niece, India (Mia Wasikowska) never even heard of him before her father’s death, and any story about where he’s been the last few years ends quickly and with few answers. Even small claims about not being able to play the piano turn out to be lies, as seen in the incredibly powerful sequence where India and Charlie team up on a piano bench to play the hypnotizing "Duet" by Phillip Glass.

As the plot of Stoker unfolds we learn that there is a deep natural bond that exists between India and Charlie, but it’s their paired performance tickling the ivories that first really informs their strange, important connection. As Glass wrote the music directly for the film, the audience is meant to believe that the two are composing the piece together on the spot (building on the piano work that India is seen practicing earlier in the movie), and it’s a perfect blend of the fantastical, phenomenal and disturbing that the two characters are able to perform so beautifully in sync. The aesthetic of Stoker is all about swirling together the horrific and the beautiful, and no scene in the movie does that better than Charlie and India’s duet.

Inside Llewyn Davis

"Please Mr. Kennedy" by Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver

It would be impossible to have a conversation about the best movie music moments of 2013 without mention of Joel and Ethan Coen’s extraordinary Inside Llewyn Davis. The tale of a Greenwich Village folk singer trying to get back in the early 1960s, the film shows a deep appreciation for the genre at the heart of the story and takes great pride in the real performances by the actors. From Oscar Isaac’s heartbreaking rendition of "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me," to a troupe of Irish singers in nice sweaters singing an a cappella version of "The Auld Triangle," this entire list could entirely consist of songs from the Coens’ latest bit of genius, but if I’m going to pick one it has to be the in-studio performance of "Please Mr. Kennedy."

An intentionally bad song that is partially based on a track from a folk outfit called The Goldcoast Singers back in 1961, "Please Mr. Kennedy" represents the exact level of phony that the eponymous Llewyn (played by the excellent Oscar Isaac) can’t stand, which makes the sequence in the film where he performs it all the funnier. Amazing as that is, however, it’s actually the supporting cast that makes the scene so perfect. Between Justin Timberlake’s ridiculously cheery disposition and terrible lyrics and Adam Driver’s bizarre baritone vocal stylings both before and during the song’s performance, you’re laughing from the moment the sequence starts until it ends. And then, of course, there’s the way that the song comes back to bite Llewyn in the ass at the end of the story…

The Lone Ranger

"The William Tell Overture" by Hans Zimmer

Like many critics, I can’t say that I was a big fan of Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger. It’s far too long, Johnny Depp’s shtick wears thin, the framing device is incomprehensible, and a good number of talented actors in the supporting cast are totally wasted. Most of the movie is a slog to get through, but that all changes at one very specific moment: when the film begins to play the titular character’s famous "William Tell Overture" theme.

The song is used to dramatically announce the beginning of the third act and the action sequence that concludes the plot, and like a bolt of lightning it sends the film’s energy level through the roof and actually turns the movie into what the audience actually paid to see. What we get to watch on the big screen is great all by itself, as the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) and Tonto (Depp) ride alongside and on top of a train in order to stop the bad guys and their plan, and the score – which was adapted by Hans Zimmer – helps generate tons of excitement. In the long run, the film’s use of the William Tell Overture" is an example of too little, too late, as it was incorporated way past the movie’s point of no return, but the sequence still goes down as one of my favorite movie music moments of 2013.

This Is The End

"When The Shit Goes Down" by Cypress Hill

Given the size of the ensemble and the fact that the film was helmed by two first time directors, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s This Is The End is an amazingly even comedy that gives all of its stars – including James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel – ample individual time in the spotlight. But if a standout from the cast has to be selected, it’s Danny McBride. The movie makes the actor seem like he is absolutely the last person on the planet who you want to be stuck in the apocalypse with - as his selfishness and petulance seemingly knows no bounds – and the performance created some of the best scenes in an overall hysterical feature. And it all kicks off with an amazing movie music moment.

Knowing how much trouble and chaos the character winds up creating in the film, I can imagine that Rogen and Goldberg spent a good amount of time picking out the perfect introduction song for Danny McBride, and they totally nailed it with a track by Cypress Hill. Featuring a chorus that repeats the line "When tha shit goes down ya better be ready," there is a great foreshadowing element to all of the terribleness that McBride is about to unleash on all of his "friends," and the beat gives him something perfect to dance to as we watch his feet cross through Franco’s house down to the kitchen (where he will do his part to waste the group’s food supply). Thanks to the song selection we know everything we need to know about McBride within 30 seconds of his arrival on screen, and that’s what a great movie music moment does.

Frozen

"Let It Go" by Idina Menzel

Disney’s Frozen offered a number of memorable musical moments, among which was Josh Gad’s snowman character Olaf hilariously and obliviously daydreaming about how great it’ll be to do "whatever snow does in summer," and a group of trolls enthusiastically singing about accepting people’s flaws with "Fixer Upper," but no song was quite as powerful and moving as Elsa’s "Let it Go," the song she sings as she abandons the castle and her newly acquired crown in favor of being free to use her frosty super powers whenever and however she wants.

In addition to sufficiently making up for the Idina Menzel sung song we were so unfortunately denied in Disney's Enchanted, "Let it Go" is also an outstanding demonstration the Broadway star’s powerful vocals in a tune that emphasizes her character’s frustration, which set a course for her to become an unintentional almost-villain — or at the very least, a misunderstood woman with powers not entirely within her control. The "Let it Go" sequence is thrilling and moving, and both audibly and visually stunning all at once. Watching Elsa belt out her song while shedding her gloves and building herself a beautiful ice castle in the mountains, we’re torn between feeling happy for her, for being free to finally be herself and embrace the things that make her special, and sad for her for having no place else to do that but near the top of a mountain, all by herself. (by Kelly West)

The Spectacular Now

"Live Fast Live Hard Die Young" by Faron Young

It’s not hard to see why the Sutter, the free-wheeling protagonist of James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now would be attracted to the song "Live Fast Live Hard Die Young" by Faron Young. First released in 1955, the song’s message about living life to the fullest and leaving behind a good looking corpse fits perfectly with his personal philosophy regarding living in the moment and never bothering to think too far into the future. Unfortunately, it’s this personal connection that also leads to one of the most devastating moments in the film.

Sutter plays the song on a jukebox for his estranged father, Tommy (Kyle Chandler) at a bar hoping that it will bring them together, Sutter not only believing his dad to have the same philosophy as himself, but also a memory of hearing it when he was a kid and his parents were still together. This reach leads to nothing but rejection, however, as Tommy not only dismisses the song but also his son’s memory. The reunion only deteriorates further from there, but even after the song has ended you can still practically hear it echoing as Sutter learns who his father really is and who he may be destined to become. It’s one of the most crucial scenes in the film, and the song choice is perfect.

The World’s End

"I’m Free" by The Soup Dragons

In Edgar Wright’s The World’s End, Simon Pegg stars as a man who knows exactly who he is. During his teenage years, the black trench coat-wearing Gary King decided that he just wanted to live life to have fun, and that’s exactly what he did (of course, that also meant starting up some terrible drug and alcohol habits). He prides himself on his freedom, so naturally when he first heard the song "I’m Free" by The Soup Dragons he connected with it to the point that it can practically be called his anthem.

The song first appears in the movie shortly after Gary’s childhood friends have all arrived back in their hometown of Newton Haven and get picked up by their "leader" in his hunk of shit car to go on their drinking marathon. Watching Gary sing along to the track you can see that he’s filled with glee, but also notice his intense desperation to get his friends in on the fun (which just about works until Gary creepily admits that the song is being played off a cassette mixtape). Beyond just being a song he listens to, however, the lyrics have practically become mantra. What does Gary tell the Network at the end when asked what the human race wants? "We want to be free to do what we want."

The Kings of Summer

"Pipe Drumming" by Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Moises Arias

Suburban life does not fit Joe (Nick Robinson) and Patrick (Gabriel Basso), the two leads of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ coming-of-age dramedy The Kings of Summer. Both of them have parents and homes that they can’t stand, and in an act of rebellion against the system they team up with their odd friend Biaggio (Moises Arias) to leave civilization behind and make a fresh start for themselves deep in the woods. They build their shelter by hand and make plans to live off the land. It’s a return to nature, and one that’s ushered forward by a loud drumbeat created by hitting sticks against a giant metal pipe.

I will admit that a big reason for this entry’s inclusion into the list is because the beat the drummers create is just so catchy, but it’s also just impressive how it evokes memories of childhood and elegantly fits with the movie’s themes. Most men – and probably more than a few women - can think back on their childhood walking through the woods and hitting trees, rocks and pipes with sticks – be it to create rhythm or just with the intention of destroy stuff. With his film Vogt-Roberts gives us a meaningful and reflective look at a very specific age and the pipe scene definitely hits on that (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Her

"The Moon Song" by Scarlet Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix

Following a successful collaboration on a re-recording of "Wake Up" for Where The Wild Things Are, director Spike Jonze and the band Arcade Fire reteamed to create the score for the sci-fi romance Her, and the result is spectacular. The band’s almost haunting guitar and drum work beautifully accentuate the sense of loneliness in the film’s atmosphere and it has a lasting effect even after you’ve left the theater. Great as their work in the movie is, though, it’s actually Scarlet Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix’s duet performance of Karen O’s "The Moon Song" that creates not only the film’s best movie music moment, but one of the best of the year.

Over the course of Her the relationship between the emotionally fragile Theodore (Phoenix) and the conscious operating system Samantha (Johansson) undergoes a number of wonderful ups and heart-shredding downs, but the performance of "The Moon Song" comes pleasantly during an upswing. Theodore and Samantha decide to take a vacation together, and while resting together in bed he picks up a ukulele and the two of them sing while looking up at a giant full moon in the sky. It’s the kind of moment that’s photographed in your memory forever when thinking about a relationship with someone and it’s stunning to watch in the context of the story.

Spring Breakers

"Everytime" by James Franco

While he may have a few duds on his filmography, James Franco really is an incredibly talented perform, and he has never demonstrated that more clearly than with his performance in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers. The actor fully disappears into his role as the corn-rowed gangster/rapper/drug dealer Alien and elevates the film’s crazy level to 11 as the character leads a group of college girls on a crime spree around St. Petersburg, Florida. The real insanity of the performance and the story, though, comes towards the middle of the film when Alien and his girls sit by a piano and sing a rendition of the Britney Spears song "Everytime."

Alien sings the song to express his love to his "soulmates" – which seems to work quite well – but it’s the way that the tune operates against the tone that makes it such a great movie music moment. Most of the film’s soundtrack is comprised of dubstep and hard beat techno, so when Alien starts belting out a pop ballad you can’t help but raise an eyebrow and laugh. Let’s also not forget that this is a movie starring a group of former Disney princesses and that Britney Spears used to be a Mickey Mouse Club member, so the whole thing works on multiple levels.

You know I love a good GIF. So what better way to recap this year's biggest hits and misses than through that little looping animation that has made the internet such a magical place?

In the coming days, we'll be rolling out our critic's personal top tens to toast the very best movies this year had to offer. But here I'll be recapping the highs and lows of the movie business experienced over the past 12 months. 2013 has been a pretty fascinating time for film, full of reversals of fortune, dizzying successes and even some truly polarizing pictures. So let's look back and GIF out!

Jennifer Lawrence IS The Girl On Fire

The twenty-three-year-old ingénue may well be one of the most talked about people of 2013. Or maybe it just seems that way since everything she does becomes a GIF or viral video. But internet saturation aside, JLaw has had an incredible year. It began with her winning the Academy Award for Silver Linings Playbook, and winning our undying devotion by tripping on her way to the podium.

With the fall (as in autumn) came the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The much anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games not only won better reviews than the first film, but has already made more at the box office in just four weeks ($735 million worldwide) than the first had in its entire run ($691 million worldwide). Then just in time for Christmas, Lawrence gives the glitzy gift of American Hustle, her reteam with David O. Russell and Bradley Cooper that is scooping up critical praise, SAG nominations, and Golden Globe nods. All this hype and hubbub could well lead to Lawrence making her second trip to Oscar gold come 2014.

Every Non-Hunger Games YA Property Bombs

Harry Potter and Twilight proved what a box office behemoth a good YA property can be. And the record-breaking success of The Hunger Games' first two films proves audiences are still hungry for the genre. So why did so many would-be YA franchises fail this year?

Sharing an author with Twilight did nothing to help the adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's The Host. The $40 million movie fronted by Saoirse Ronan brought in an embarrassing $48 million worldwide, and got a mere 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on the Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's novel, Beautiful Creatures was poised for this same audience, which presumably missed supernatural stories of romance. Nonetheless, critics jeered and this movie pulled in just $60 million worldwide, little more than its production budget before the high expenses of movie marketing.

Another $60 mil production was Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, which was meant to be the first in a franchise based on Cassandra Clare's six-part novel series. But it earned on 12% of critic's approval on Rotten Tomatoes, and made just $80 million worldwide, throwing its sequel plans into uncertainty. Lucky for fans of Clary Fray, Constantin Film Produktion has looked past these abysmal numbers and has promised a part two with Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes.

Less lucky on the sequel front was Ender's Game. The most expensive of these YA-inspired adventures cost a whopping $110 million to produce, and made just $87 million worldwide despite topping the box office on its opening weekend. Some might blame the outspoken bigotry of its author Orson Scott Card for the film's failure, but CinemaScore's suggest it was more a lackluster word of mouth after its first weekend that sunk a sequel's chances.

Sandra Bullock Says Screw Your Glass Ceiling

You know those little assumptions of fact like "women aren't funny," or "audiences won't pay to see female-fronted action movies" or "women over 40 can't get arrested in Hollywood?" Yeah. Sandra Bullock showed just how out of date each of those bullshit lines of thought were this year, and she did it with a one-two punch known as The Heat and Gravity.

This summer Bullock teamed up with Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and its breakout star Melissa McCarthy for an R-rated cop comedy with some serious balls ovaries. Not only did The Heat win over critics, it also proved a force to be reckoned with tanking the suspected blockbuster White House Down, and taking home an impressive $229 million. But Bullock wasn't through with 2013 yet. October brought the release of Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, a lost in space thriller that broke a slew of box office records and went on to earn a stellar $642 million worldwide. As award season heats up, many count Bullock a serious contender for Oscar night, thanks to her physically demanding out-of-this-world performance.

Channing Tatum's Winning Streak Comes To An End

2012 was hands down the Year of Channing Tatum. Everything this stripper turned "Sexiest Man Alive" touched turned to gold, from The Vow to 21 Jump Street and of course Magic Mike. But 2013 was less kind, and for reasons we still can't make sense of.

The year started off well, with Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, which earned critical praise and a healthy $60 mil worldwide. Then came G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which made $375 mil globally but wrote Tatum out of the future of the franchise. Next was what should have been Tatum's summer smash, White House Down. But despite its exhilarating president-under-siege plot and a gripping execution from Roland Emmerich, this $150 million tent pole crashed hard, coming in #4 its opening weekend, and making only $73 million domestically. Another blow was dealt when Tatum's could-be solace--and potential Oscar contender--Foxcatcher was moved from December of 2013 to 2014. Despite these setbacks, Tatum's still standing strong, with 22 Jump Street and Jupiter Ascending coming next year.

Johnny Depp Showed His Ass

Metaphorically of course. Between the massively successful Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Tim Burton's worldwide hit Alice in Wonderland, Depp had become Disney's favorite oddball/star. So Disney trusted Depp when his artistic muse led him to cake his face in white paint and play a nutty Native American in a big sprawling western of his own producing. Here Depp overreached in a move I've compared to Mike Myers, and the sloppy western with a reported budget of $215 million has been estimated to have lost Disney $150 million after print and advertising costs. But then things got gross when Depp decided to blame the film's epic failure not on it being a bad product that didn't connect with moviegoers, but on critics being judgmental jerks. (Allow Katey to explain why that argument holds no water.)

Of course even with this failure--and that of Dark Shadows the year before--Depp is still a big star. But his star power has taken a hit. Reportedly, Disney is reassessing how much they are willing to spend on the next Pirates movie. But they are far from giving up on Depp, what with Alice in Wonderland 2: Eccentric Boogaloo coming in 2016.

Even Still, Disney Dominated

Through its various distribution and production deals, Disney was essentially the driving force of the box office this year. Even with the massive flop that was The Lone Ranger, the House of Mouse had so many irons in the fire in 2013 that didn't matter that the expensive western was an absolute dud.

Their year started off strong with Oz: The Great and Powerful. Then two wings of their smart company buys kicked in, with Marvel's massive hit Iron Man 3--which is on track to be the highest grossing domestic release of the year--and the Pixar prequel Monsters University. Even with the summer catastrophe that was The Lone Ranger, Disney hit the billion dollar mark by July. And that was before Planes, Thor: The Dark World and Frozen came out. By the end of November, the studio that's earnestly gobbling up all the franchises you love became the first studio ever to make $4 billion in one year at the box office . And that number keeps climbing as Frozen continues to thrive, and Saving Mr. Banks joins the fray.

Hollywood Goes Crazy For True Crooks

This year theaters were overrun with films inspired by the bad behavior of real-life lowlifes, from The Bling Ring, and Spring Breakers, to Pain & Gain, Wolf of Wall Street, and American Hustle. And by and large we ate it up!

Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring won rave reviews for its depiction of the home invasion and burglary spree of a pack of entitled Hollywood teens, and made a solid $19 million at the box office. Harmony Korine's neon-colored crime-drama Spring Breakers, which may or may not have found its muse in a lesser-known rapper called Riff Raff, became a hot button issue of child stars gone wild thanks to scantily clad performances from Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez. While parents blanched, critics cheered and audiences turned out to the tune of $32 million.

The horrendous acts of extortion, torture and murder of the Sun Gym gang became a gonzo satire in Michael Bay's Pain & Gain. Though the outlandish biopic received mixed reviews, it scored at the box office, bringing in $86 million worldwide. David O. Russell's American Hustle is a comedy influenced by the conmen of ABSCAM, and while it's too soon to call this recently released film a hit, it certainly has won over critics, earning seven Golden Globe nominations and a string of critic guild honors. As it won't open until Christmas, Wolf of Wall Street is another unknown, but the early buzz is overwhelmingly good with many critics claiming it one of the best films of the year.

Man Of Steel: A Hit AND A Miss?

Few films this year drew the kind of passion Zack Snyder's Man of Steel unleashed. Earning $662 million worldwide, the $225 million superhero epic was undeniably a box office success that cemented the future of DC's growing movie franchise which will include the already polarizing Batman vs. Superman. However, the film's controversial climax struck a chord that had some fans cheering and others cursing the heavens.

Screenwriter/Superman fan Max Landis and Superman comic book writer Mark Waid both publically scorned Snyder's take on the iconic hero, but both he and Man of Steel scribe David S. Goyer defended their death-packed final act.

Here at Cinema Blend, we too were divided. Eric loved the movie, giving it four stars with his review, while Mack declared this Superman is one humanity could never trust to protect us. And from the look of the comments sections, this debate is far from over.

American Remakes Get Trashed In Translation

You know when you see a foreign film and think, "That was great! It’s a shame Hollywood doesn't make movies like that!" Well, this year showed that's not for lack of trying. 2013 saw the release of three remakes of foreign properties, that despite lauded directors and loveable stars flopped hard.

The first came last summer in the form of Brian De Palma's Passion, a lifeless remake of the erotic thriller Love Crime fronted by Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace. Critics sneered, and ultimately the $30 million dollar remake pulled in about $1.3 mil worldwide.

Fairing better but still badly was Delivery Man, the Vince Vaughn vehicle, which was a retooled version of the heralded French-Canadian comedy Starbuck. Even though DreamWorks brought Ken Scott, the first film's writer-director, on to helm this American version, lightning did not strike twice. The $26 mil production brought in just $29 million worldwide and earned little love from critics.

Last but not least was Spike Lee's Oldboy, which relocated Park Chan-wook's iconic Korean revenge thriller to New York City. Even with a splashy ad campaign and stars like Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley and Samuel L. Jackson, Lee's remake couldn't win over audiences or critics. All told the $30 million rehash made a shockingly low $4 million worldwide.

The Rock Ruled

There was a time when Dwayne Johnson was just a WWE star with a cool catchphrase and a megawatt smile. But with dogged determination and more than a decade of film work now under his belt, Johnson has pulled himself to Hollywood's A-list. Don't believe me? This year this insanely brawny star fronted four feature films. Three of these - G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Pain & Gain, and Fast and Furious 6 - opened at #1 (Snitch opened at #2 behind the widely promoted comedy The Identity Thief). By June, these four films has made more than a billion dollars at the box office, ultimately earning Johnson the title of highest-grossing star of the year, according to Forbes. The Rock was in our face through all of 2013, and still left us wanting more.

Quentin Tarantino doesn't have a movie coming out this year, nor is he currently working on one, but that doesn't mean he won't do his damnedest to dominate the news anyway. Just after releasing his incredibly premature Top 10 list of the year, which included The Lone Ranger and Kick-Ass 2, he's given an interview to the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles (via The Playlist) in which he sounds off on Ben Affleck playing Batman. Strap in, everybody! It's time for some QT truth bombs!

"I have to admit that I don't really have an opinion," he said about Affleck's casting in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie, before proceeding to have an opinion anyway. Go figure.

To be clear, QT is not suggesting that Baldwin should have been cast as Batman now instead of Affleck, though given that the studio is aiming for a "weary and seasoned" take on the character, that could be fantastic. It sounds like Tarantino is imagining a version of Bats as played by the fast-talking, smooth yuppie Baldwin of the Glengarry Glen Ross and Working Girl era-- a Bruce Wayne who's more Gordon Gekko than Christian Bale's moody, tortured version. Watch this famous speech from Glengarry Glen Ross and tell me you can't see it:

In case the idea of an Alec Baldwin Batman wasn't enough to rile you up this morning, Tarantino also took the chance to defend his love of The Lone Ranger, which nearly every critic and audiences alike hated this summer. Tarantino isn't crazy enough to think the whole thing works, but apparently the love all comes down to the big train sequence:

Feel free to share your own thoughts on The Lone Ranger's train sequence, or Alec Baldwin as Batman-- or both!-- in the comments. If you want to ask for more Quentin Tarantino defenses of generally undefended movies, you're welcome to do that too.

This poll is no longer available.

With contemporary classics like Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill to his credit, Quentin Tarantino inspires an intense fandom that can be downright competitive. I’ve witnessed this competitiveness on several occasions when—upon learning I’m a blogger—his devotees have asked me on whether or not I like Tarantino’s works (overall, I do), and then challenged to an informal trivia off. Did I know that he has a cameo as a scalped Nazi in Basterds? Did I know his first production jobs were in porn or that he had a small role as an Elvis impersonator in an episode of the Golden Girls? (It’s true! See that below thanks to What Culture.)

Considering Tarantino himself is an obsessive fan of classic Hollywood cinema as well as various genres, including martial arts, grindhouse, and exploitation films, it makes sense his fans would be similarly amped up. But even the most devoted Tarantino admirer might have a hard time with the challenge I set before you now.

The Quentin Tarantino Archives has released a list of the esteemed director’s favorite films of the year so far. Personally, I was surprised by several of his picks, so I thought I’d test the rest of you to see if from the twenty films listed below you can figure out which titles are really on his top ten. Don’t cheat and click the link above, because what fun would that be?

Here are 20 releases from 2013, presented in alphabetical order with the names of their directors. Share your guess in comments on this page if you dare, then go to the next page to see which are actually on Tarantino’s list, and how many you got right.

Afternoon Delight (Jill Soloway)

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (Roman Coppola)

Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)

Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (Tommy Wirkola)

Kick Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow)

Movie 43 (Peter Farelly, Elizabeth Banks, James Gunn, etc.)

Pain & Gain (Michael Bay)

Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)

Stoker (Park Chan-Wook)

The Canyons (Paul Schrader)

The Conjuring (James Wan)

The Heat (Paul Feig)

The Last Stand (Jee-Woon Kim)

The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)

Trance (Danny Boyle)

This Is The End (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg)

Okay, now that you’ve mulled it over and made your selections, here is the actual list in alphabetical order (Tarantino evidently hasn’t ranked them yet):

Afternoon Delight (Jill Soloway)

Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)

Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Kick Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow)

The Conjuring (James Wan)

The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)

This Is The End (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg)

As you should expect from a filmmaker with as many diverse influences as Tarantino, this list is all over the place. You’ve got critical darlings like Before Midnight, Blue Jasmine, Frances Ha and Gravity. Though critically loathed, Kick-Ass 2’s inclusion makes sense on some level thanks to its heaps out outlandish violence, of which Tarantino is often a fan and defender of. Then there’s some genre love to the horror hit The Conjuring. A bit surprising is the inclusion of two indie comedies that have gained little notice, Afternoon Delight and Drinking Buddies. And while I wouldn’t have guessed the hysterical This Is The End would be on his list, that too makes sense as it plays into his apparent affection for heated and hilarious dialogue between dudes. Its critique of Hollywood celebrity culture is just gravy.

Lastly there's The Lone Ranger, a movie neither critics nor audiences warmed too, making it one of this summer's biggest flops. I can’t pretend to understand what Tarantino sees in that one, but would be fascinated to hear the garrulous director go off about it. Of course, it’s only October, so this list is still fluid. Maybe when his final ranking comes out we’ll revisit this game and see how well we really know one of our favorite contemporary auteurs.

In the comments, tell us how you did on your guesses, and share what you think will appear on this list by year's end!

Sure, The Lone Ranger is now a famous flop, but Johnny Depp is still a slam-dunk when starring in a Pirates movie…. right? Probably, but Disney still isn't going to take their chances as they gear up for the inevitable Pirates 5. According to The Wrap, as Disney reels from the estimated $150 million they lost on The Lone Ranger, they're tinkering with producer Jerry Bruckheimer's role on Pirates 5, talking about limiting the film's budget and, most shockingly, denying him final cut.

Director Gore Verbinski may have ostensibly been the man behind the camera on the first three mega-hit Pirates movies (and Rob Marshall on the fourth), but producer Bruckheimer-- who got his start back in the 80s with hits like Beverly Hills Cop and Flashdance-- was always the muscle. But what seemed like a limitless string of hits for Bruckheimer slowed down well before The Lone Ranger, with The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Prince of Persia marking two expensive flops in a row before the fourth Pirates came back to revive him. The last-minute budget cuts on The Lone Ranger still didn't keep that film from losing the studio money, but it seems to be serving as an example for Pirates 5, which will now have a budget somewhere in the $200 million range as opposed to the $250 originally planned. Yes, I know that's still an insane amount of money to spend on Johnny Depp's eyeliner budget.

On board to direct Pirates 5 are Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, the Norwegian directors of Kon-Tiki, a seafaring movie made on a very low budget. Their choice for the gig seems all the more significant now, and they scrappy up-and-comers may wind up teaching Bruckheimer something about slashing costs-- though $200 million will still be way more money than the two have ever worked with before. Talk on the film has been quiet since those two were hired earlier this summer-- nobody likely wants the Lone Ranger comparison-- but The Wrap says that Disney is currently making plans to shoot interiors in New Orleans, and a July 10, 2015 release date has been marked off. Can Bruckheimer tighten the purse strings and make another hit with this one? Or is trying to save himself by reviving a decade-old franchise just going to dig him further down? Sound off in the comments.

If you need to jog your memory on where things left off in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides-- spoiler: you didn't miss much-- here's that film's trailer.

Here’s an interesting turn of events: Days after Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer took critics to task for the colossal failure that is The Lone Ranger, a fellow A-lister is coming to their defense to say that there’s far too much scrutiny on tentpole pictures in our digital age.

Mark Wahlberg basically plays the tired, generic “It’s-Just-A-Movie” card in an interview with the L.A. Times, saying that he understands why Depp and company complained about the press attacks on Gore Verbinski’s revisionist Western. Says Wahlberg, who has his own (much better) 2 Guns in theaters at the moment:

Wahlberg’s candor is appreciated. And he’s exactly right in saying it’s not one single element that is contributing to the demise of a given blockbuster. Marketing, release-date window, contemporary events in the actual news headlines … all of these can play into the success or failure of a potential hit. What Hollywood has proven, over and over, is that the quality of the overall film contributes most to a movie’s success rate. And Lone Ranger isn’t a very good movie.

Take another example from this past summer: Brad Pitt’s World War Z. By all accounts, it was supposed to be a disaster. Pitt didn’t get along with director Marc Forster. Screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard were called in to apply bandages to a broken third act. But when the movie started screening, critics and audiences bought in to the finished product. Now, the film’s a global hit.

If critics had such influence, as Depp and Hammer claim, why has Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2 (7% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) earned $117 million domestically … $31M more than Lone Ranger? Couldn’t the media torpedo that disaster, as well?

But even Wahlberg realizes that blame ultimately needs to rest with the filmmakers, and this quote to the L.A. Times about Ranger is pretty priceless:

Great question. I also find it funny that Wahlberg’s essentially laying the groundwork for future complaints when the media potentially turns on his next blockbuster: Michael Bay’s fourth Transformers movie. The Pain & Gain star teases to the Times that Bay has upped the character development in his sequel, which he believes will help it stand apart from failures like Lone Ranger. And if it tanks? Wahlberg will have a precedent to bitch, moan and blame the critics.

Every summer there's a flop that becomes an easy punching bag as evidence of how Hollywood has failed. Last summer we made merciless fun of Battleship, the summer before that it was Green Lantern; none of them were necessarily the worst or the least successful movie of their years, but they made for the biggest targets.

This year the unlucky victim is The Lone Ranger, the big-budget, big money-losing effort from director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Johnny Depp-- the trio who started printing their own money thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The Lone Ranger is continuing to limp along at the American box office after its disappointing July 4 bow, having made just $86 million here, but it's about to open in the United Kingdom, and to strike back against the idea that it's a movie everyone already hates, the film's cast is lashing out against the real reason The Lone Ranger tanked. And, surprise surprise, the critics are to blame.

"They decided to slit the jugular of our movie," said co-star Armie Hammer in an interview with Yahoo! Movies UK. "I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain they jumped on the bandwagon to try and bash it. They tried to do the same thing with to ‘World War Z’, it didn’t work, the movie was successful." Depp, too, was happy to blame the critics for pre-judging the film, which famously shut down production and was retooled with a smaller-- but still gigantic-- budget:

Depp, whose face alone has helped movies like The Tourist and Public Enemies make more than $200 million worldwide, is clearly lying through his teeth about not expecting The Lone Ranger to be a blockbuster-- he knew as well as anyone how much money Disney spent on the film, how hard they marketed it, and how much the film was engineered to appeal to as many audiences as possible. If there was a single movie this year expected to be a blockbuster it was The Lone Ranger, a film based on a familiar character that had no business being revived except in the form of a cash grab.

That "blockbuster expectations" comment is probably the least infuriating thing about all of this, which is what happens when the people who made a bad movie are backed into a corner and asked to own up to it. When trying to sell a movie to another audience, no one behind The Lone Ranger can admit "Yeah, people just didn't really like it." So their only recourse is to blame critics, the soulless monsters who just have their knives out for every good-hearted blockbuster and who can't enjoy a good time at the movies. Never mind that critics completely flipped for the summer's surprise hit The Conjuring, or embraced Guillermo del Toro's monsters vs. robots epic Pacific Rim. Or, more importantly, that movies with terrible reviews become hits all the time. When Grown Ups 2 or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen become hits, Adam Sandler and Michael Bay get to flip everyone the bird and scream "Critics don't matter!" When The Lone Ranger and John Carter tank, Gore Verbinski and Andrew Stanton get to lick their wounds and scream "Mean old critics ruin everything."

I haven't even seen The Lone Ranger, so I have no idea if critics gave it a fair shake, or if in three years we'll all look back on it as the forgotten blockbuster classic that should have been (I've got my doubts about that last part). But many, many years of giant Fourth of July hits that critics hated-- Men in Black 2, Terminator 3, every Transformers movie-- prove that critics simply do not have the power to tear down a big blockbuster that audiences actually want to see. The Lone Ranger was rejected by audiences for any number of reasons that had nothing to do with mean critics who wanted to tear it down. Audiences in the UK now have the chance to find out for themselves what those reasons are.

America's bizarre love affair with unfunny "comedies" reared its ugly head again this weekend as the sequel that no one should have wanted, Grown Ups 2 hit theaters and did better than the first one did.

With $42 million Grown Ups 2 topped the $40 million debut of 2010's Grown Ups, but that wasn't enough to unseat last weekend's champ, Despicable Me 2. The animated sequel added $44 million to its now $229 million total and is within easy shot of topping its predecessor's $251 million domestic total. Some predictors expect it to finish above $350 million to be one of the summer's highest grossing films.

There was a lot of excitement and buzz (or at least a lot of advertising) around Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, but surprisingly little of it translated into box office performance. With just $38 million domestic and a grand total of $91 million when you add in international sales, it's hurting in the Kaiju-sized shadow of the movie's $200+ million production and advertising budget.

But low openings are nothing new for del Toro. In fact, despite the disappointing third place debut for Pacific Rim, it's the highest opening for anything he has directed to date.

There was little new excitement this weekend for The Lone Ranger which cemented its place as a summer sinker. The movie has brought in $119 million so far against its $215 million production budget, dropping over 60% from last week's earnings and slipping from second to fifth place.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

The Walt Disney Company doesn't really have too much to complain about when it comes to 2013 thus far. Sam Raimi's Oz The Great and Powerful was an international success, taking in $491 million globally; Shane Black's Iron Man 3 ranks as the fifth highest grossing film of all time worldwide with its $1.2 billion take; and Dan Scanlon's Monsters University, which is still in theaters, is really cleaning up, already having made $400 million in just two and a half weeks. It's not a large number of titles, but it all adds up to a lot of success.

But then there's Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger, the company's fourth movie of the year and a film that seemed to attract problems every step of the way through development. After years of being stuck in development hell, pieces seemed to fall in place when the Pirates of the Caribbean team of Verbinski, star Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer reunited on the project. A few months after a December 2012 release date was announced, Disney decided to shut the entire production down, showing extreme concern about the movie's proposed bloated $250 million budget. But even after the budget was reduced, the release date was pushed, and production started, the film continued to run into problems. Budget problems came up again, the release date got pushed a second time, and it wound up taking nearly 140 days to shoot the beast. And what did all that trouble lead to? An incredibly underwhelming opening weekend performance during the Independence Day holiday, and what could end up being a $150 million loss for Disney.

That's the figure that has been posted by The Hollywood Reporter, which says that the film not only cost $250 million to make, but spent $175 million in marketing and advertising worldwide. Analysts say that by the end of The Lone Ranger's run it will likely only manage to make $125 million domestically and $150 million overseas - for a total of only $275 million. It will likely be the second triple-digit loss for Disney in as many years, as the company had to deal with the $200 million loss of Andrew Stanton's John Carter in 2012.

THR points out that this failure could have an impact on the studio's relationship with Bruckheimer, which has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years. As the trade notes, movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure turned out to be hits for the duo, but their partnership has also yielded titles like The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and G-Force. There is no mention of contract status between Bruckheimer and Disney, though they are set to work together again in order to have Pirates of the Caribbean 5 ready for release in summer 2015.

At the very least we can hope that this experience will be a lesson for Hollywood as a whole. The moral of this story? Westerns don't need to cost $250 million.

The Lone Ranger is one of the biggest tentpole releases of the year. With a trimmed budget of $215 million, it needed to be a big hit for Disney to even break even. But over a five-day opening weekend it made just $48 million, a figure that is shockingly low to those of us who keep an eye on these things. There are plenty of possible reasons why, including the fact that The Lone Ranger doesn't necessarily appeal to younger audiences. But certainly, following the insane success of their Depp-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Disney was expecting Johnny Depp to be the major draw. But with what looks to be his second flop in as many years, it appears Depp's star power is failing. I say it's his own damn fault. He's overreaching on his star power, thinking he can do no wrong, and that wackier/wilder equals better. It's a costly mistake that Mike Myers made before him, and Depp may be heading for a Myers-like decline. Hear me out.

Johnny Depp is a fascinating performer. He went from dreamy TV star of 21 Jump Street to captivating leading man by purposely selecting peculiar parts and projects, like Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. In the 90s he balanced commercial prospects like Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco with more offbeat productions like Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. From there, Depp developed the kind of career many actors dream of. It seemed he'd emerge from his own private island only to play the parts that really appealed to him. He was an artist, not just an actor! Commercial appeal and box office drawing power was no real concern of his. (Proof of his inability to inspire financiers can be found in the documentary Lost in La Mancha, which had Gilliam fighting tooth and nail to get his ill-fated Don Quixote movie made for the first time.) Then came his tipping point. In 2003, Depp went from respected but quirky leading man to a full-fledged A-list star with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

It's become part of the film's legend that Disney execs initially loathed Depp's take on Jack Sparrow. Michael Eisner reportedly screamed, "He's ruining the film!" while perusing dailies. But producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski backed Depp's Keith Richards-inspired pirate performance. Ultimately, it was this deeply strange portrayal that launched the film inspired by a theme park ride as an immensely successful franchise. Everyone loved Jack Sparrow. While the subsequent sequels drew less and less positive reviews from critics, audiences worldwide turned out in droves, resulting in Pirates 2-4 making about a billion dollars each. With that kind of bankability, the sky was the limit for Depp. And what did he do? He made Dark Shadows.

Re-teaming with recurring collaborator Tim Burton, Depp—as producer and star—aimed attempted to adapt the cult TV series into a comedy. He played Baranabas Collins, a role he'd dreamed of since childhood. But the results were absolutely atrocious. Critics loathed the film. In Eric's review, he offers, "Terrible as the pacing, structure and plot are, the real weak link in the chain is Barnabas himself. Depp isn’t bad in the part, but movie-goers are never given any reason to appreciate him as a character because nothing he does makes much sense."

Despite Depp's presumed box office drawing power, the $150 million film only made $79 million domestically. While it's international numbers pulled that up to $245, it's still generally regarded as a failure of star power. Then Depp has followed it up with another bizarre big budget movie which he produced and in which he plays a cartoonish figure too strange to connect with. His acting canon has devolved from thoughtful and compelling portraits of unusual heroes to a collection of wacky faces, weird accents, and topped off with the racially insensitive portrayal of the insane Indian outcast Tonto. It turns out Johnny Depp is not a performer who can do no wrong. Now consider the career of another TV star turned Hollywood power player Mike Myers. From Saturday Night Live he made a successful leap to the big screen with Wayne's World. There were early signs that Myer's own belief in his unerring comedic talent could prove a problem. He notably had Penelope Spheeris blocked from directing Wayne's World 2 after the pair fought over the edit of the wildly successful first film. Notably, no one calls the sequel a classic of any sort. Later, the success of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery gave Myers a new level of fame that gave him a lot more creative freedom and bigger budgets for his next creations. He became a producer for the franchise. While the sequels grew dumber and more outlandish, they made exponentially more at the box office. Leaping from $53 million to $206 mil, then $213 million. Sure, these sequels were less welcomed from critics (Rotten Tomatoes rankings sank from 70% to 51% and 54%), but Myers was on fire! He could do whatever he wanted! So, the actor/producer made The Love Guru. It has an over-the-top sensibility, racial insensitivity, and leaves you wondering who this movie was made for. Sound familiar?

With a budget of $62 million dollars and stars like Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, and Ben Kingsley, it made $40 million worldwide. Basically, it flopped hard. A.O. Scott of The New York Times called it "downright anti-funny," and Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News predicted it would be a career-killer for Myers. It basically was. Since then, Myers has resurrected Austin Powers for music videos with Britney Spears and Madonna. But a small role in Inglourious Basterds is the only film appearance he has made, not counting his recurring voice work in the Shrek franchise. Myers overplayed his hand. He decided he could do no wrong, went too far, and made a comedy I've yet to hear anyone defend. (Though the discussion of The Love Guru on How Did This Get Made is definitely worth a listen.)

Similarly, Depp is buying into his own reputation too much. Yes, we've loved him for the odd outsider characters he could create—but that was when they felt relatable despite all their quirks. These days Depp's characters are just a jumble of facial tics and one-liners without a beating heart to draw us in. They are just cartoonish clowns. As much as it pains me to say it as a long-time admirer of Depp, it's not fun anymore. He makes me wish he'd just return to his private island and leave us moviegoers alone. If follows Myers' example, he'll do just that, resurfacing only to revive Jack Sparrow and maybe bring about Rango 2-4.

UPDATE: Discussion of the portrayals of race in The Lone Ranger and The Love Guru has been edited since this piece was published.

It’s been six years since we first reported on a potential Justice League movie in the works. While six years isn’t really that long, relative to someone’s lifespan or how long these DC Comics characters have been around, it’s an eternity in the film business. Especially for a movie that isn’t a sequel.

One of the first casting rumors to hit at the time had acting newcomer Armie Hammer taking the role of Batman. Hammer has since gone on to make a name for himself with starring turns in David Fincher’s Facebook movie The Social Network, Clint Eastwood’s biopic J. Edgar and, most recently, the big screen adaptation of The Long Ranger (which didn’t appear to make much box office magic this past weekend.) But whatever happened to his initial involvement, and the year-long Australian production planned? He shares the story with Marc Fennell of the Australian SBS2 series The Feed, which you can watch below.

Hammer tells the Aussie Fennell, “You guys had an election and changed your Prime Minister who changed your tax rebate incentive program and then we had a writer’s strike in the US so we couldn’t change anything in the script and everybody wanted to change things, so… it was a perfect storm.” Just when you thought that damned writers’ strike might never come up again, it rears its ugly, Justice League-denying head. Seemingly rubbing it in everyone’s faces, Hammer went on to say, “If what we were going for would have happened would have been the perfect combination of the realistic grittiness of the Dark Knight series mixed with the amazing detail and, sort of tactile nature of the Star Trek series.” Considering the backlash against the hopeless violence Zack Snyder gave us with Man of Steel, Justice League may need to get cheerier should it ever actually get made.

Some of you may be saying to yourself, “But wait, didn’t you guys just report on current rumors that put Hammer back in the Batman role?” We sure did. But Hammer had something to say about this as well, though he didn’t directly reference the rumors.

When asked if he would be willing to entertain the role again, Hammer was rather pessimistic. “I don’t know man. That was before Marvel had crushed it with everything. It just doesn’t seem like it’ll be executed as well as Marvel’s done theirs. What they did is they created a following for each of the individual characters and then put them together in a movie, so you had all the people who were Thor fans, all the people who were Hulk fans, all the people who were Iron Man fans, all came together to watch this one mega movie. That was a great idea.”

Of course, saying Justice League won’t be as good as The Avengers just proves that Hammer isn’t a moron, but in no way speaks to how interested he is in playing Batman. This story isn’t over yet, people!

Meanwhile, peep Hammer’s leading man status alongside the overbearing Johnny Depp in the trailer for The Lone Ranger, in theaters now.

Animated sequel Despicable Me 2 stole the show this weekend following a highly successful early July 4th holiday opening. Gru and his wildly popular minion crew outdid themselves with an $82 million debut, well beyond the $56 million opening for the first movie back in 2010.

Adding in the two early days of holiday showings and the sequel's $142 million total for its first five days is the highest for an animated movie, just edging out Toy Story 3's $141 million five-day gross.

While the first place winner was a major success, second place was pure tragedy. The Lone Ranger rode in on a dead horse, banking just $29 million for a distant second place. Over the five-day holiday Ranger banked just $48 million, a distressing number in comparison to the movie's hefty $215 million budget. Even with international sales rolled in, the movie has yet to break the $100 million mark, making it a likely candidate for summer's biggest dud.

Kevin Hart's comedy special Let Me Explain, a film edition of his 2012 touring show which reportedly had over $32 million in ticket sales, added to that bottom line. In less than a thousand theaters it still generated just over $10 million this weekend, for a $17 million five-day total. That's the second highest weekend total for a stand-up comedy show, right behind 2000's The Original Kings of Comedy. It's also a big step up for Hart, whose Laugh At My Pain special only earned $1 million back in 2011.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:

To say that life in America now is different than it was back in the mid-19th century is a gross, almost laughable understatement. Social and technological advancements over the last 200 years have made life much simpler and comfortable than ever seen before, and not having those advancements made life hard back in the 1800s – particularly for those who lived out west. It would be a challenge for someone today to completely understand the lifestyle from a 21st century perspective, but when Armie Hammer first landed the role of The Lone Ranger he made his understanding of the time period a priority – a what he discovered is that life in the Old West was harder than you could possibly imagine.

As I mentioned a few days ago, last month I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe, New Mexico to take part in a press day for The Lone Ranger, and during my stay I had the terrific opportunity to sit down one-on-one with the star in the titular role. Check out our conversation below, where Hammer talks about tackling an iconic pop culture character, working with both director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, and his surprise that we didn’t all just die out in the desert years and years ago.

You were here during production, yeah?

Yeah, we were here for probably three or four months before.

Very cool.

Yeah.

That must add to the whole mystique of the desert.

Paradise. Yeah, it was like you wake up here and then you go to work and you ride a horse all day and you’re like, “I think I actually am a cowboy.”

Did you have any of the ranger skills going into making the movie?

I mean, I probably had like a hint of some of them, maybe most of them, but nothing like the extensive skills I would need to actually do the movie. I’d thrown a lasso. I think I lassoed my brother a couple times for fun, but never a moving object especially not a Gatling gun, which I had to lasso at one point in the movie.

Where did this project start for you?

Yeah, I mean, the project had been around for a while. I think Jerry and Johnny started talking about it back in 2006 or something like that. And then I got involved at the end, pretty much, to right before we started shooting. I just went in and auditioned and auditioned four or five times and then had a good conversation with Gore and he was like, “Do you want to do the movie?” and I was like, “Is this binding? Yeah, I do. Sure, let’s go.”

When you take on a new character, is there a particular thing that you like to hone into first, and especially with this character, what was it that?

It’s research. I basically honed in on just daily life at the time, so before I learned anything about being a Texas Ranger or the history of the television show or anything like that, I want to know what that person had to do to feed themselves every day. I want to know what that person had to do if they wanted to take a shit. I want to know what that person had to do if they had to go visit their cousin in another town and I promise you, it was the hardest thing in the world, each one of those things then, and I just wanted to know about that, because that really informs everything about the characters from that point on.

When it came to the research part of it, I have to assume that you also looked back at the history of The Lone Ranger.

Then we got the radio series and the TV show. We got the comics. We got the books. We’ve got the 1980s movie, The Legend of the Lone Ranger, that whole thing.

What would you say that you took the most from?

It’s funny, probably the original show, just because so many of the core elements of this movie came directly from the show, whether it’s the bad guys, Silver, the mask, hat, horse, Tonto, I mean everything is original. So, that’s kind of where all of that came from, so probably the show.

In terms of working with Gore Verbinski, he is a fantastic visual director, but I’m also curious about what he’s like to work with as an actor’s director. How much, was it a collaborative process? What was it like every day?

It’s very collaborative in as much as he’s seen this movie a thousand times before you even say any of the words out loud. So, it’s about, you know, sort of understanding what he wants and then figuring out how to put that through your own process to give it to him. That’s kind of, and he’s great. He’s very verbal. He’s very communicative. He’s a great director, very smart. Very smart.

He has worked with Johnny Depp on quite a number of projects, so I assume they have their own kind of shorthand. Was that ever a challenge you had to face on the set?

Not really, because it was, it never felt exclusive. It was like the most inclusive club I’ve ever seen in my life. As soon as I showed up it was like, “Have a seat. OK, here’s what we’re doing.” I just felt like a part of it the whole time. I mean, it probably helped that I was playing the Lone Ranger.

The title role!

I did feel like a big part of it, which was great.

In addition to Verbinski, you’ve had the chance to work with some really great directors these past couple of years. David Fincher, Clint Eastwood, Tarsem Singh… did you ever notice any kind of through-lines in between the way that they work? Do you see connections between them?

Yeah, but what I’m paying attention to, more than anything else, are the differences. What does this guy do differently and how does that make his movies end up differently? So, he does it like this. How does that affect what happens on the screen? It’s like film school, it’s essentially like I’m just in the most fun film school in the world.

What did Gore Verbinski introduce new that you hadn’t seen on previous sets?

Gore does all of his own storyboarding and he draws it out super, super simply, like literally just stick figures, to the point where no one knows at all what is going on on the story boards. It just looks like a bunch of scribble.

As long as he gets it.

It’s like a Rorschach test. I mean, I think, “What’s going on there, with the chicken?” and then you’ll do this shot and you’ll do this scene and he’ll take a still out of it and put it right over the story board and it’s like, you’ll lift and go, “Oh...that’s the guy. That’s the... Well, that’s perfect,” and it always worked out perfectly. So, that’s, you know, I don’t know if I’ll have the ability to do that, but he made it look easy.

A couple weeks ago there was a featurette that came online about you on the spirit platform and it, you looked fairly terrified…which is completely understandable.

I was fairly terrified.

At the same time, though, this is a very action heavy role for you, and we see you pull off a lot stunts in this movie. What would you say was the most challenging day on set?

There were a couple night shoots, that we would just shoot all night, but in a river, like freezing our asses off, all night, nowhere to get warm, because it’s like you get out and you just get colder. There’s no sun and you’re just cold.

In the middle of the desert.

In the middle of nowhere, Utah. That was hard. Being dragged behind the horse probably, bring dragged behind the horse was probably like the moment where I came the closest to being like, “I’m out. Someone else do this. I’m done.”

Were you fighting to do your own stunts? Is most of it is you versus using a stunt double?

I think everybody was fighting for me to do it. I was. I know Gore was. I think it’s a big part of this movie. I think, you know, to have a big action sequence happen and not have a hand or the back of my head in the frame, you know, “Oh, this is really going on. This is happening.” It makes the audience feel like they’re in it and that they’re part of it more.

Just to kind of touch on the western genre in a more general sense - over the last century the popularity of the western has come in waves, but has long been a part of filmmaking history. What do you connect to in the western genre and what makes it such an important film tradition?

I mean, as an American, Westerns are a very specifically American form of storytelling, much like Bourbon has to be made in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Champagne has to be made in France. Whiskey you can make anywhere. Scotch you can, well Scotland, mostly, but I mean you’ve got Japanese scotch and stuff like that, and it’s ok, but Westerns have to take place in America. I mean, obviously you’ve got Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone, I mean arguably one of the best Western directors wasn’t even American, but every one of his Western movies took place in America, because this was the last place where there was that most unclaimed open frontier, where you could just go and do whatever the piss you wanted to do, and it’s like, that thing of seeing the good guy wake up and do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do, and he’s got to feed his family. He’s got to fix that fence. He’s just got to do it. He doesn’t have a choice. That’s good, that’s like good American stock.

As you’ve learned, an extremely hard lifestyle.

The most difficult, I mean, I don’t know how they all made it. We’re lucky we’re all here.

It’s true. They could have all just died out there in the desert.

I’m surprised they didn’t.

Were you kind of a western kid? Were you kind of the kid who played with Western...?

Yeah, I did Indian Guides as a kid, which is kind of like Boy Scouts but with a more Native American slant to it, always outdoors, always playing outside.

With so many titles to choose from, Netflix Instant's library can be overwhelming. So we bring you this biweekly column as a tool to cut through the clutter by highlighting some now streaming titles that pair well with the latest theatrical releases.

Looking to The Lone Ranger, Despicable Me 2 and The Heat for inspiration, we've pulled together a selection of standout westerns, colorful animated adventures, and features with kick-ass heroines.

The Lone Ranger

How did a lawman named John Reid transform into the legendary hero The Lone Ranger? This big-budgeted tent pole with a western flare starring Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter wants to clue you in. Gore Verbinski directs. (Read our review here.)

The July 4th holiday is a fantastic time to revel in the most All-American genre: westerns! Whether you want something classic or cutting edge, flashy or thoughtful, Netflix has got a title that should tantalize.

True Grit (1969) For something classic and full of old school brass, check out John Wayne in his Academy Award-winning turn as the cantankerous U.S. Marshal with a heart of gold, Rooster Cogburn. The adventure begins when tomboy Mattie Ross's father is murdered, and his killer runs off. Determined to find justice for her slain father, Mattie hires a marshal as stubborn as herself to help her track the varmint down. Kim Darby and Glen Campbell co-star; Henry Hathaway directs.

Blackthorn (2011) For a more modern take on westerns, try this indie that imagines Butch Cassidy survived that legendary showdown in 1808, but fled to a corner of Bolivia where he created a new name (James Blackthorn) and found some peace. Craving to see the US once more before he dies, this legend begins a journey home along with an ambitious young thief, who attracts all sorts of trouble. Sam Shepard stars; Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau co-star. Mateo Gil directs.

Rango (2011) Also directed by Verbinski and starring Depp is this deeply quirky western that centers on a pet chameleon who must learn to blend into the deserts of the Wild West when a freak accident separates him from his humans. Left to his own devices, Rango creates an intimidating persona in the town of Dirt, and soon becomes their new sheriff, entangled in a treacherous quest to uncover what happened to the local water supply. Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher, Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty also lend their voices.

Despicable Me 2

In this sequel to Despicable Me, Gru thinks he's out of the villain game. But when a new super criminal emerges, the Anti-Villain League calls upon this ex-baddie to be a hero once more! Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, and Russell Brand lend their voices; Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud direct. (Read our review here.)

Animation is a great venue for unconventional hero tales, from fuzzy malcontents to cross-dressing nation-savers, and toon-hating detectives. This holiday weekend, you can have your pick of three dazzling animated adventures.

The Lorax (2012) Inspired by the environmentalism-themed children's book by Dr. Seuss, this feature cartoon—also produced by Illumination Entertainment—tells the regrettable tale of the Once-ler. Once, he was an entrepreneur with a dream and—thanks to the insistence of the titular tree spirit—a thought toward sustainability. But as the money comes rolling in for his Thneeds—a thing that everyone needs don't you know—the Once-ler begins to rationalize away his commitment to the ecosystem around him. But can a boy with a big heart save the day? Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Betty White lend their voices. Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda direct.

Mulan (1998) Based on an Chinese legend, this vibrant action-adventure unfolds the incredible tale of Mulan, a girl who masqueraded as a young man to spare her crippled father from having to return to the front lines of a brutal war. Hiding her true identity, Mulan (Ming-Na) trains to be a soldier, and no matter the obstacle forges ahead with the kind of persistence that is demanded of a true hero. Along the way, she's helped by a lucky cricket and a troublesome dragon named Mushu (Eddie Murphy). BD Wong, Miguel Ferrer, George Takei, Pat Morita, and Harvey Fierstein also lend their voices.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) A comedy-noir suitable for kids, this groundbreaking feature won three Academy Awards in large part because of its astounding blending of live-action actors and hand-drawn animated characters. In a world where people and toons live side-by-side, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is fed up with their wacky antics. A hard-boiled detective with debts piling up, he's forced to take on a toon case when a major studio needs to wrangle the attention of their unfocused star, Roger Rabbit. Soon, one sleazy snooping job leads Eddie into a murder case and literally bound to the loony toon. Christopher Lloyd co-stars as a local judge who has discovered a way to kill toons who get out of hand. Robert Zemeckis directs.

The Heat

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy team up for an action-comedy that is sidesplittingly funny and undeniably sharp. Bullock is an uptight, by-the-book FBI agent; McCarthy is a rule-breaking, ball-busting Boston cop. But they must team up to bring down a powerful and mysterious drug lord. Demián Bichir, Michael McDonald, and Tony Hale co-star; Paul Feig directs. (Read our review here.)

Yup, The Heat is that buddy cop movie that stars women instead of two veiny-necked dudes. But rather than making the jokes about women in the workplace, Feig and writer Katie Dippold made sure their heroines were badass cops like Riggs and Murtaugh, and the humor came from their personality clashes. With The Heat kicking ass at the box office this weekend, it seemed fitting to focus on movies where the female protagonists were kick-ass at their jobs…sometimes literally.

Haywire (2012) Before she was playing sidekick to The Rock in Fast & Furious 6, MMA fighter Gina Carano was Steven Soderbergh's mesmerizing and muscle-bound muse for this unconventional spy thriller. "Thinking of her as a woman would be a mistake," is the warning given about her character, Mallory Kane, a top-notch secret agent whose been framed, betrayed, and is dead-set on revenge. The casts contains Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, and Antonio Banderas, but spoiler alert none are a match for Carano's raw power and lightning-fast speed. Soderbergh directs.

Nine to Five (1980) This broad comedy centers on women who kick ass at work in another way. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton play three women who begrudgingly work for a sexist and lecherous boss (Dabney Coleman) who takes credit for their best work, and attempts to bully and blackmail one into an affair. When he pushes too far these ladies push back by kidnapping him and covertly taking over the company. effecting change and secretly shattering the glass ceiling. But how long can having your boss trussed up at home last? Colin Higgins directs.

Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012) Maybe you're raising an eyebrow on this choice, but one thing I learned from pop princess Katy Perry's concert documentary is what a hard-working woman she is. This doc produced by the people behind Project Runway and Top Chef chronicles Perry's journey from the cradle to the stage intercut with spectacular song numbers from her California Dreams Tour. You see Perry prepping, planning, working off her fast food addiction, doing costume fittings, rehearsals, meet and greets, and the show itself all while desperately trying to find time to spend with her oft-far flung husband Russell Brand. I raved about this movie upon its initial release, and watching it the other day, I got caught up all over again. As Perry's struggling with the heartbreak of her failing marriage, we witness what "The show must go on" means as she pockets her pain and plasters on a massive smile so as not to disappoint the thousands of fans who have gathered to see the pop star that inspires them. This is a concert doc that demands to be enjoyed. Give it a shot.

At some point, walking into a theater lobby or clicking through some trailers online, you have definitely said to yourself: "Wait, they're remaking that?" It's a longstanding complaint that there are no new ideas in Hollywood, and getting upset about the amount of remakes and sequels is as useless as yelling about the heat in the summer. But even if you pay attention to what studios are developing and acquiring, like we do, it can be really hard to keep track of just how many ideas are new again. Just when you think you've got a grip on it, you hear the Captain Planet movie is happening, and the world is turned upside down all over again.

This weekend's The Lone Ranger is definitely one of those headscratchers, a classic character from radio dramas and TV serials who has been turned into another kooky Johnny Depp role, with explosions and train chases thrown in to keep the masses entertained. Be honest: if I had told you a year ago that The Lone Ranger was becoming a movie, you wouldn't have known if I was joking. Think you're smarter than that? Then take our remake quiz below, to see just how much attention you've been paying, or how well you can guess which ideas Hollywood knows better than to ever try and remake.

Get out a pen and paper, and write down whether you think these 30 movies are in fact being remade. Click over to the next page to see the answers, with links to prove that we really didn't make up a lot of these. Don't forget to share your scores in the comments!

1. Beauty and the Beast

2. Weird Science

3. The Towering Inferno

4. Annie

5. Trading Places

6. Robocop

7. Grapes of Wrath

8. Vacation

9. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

10. Oldboy

11. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

12. Smokey and the Bandit

13. All About Eve

14. A Star Is Born

15. The Mummy

16. Escape From New York

17. Rebecca

18. A Prophet

19. The Sting

20. Plan 9 from Outer Space

21. Animal House

22. Endless Love

23. Point Break

24. It's A Mad, Mad Mad Mad World

25. The Crow

26. Guys and Dolls

27. An Officer and a Gentleman

28. Poltergeist

29. Carrie

30. Dog Day Afternoon

1. TRUE. Yes, Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that's been adapted a million times, but the fact that it's Disney considering the remake puts it in the remake category. Do they really think they can top the 1992 animated version? They're giving it a shot.

2. TRUE. Word of a Weird Science remake broke in April, and with 21 Jump Street writer Michael Bacall on board, it actually sounds more promising than most of these. They're planning to make it an "edgier R-rated comedy." Brace yourself for the inevitable Anthony Michael Hall cameo.

3. FALSE. 1974's disaster film The Towering Inferno was a massive hit, and sits just behind Finding Nemo as the 54th-biggest film of all time when you adjust for inflation. Though the idea of a disaster inside a skyscraper is probably a little distasteful after 9/11, I still wouldn't be surprised to see this actually happen.

4. TRUE. With Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhane Wallis in the title role and Cameron Diaz newly on board as Miss Hannigan, this updated musical is set for a Christmas release next year. Technically it's based on the original comic strip, but by far the most version of the story is John Huston's 1980 film.

5. FALSE. This 1983 comedy starring Eddie Murphy is a straight-up classic that should never be touched, but come on-- you're just waiting for them to announce a remake anyway, right?

6. TRUE. Even with some bad buzz behind it and the mystifying decision to shoot in Toronto instead of Detroit, this upcoming remake at least has some promise with the casting of Michael Keaton as the bad guy, and up-and-comer Joel Kinnaman in the suit. It's coming out February 7, 2014.

7. TRUE. News about this one broke just yesterday. No, we don't know what Spielberg is thinking either.

8. TRUE. Well, true for now at least. Christina Applegate and Ed Helms are set to star in the remake of the National Lampoon 1983 classic, but a dispute over the rating within the studio has it delayed for the moment. Helms would be playing the Griswolds' son Rusty all grown up, and Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo are set to cameo in their original roles. But if the studio still can't decide itself what it wants the rating to be, we might be waiting for this one a while yet.

9. FALSE. Given how many filibusters have made headlines lately, and been compared to this Frank Capra classic, you'd think that a remake wouldn't be far behind. But Mr. Smith seems a little too optimistic for modern politics, don't you think?

10. TRUE. We're dying to see what Spike Lee does with Chan-wook Park's mega-violent Korean original, especially with Sharlto Copley, Elizabeth Olsen and Josh Brolin in the major roles. It's set for release this October, and we're expecting to get a look at it at Comic Con in a few weeks as well.

11. TRUE. A seemingly endless stream of directors have attempted to do another adaptation of Jules Verne's novel (the first and most famous came out in 1954, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason), and David Fincher seemed really close to making it happen until production hit another delay in May, with Brad Pitt balking at taking the lead role. But Australia has ponied up a ton of money in tax breaks to make it happen, and Disney promises they'll start shooting in 2014.

12. FALSE. Even though Eastbound and Down paid homage by naming itself after the theme song, Smokey and the Bandit seems to still be a relic of another time, or maybe there's just nobody bold enough to try and step into Burt Reynolds' shoes. Yet.

13. FALSE. It's possible that All About Eve is one of those movies that just never needs to be remade, given how much it's influenced everything that's come since then (see Mad Men's Bob Benson as just one recent example). But if you found enough great actresses willing to chew the scenery, and one willing to step up to the Bette Davis plate, this is a story that could easily get remade. Just wait and see.

14. TRUE. A Star Is Born is one of the most frequently remade films in Hollywood as it is, with three versions already out there and another one kicking around for years now, most recently with Clint Eastwood directing. Beyonce recently dropped out of the lead role, though, which has us less excited… and wondering if it will get off the ground after all.

15. TRUE. The Brendan Fraser-led series was already a remake in itself, but since that franchise fizzled out in 2008, Universal is attempting to start over again, with two new writers brought on board earlier this year. They're not just any writers either-- Billy Ray was behind The Hunger Games, while Jon Spaihts did Prometheus. They still have to convince us to forget Brendan Fraser, though, which is no small feat.

16. TRUE. Yes, seriously. Despite the generally unremarkable remake of The Thing from 2011, another John Carpenter classic is on its way to the remake floor, with Tom Hardy or Jason Statham possibly up to step into the role originated by Kurt Russell. Those two are pretty much the only people who could get us interested in this… but it still seems like a huge gamble, to mess with something so beloved.

17. TRUE. Somehow the only film by Alfred Hitchcock to ever win Best Picture really is getting the remake treatment, with Danish A Royal Affair director Nikolaj Arcel hired to direct back in March. Actors bold enough to play roles originated by Joan Fontaine and Sir Laurence Olivier have not yet been found.

18. TRUE. Jacques Audiard's French-language tale of crime and redemption is a little too recent to be considered a classic-- it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2010-- but it's headed for a remake anyway at the hands of Sony. Producer Neal Moritz promises he has the trust of Audiard, but he doesn't yet have a director or cast.

19. FALSE. Some things are apparently still sacred-- The Sting is a Best Picture winner, a giant financial hit, and not anywhere close to being remade. Somewhere, Paul Newman is saying "thank you."

20. TRUE. Yes, really-- Ed Wood's film, often called the worst movie ever made, has been remade by a guy who wants to take away the campiness and make it edgy and grittier. It's impressive to see something that's a worst idea than the original Plan 9, at least.

21. FALSE. Sure, we're still living in a world full of its knockoffs, from 21 and Over to half the jokes in Monsters University, but Animal House itself seems safe for now.

22. TRUE. This is one of those remakes that not too many people will object to. The 1981 original, with Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt, was a modest success, and the currently filming remake starring Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde seems headed for the same fate. It comes out Valentine's Day of next year, if you're interested.

23. TRUE. Sigh. Yes. It's really happening. Sorry for disturbing your eternal rest, Patrick Swayze.

24. FALSE. Throwing a bunch of people into a chase film comedy sounds like an infinitely remake-able idea, and they kind of did it with 2001's Rat Race. But the proper Hollywood remake still isn't happening, though you can always check out the 2007 Bollywood remake if you're curious.

25. TRUE. Because no comic book character can be left to rest, The Crow is on its way back to the screen, with Luke Evans finally set in the lead role, and the comic's creator officially lending his support. They're planning a presence at Comic Con if you want to scope it out for yourself.

26. TRUE. The original Guys and Dolls is a Broadway musical, but the 1955 movie version starring Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brandon is pretty damn famous, and Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have a serious legacy to live up to if they wind up taking roles in the planned remake, which Fox is developing.

27. FALSE. This 1982 drama/romance isn't quite as revered as lot of other films from that period of the 80s, but it was a massive hit, and you'd think a remake would work just as well in present-day as it did then. Did we just give them an idea? We demand 10% of the profits if this actually happens.

28. TRUE. Even Steven Spielberg-produced classics isn't immune from the remake mania. Plans for this remake are finally shaping up, with casting beginning now and Monster House-- another Spielberg-shepherded project-- director Gil Kenan on board to direct. Haunted house stories never go out of style, we suppose… but will they replace the static-filled TV with a computer screen showing the Twitter fail whale?

29. TRUE. Oh yes, it's happening. There are posters and trailers and everything, and Chloe Moretz seems to be doing her damnedest to live up to Sissy Spacek's mesmerizing original performance. It's set for an October 18 release this year.

30. FALSE. Sidney Lumet's 1975 Best Picture nominee feels remarkably modern, even though the Brooklyn it's set in barely exists any more and the gay relationship at the center-- Al Pacino is robbing a bank to pay for his partner's (Chris Sarandon) sex change operation-- is a little old-school. But anyone who thought about remaking this one stopped themselves about four seconds into that thought. Thank God for small favors.

It's been almost exactly ten years since the first Pirates of the Caribbean surprised the hell out of everyone by being pretty great, and it's easy to forget how genuinely wonderful that was. Johnny Depp was suddenly a mega-star, pirates were suddenly cool again, and Gore Verbinski proved that the right combination of action and humor could make even a theme park ride turn into a pretty great movie.

It's especially worth remembering that as we prepare for The Lone Ranger, which continues releasing new trailers like this one (via Apple)that feel much more in the spirit of the original Pirates, and come close to allowing us to forgive Verbinski for the mess of the second two. His and Depp's last collaboration, Rango, was also a Western of sorts, and the two seem to be bringing a similar jaunty energy to The Lone Ranger, though with the added benefit of an enormous budget and a ton of explosions. We're still not getting much of a sense of Armie Hammer's character here, but he's very clearly set up as the square-jawed straight man to Johnny Depp's wilder Tonto. Hopefully they're selling the movie on another outlandish Johnny Depp performance, but Hammer will do a better job anchoring the drama than, say, Orlando Bloom in the first Pirates.

The Lone Ranger arrives just in time for the July 4 holiday weekend, and after dropping a ton of money on the project, Disney will be working hard to guarantee it's a hit. Honestly, after being skeptical for a long time, I'm starting to think this could be a lot of fun. Anybody else willing to join me?

While the first ever screening of Monsters University was the big highlight of today’s Walt Disney presentation at CinemaCon, it wasn’t all that the studio had in store for the audience in The Colosseum in Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace. The studio also showed off a full 20 minutes of action-packed footage from Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which, in addition to the recently-released trailer, makes the film look like it could be one of the biggest surprise hits of the summer season.

Set up by Verbinski, the first scene is set shortly after John Reid (Armie Hammer) and Tonto (Johnny Depp) have met for the first time. John is heading home from law school when he gets caught up in a prison break on a train, as a group of outlaws try to break out the evil Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner). Unfortunately, Reid trying to do the right thing gets in the way of Tonto’s plans for revenge against Cavendish, and after a series of events the two men end up getting manacled together.

As the footage begins, John and Tonto are standing on top of the train, which seems to be without an engineer, and notice that the rail is actually unfinished. While Tonto just wants to jump off and get away, John refuses, saying that he is unwilling to sacrifice the lives of all of the people on board. Each one grabbing the chain that ties them together, they get into a tugging match that ends when one of the outlaws emerges and interrupts them. John and Tonto react to this turn of events by running at and clotheslining the outlaw… but this victory is short-lived, as they quickly run into another criminal who has two pistols trained on them. John raises his hands in the air in surrender, but his hands end up getting caught on a mail hook that lifts him and Tonto off the train and away from the gunman. The duo swings around on the pole back to the train and Tonto catches the outlaw they clotheslined between his legs, throwing him through one window of the train and having him crash the opposite side. Tonto then lands back on the train, but John is left hanging off the side, his new "friend" pulling him up by the chain that connects them.

When they are both back on top of the train, the second outlaw once again corners them, this time with a rifle. John puts up his dukes, goading the criminal to fight like a man, saying that he did a bit of boxing in law school. Unfortunately, this approach only ends up with John getting hit in the face with the butt of the shotgun. Just as the outlaw is about to shoot them, we see a whip wrap around his ankle and pull him off the train – revealing that John’s brother Dan (James Badge Dale) and his crew of rangers have come to the rescue.

Dan jumps on to the train with Tonto and John and they race to the front engine, trying to detach the cars so that the passengers don’t get hurt. Tonto goes under the train to do so, but this accidentally leaves John and Tonto on the speeding engine, separated from Dan. The track ends and the train crashes, sending the duo flying. They survive, but are terrified to see that the tipped over train is now sliding towards them. A piece of metal flies off of the locomotive and pierces the ground between the heroes, and luckily the train stops before it can crush them to death.

With their manacles snapped, Tonto begins to walk away, but John tries to stop him, saying that he has to take the Indian in. John tries to tackle his future partner, but ends up getting flipped in the process. Eventually John just grabs Tonto’s ankle and gets dragged along until finally Tonto is stopped by Dan and his posse on horseback.

Going back to town, Tonto is thrown in jail. With John standing outside the cell, we are introduced to Rebecca Reid (Ruth Wilson), Dan’s wife and John’s old flame. The two discuss how long it’s been since they’ve last seen each other – nine years – and Rebecca tells him that he never should have come back. Danny, Rebecca’s son, then comes in and announces that Dan and his group of rangers are going back to scout in Indian territory. John and Rebecca exit, and Danny is left watching Tonto pray in his cell, mysteriously flapping his arms like a bird and somehow getting more light to shine in. Tonto then quickly turns around and scares Danny away. Outside Dan tells John that they are going after Cavendish, needing to bring him to justice. Dan then deputizes his brother as a Texas Ranger and allows him to go with him, giving him his father’s badge.

As they ride, they see Silver, Tonto’s white horse, standing on a cliff, and Dan remarks to John that it’s a "spirit horse," a creature that will take you to "the other side."

In the second clip (which Verbinski set up as following an ambush that left all of the Texas Rangers in Dan’s posse - including John – dead) we see John wake up dazed and confused somehow perched on a tall wooden structure on top of a cliff in the middle of the desert with strange paint lines on his chin. After finding his way down from the structure, he comes across a camp where he finds some water – which he drinks with great thirst – and clothing that belongs to his brother and the other rangers.

He then notices that Tonto is a few feet away talking to his horse. John grabs a gun and tries to sneak up his future friend, but Tonto turns to him and says that if he wants to sneak up on an Indian he should do it from downwind. It’s then revealed that John actually died during the ambush, and that while Tonto tried to bury him with the rest of the rangers he was somehow still alive. John is then told that Silver has identified him as a "spirit walker" - one who has been to the other side and returned, one who cannot be killed in battle, to which Tonto says, "Horse definitely stupid."

Later that night, John and Tonto sit around a campfire, cooking a rabbit on a spit when a bunch of rabbits come hoping up. As they talk, Tonto tears some meat off and throws it to the bunnies, which hiss and reveal some insanely sharp teeth before diving for and devouring the meat and scampering off (further expanding the fantasy world that the film exists in). Tonto continues to explain the spirit world, saying that Cavendish is actually a Wendigo - a spirit that is messing with the fabric of nature – and that he was told in a vision that a spirit walker would help him on his quest to take down Cavendish (albeit he was disappointed that it was John that was selected and not Dan).

John then explains that he wants revenge against the man that killed his brother, and Tonto says that while the rangers rode out with eight men, he only dug seven graves – meaning that one of the rangers betrayed the others. Tonto then gives his new friend a mask, saying that he is better off staying dead. John is frustrated and flabbergasted by this news, leading Tonto to give him a hard slap across the face, eventually pointing to the feathered friend on his head and saying, "Bird angry." They then agree to work together to take down Cavendish and avenge Dan’s life, to which Tonto says, ""Justice is what I seek, Kemosabe."

The footage had an excellent balance of both humor and action, putting the movie firmly on my radar. The project had its fair share of problems getting made – facing budget issues before production even began – but the film looks legitimately epic and fun. Look for The Lone Ranger when it rides into theaters on July 3rd.

For more of our CinemaCon 2013 coverage head over HERE!

Though the early summer blockbusters like Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 are stealing all the attention right now, it won't be long before we're gearing up for the July 4 holiday, and with it The Lone Ranger. The latest collaboration between Pirates of the Caribbean veterans Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, plus Armie Hammer tossed in to play the title role, the movie looks big and comic and adventurous like the Pirates films, but with an Old West twist. And this latest trailer, which premiered at Yahoo!, shows off the humor more than any other-- which might be exactly what it needs to save it.

Not that The Lone Ranger necessarily needs saving. After a a shaky start of production that led to a tighter budget, The Lone Ranger started looking like the goofy, energetic fun that everyone has been trying to replicate since the first Pirates movie. And that goofiness was exactly what they surely needed, since every serious big-budget Western to give it a shot in recent years has flopped miserably-- Jonah Hex, Cowboys & Aliens and even Wild Wild West must have looked to Disney like zombies, threatening to drag Lone Ranger back into the grave with them. Even Disney's won recent flop John Carter had plenty of scenes taking place in desert identical to those in The Lone Ranger; anyone denying flashbacks would have been fooling themselves.

Which is why showing off the sense of humor in these Lone Ranger spots is incredibly important, even if the jokes in this one-- a girl who punches a guy and then kisses him?-- aren't especially fresh. The best moment comes through the editing of the trailer itself, when the music and the gunshots and the cuts all synch up for some rat-a-tat energy. Is there more of that in the movie itself? We sure hope so. Otherwise the graveyard of serious modern blockbuster Westerns might include The Lone Ranger despite everything.

We're nervous about The Lone Ranger for a lot of reasons, from the notoriously messy production to Gore Verbinski's final Pirates film to the simple fact that any time a studio spends a huge amount of money on a film, you can guarantee they'll at least attempt to sanitize it to death. Johnny Depp's brazen effort at playing a Native American character is another huge hurdle-- sure, he's part Cherokee, but white people playing Native Americans has been a huge Hollywood problem for decades. That said, Tonto's look on this new character poster? Very cool.

The new look at the character premiered (where else?) on Tumblr), and it came along with a poster for Armie Hammer's titular Lone Ranger, though there's not nearly as much makeup going on for him. Take a look at that one:

Here are the brief little bits of character description that came along with each of them:

Does this tell us anything about The Lone Ranger we didn't know already? Nah. Like Pirates of the Caribbean before it, this movie will succeed only if it manages to make something surprising, comic and hugely entertaining out of a very thin premise. Verbinski and Depp were justly celebrated for pulling ti off back in 2003-- it was based on a theme park ride, for God's sake-- and they've got a bonus in Hammer, who has way more personality than poor Orlando Bloom ever did. The Lone Ranger is coming to theaters July 3, as the linchpin of Disney's summer movie slate. Are you on board?

Everyone knows that the Super Bowl broadcast is one of the biggest advertising opportunities around, and that fact isn't lost on the major movie studios. Every year they shill out millions upon millions of dollars to take advantage of the incredible number of viewers watching. Last year brought previews for movies like The Avengers, 21 Jump Street, The Hunger Games, John Carter, and Battleship. But can we expect from this year's how?

The Hollywood Reporter got the inside scoop on the various trailers that will be playing during this year's big game, and in addition to re-confirming spots for films like Oz The Great and Powerful and The Star Trek Into Darkness, they also revealed some previously unannounced titles. Perhaps the biggest name in the bunch is Justin Lin's Fast Six, which is scheduled to be hitting theaters this May but has yet to produce a single teaser, let alone a theatrical trailer. Other movies set to air spots include anticipated titles like Iron Man 3, The Lone Ranger and World War Z. This year 30-second spots during the game have run between $3.7 million and $3.8 million.

Perhaps even more interesting than the movies that will be airing spots are the ones that aren't bothering. 20th Century Fox, Sony and Warner Bros. are all staying clear of the Super Bowl fray and won't be airing commercials despite the fact that they will be releasing some of the big movies this summer, including The Wolverine, White House Down, Elysium, The Great Gatsby, The Hangover Part III, Pacific Rim and Man of Steel.

Which Super Bowl spot are you most excited to see? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to come back on Sunday, as we will be posting all of the trailers as they arrive online!

A curious bit of genre bending has been emerging in Hollywood. The superhero movie trend has had a side effect I don't think many of us anticipated. With the success of that genre, studios have been eager to spin other memorable characters, from Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman) to Santa Claus (Rise of the Guardians) into superheroes, complete with tough and icon looks and flashy new adventures packed with action. Of course, as a cowboy, The Lone Ranger has always been a hero and action icon, but his latest incarnation in Gore Verbinski's Lone Ranger makes him so much more.

The big budgeted action-adventure from Disney stars Armie Hammer as the titular masked man, and features Johnny Depp as his Native American sidekick Tonto. With a frenzied collision of grand set pieces, train robberies, and glimpses of the movie's buzzed about action sequences, the first trailer had plenty of panache but little in the way of plot. Now the feature's second trailer gives us an introduction to the premise of a man meant to become a legend. And there's even more action on display. Check it our below, or in even higher-res at Apple:

I have to admit, the first trailer did nothing for me. But this one actually gives a sense of the humor that the filmmakers have promised would be a part of this adaptation, as well as giving some insight to the characters. While Depp's pidgin dialect still makes me wince, Hammer's Ranger is already taking shape. He seems a noble man with a painful past who must forgo his identity to fight for justice. So basically, he's the Batman of the Wild West. That works for me.

The Lone Ranger arrives in theaters July 3 2013. More information can be found in our Blend Film Database.

Headed into theaters next summer is The Lone Ranger, Gore Verbinski's take on the story of the Lone Ranger and his friend Tonto. Yesterday, we got a look at an intriguing looking teaser poster. Today comes the trailer for the film, which not only shows Armie Hammer's character in action, but also shows a lot of action in general.

Katey noted the aesthetic of the teaser poster that went online yesterday, mentioning that it looks like a gritty vigilante story as opposed to the old-timey Western feel we've gotten from the previously released images for the Disney movie. What's presented to us in this trailer shows off a sequence of action packed scenes that follows in the same tone as the poster and leaves off with the image of the mask at the end. You can watch the trailer below or in HD at Apple.com.

"There comes a time, Kemosabe, when good man must wear mask."

The Lone Ranger is described as a "thrilling adventure infused with action and humor." We don't see much humor in this trailer, but the thrilling adventure comes through loud and clear. Explosions, train crashes, horse riding, guns blazing, bullets flying (one in slow-mo) and more are revealed in the video! Beyond the action scenes glimpsed, there are also a couple great hero-shots, including the wide shot of The Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) and Tonto (Johnny Depp) on horseback at the cliff side, the silhouette of Hammer's character on top of the train from behind the conductor, and the shadow of Tonto rising up.

The Lone Ranger arrives in theaters July 3 2013. More information can be found in our Blend Film Database.

Executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer's ambitious re-invention of The Lone Ranger has hit just about every hurdle you can imagine. First, production was stalled indefinitely until the producers could slash the budget. Having cut about $35 million from the project, the film went into production, but hit repeated delays due to inclement weather that damaged custom-made sets, demanding time for repairs. As the production dragged on, producers pushed director Gore Verbinski to cut more from the action-packed script. The project's prospects were grim when the tragic news hit that a crewmember had died on its Los Angeles set.

And that brings us to today, where The Lone Ranger has now been in production for at least 140 days. In June when we recounted many of the delays above had ballooned the film's budget back to the $250 million range, production was expected to wrap by the end of August. Now, THR reports the principal photography portion of the shoot may at last draw to a close in September. At this point, it's unknown how big the budget has bloated or what shape the film that reteams Pirates of the Caribbean's director and star, Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp respectively, is in.

To give some perspective to reports that The Lone Ranger shoot will ultimately clock in at 140-150 days, consider that the plagued production of Steven Spielberg's Jaws took 116 days, and filming of the entirety of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy took 274 days. While both of these films are regarded as modern classics, this lengthy production time will likely be taken into consideration with the rest of The Lone Rangers' production problems, thereby dampening enthusiasm for the seemingly cursed feature.

With its final budget unknown it's difficult to guess how much The Lone Ranger will have to earn at the box office to break even as early estimates projected that--accounting for the additional costs of print and advertising--$800 million worldwide would be required if the project came in at $250 mil. But simply put, it will need to be one of the biggest hits of 2013 to not be a bomb.

You might think massively budgeted misfires like John Carter and Battleship would have filmmakers wary of expensive pictures that require record-breaking box office to garner any profit. But with ongoing news of costly production problems on World War Z and The Lone Ranger, it seems Hollywood is still rolling the dice on movies with fast sinking prospects of profitability.

In the case of Disney's The Lone Ranger, the studio blanched and shut down production late last summer when its producers insisted the action adventure—which reunites Pirates of the Caribbean's director Gore Verbinski with Johnny Depp—would be around the $250 million mark. Estimates at the time figured that after print and advertising costs, the pic would have to make more than $800 million worldwide to be in the black. So Disney demanded the producers find some way to bring the cost down or else The Lone Ranger would not ride again.

From there, Depp and Verbinski took paycuts, which shaved off $10 million, and the script was rewritten, reportedly cutting out effects-heavy elements, including werewolves and " a massive train sequence." This brought the projected cost to $215 million, and Disney gave The Lone Ranger the greenlight once more. But now, THR reports that the production, which began on February 28th, is dragging along, days and possibly even weeks behind schedule, pulling it back up—and possibly over—the $250 million mark. Because of this, backers are forcing Verbinksi to make more cuts—during production—as on-set rewrites attempt to smooth the edges.

Though Verbinksi has a reputation for "budget-busting," he is not entirely to blame for this skyrocketing cost, as the production was repeatedly delayed by severe wind and dust storms that marred the costly set. (It's like Lost in La Mancha all over again!) As it stands now, The Lone Ranger is not expected to wrap production until August, meaning it'll have taken nearly half a year to get this behemoth through its shoot. While this still allows ample time to hit the film's scheduled release date of July 3, 2013, there's really no telling how much more money will be spent along the way, and by extension, how massive an opening The Lone Ranger will require to not be DOA.

The Lone Ranger just can't seem to keep things on track. The project has had a notably bumpy ride through production so far, complete with production shut downs, budget queries, and adjustments to the shooting schedule. The movie was originally going to come on in December of this year and was pushed back to May 31, 2013. Now it looks like the film is on the move again, as it has been pushed back by about a month.

The Exhibitor Relations Twitter account has revealed that The Lone Ranger, has been shiftedfrom May 31, 2013 to July 3, 2013. What's interesting about the news is that its taking over the slot that was just abandoned by Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse and will now be competing against Independence Day 3D, which was just announced this afternoon. It's only other competition on the holiday weekend right now comes from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2. While the Gore Verbinski-directed movie originally had no competition on May 31st, its release date was only one week after both The Hangover: Part III and Fast and Furious 6.

Based on a script written by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe and Terry Rossio and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, The Lone Ranger stars Armie Hammer as the titular hero, Johnny Depp as Tonto, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale, William Fichtner, and Barry Pepper. The film is still currently in production.

I'm really hoping that this movie is purely strategy and not an indication that the movie is falling behind schedule or in some kind of trouble. Guess we'll have to wait until July of next year to find out the motivation.

When the first image was released from The Lone Ranger after the movie had barely begun production, I think I speak for all of us when I say there was one thing on our minds: why does Johnny Depp have a bird on his damn head? But that image was all we got, and even as the film carries on with its production, the mystery of Johnny Depp's completely insane costume has lingered and tortured us… until now.

Yes, in the (digital) pages of Entertainment Weekly Johnny Depp breaks his silence and explains the fairly artsy and thoughtful origin of his Tonto costume, which includes inspiration from a painting of a Native American warrior who, indeed, wears a bird on his head. Here's what Depp had to say:

Sattler actually licensed the look from his painting "I Am Crow" to the Lone Ranger production, and spoke to EW about the way he takes both historical truth and imagination to create the characters in his painting. Depp emphasized that too, saying his take on Tonto isn't based on any specific Native American tribe or any person who actually lived, but a blend of history and fantasy-- and a desire to reclaim the character known entirely as The Lone Ranger's sidekick:

You can see Sattler's original painting side by side with Depp's photo at his website. It's no surprise to learn that Depp dug very deeply to find the inspiration for his character, and also that he had such control over his own makeup and hair-- how many other actors can claim that? With every tidbit we learn about The Lone Ranger it starts to seem a lot weirder than both the original TV serial and most live-action Disney movies, as if Jack Sparrow were given creative control over all of the Pirates movies. Will it actually be any good though? We'll have to wait until May 13 of next year to figure that part out.

After months of writing about Disney's The Lone Ranger and using photos from the old TV show to accompany it, we've finally got a look at exactly what Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer will look like in the big-budget film, courtesy of producerJerry Bruckheimer's Twitter feed. Take a look at the image below and click on it to see it in high-res.

It looks like Depp is side-stepping the whole problem of being a white man playing a Native American by painting his face stark white with black stripes, making this feel more like the child of Edward Scissorhands and Captain Jack Sparrow on a trip to the Old West than anything resembling the old TV serial. Hammer looks appropriately buttoned-up and on the verge of heroics as the title character, but it's kind of hard to get a good look at him with Johnny Depp wearing a bird on his head, taking the advice of Portlandia way too seriously.

The Lone Ranger is being pegged as an all-ages kind of adventure film, and I definitely didn't expect to see Depp going quite so out-there with his costume-- which might be evidence that there's something more interesting going on in this film. After all, think of the first time you saw Depp's Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean-- with the eyeliner and the stumbling walk, he looked at least half this crazy. If Tonto is a character even close to as indelible as Jack Sparrow, The Lone Ranger might have the potential to become the next Pirates after all.

After what seemed like a thousand false starts, but what was really just one big one, Disney's enormous Lone Ranger is finally going into production, according to a press release sent wide today. We figured this was coming, of course, with the announcement that WIlliam Fichtner had signed on to replace Dwight Yoakam in one of the villainous roles, and of course the looming May 2013 release date, which Disney held on to even after production was bumped back. But now the cameras are officially rolling, and in no lack of locations either-- the release cites location shoots in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, which suggests that the Ranger and trusty Tonto will be running all over the desert in the course of their adventures.

Johnny Depp is the big name star of the film, reuniting with his Pirates director Gore Verbinski, but the title character is played by Armie Hammer, making a real push for leading-man stardom that will hopefully be boosted by his role in the upcoming Mirror Mirror. The release came with a plot synopsis that finally gives us a sense of how the story will happen, and explains how Depp's Tonto may wind up being the main character after all:

The Lone Ranger's cast is rounded out with a lot of character actors you'll be happy to see in pretty much anything-- in addition to Fichtner there's lead villain Tom Wilkinson, plus Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson and Helena Bonham Carter. WIth everything finally shooting, the movie seems like it really will make the release date of May 31, 2013-- kicking off the summer in the company of the next Fast and Furious movie, the Star Trek sequel, Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, and Iron Man 3, all of them also set for May releases.

Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger lost a big piece of the puzzle a couple days ago when it was announced that Dwight Yoakam would no longer be able to participate in the film. While this wouldn't have been a big issue if Yoakam was playing a random supporting character or bit part, but he had signed on to play one of the major bad guys working with Tom Wilkinson's big baddie. Needless to say, with production already delayed by budget concerns from last summer, Disney immediately got on their horse (if you can pardon the pun) and today it has been revealed who will be replacing Yoakam in the movie.

According to Deadline, character actor extraordinaire William Fitchner has been hired to take Dwight Yoakam's place in The Lone Ranger. The actor is currently filming the Navy SEAL drama Code Name: Geronimo, but he recently wrapped production on both Neill Blomkamp's Elysium and Todd Robinson's Phantom. The project is currently looking to film later this month so that it can meet its May 31, 2013 release date. The film has Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp attached to play the Lone Ranger and Tonto, respectively, while other supporting players include Helena Bonham Carter and James Frain.

Here's a fun fact: you can never go wrong by adding William Fitchner to your movie, and that goes double if you're getting him to play a villain. While he's great on an everyday basis, when he's allowed to be a snarky, dastardly prick he simply shines. Hence why he ranked #1 in our list of the 10 Best Performances In Terrible 2011 Movies.

James Frain’s True Blood character Franklin Mott could probably be described as mentally unstable, to put it mildly. Sure, he came across as dark and alluring at first, as so many vampires do these days, but in the end, he proved to be as menacing as vampires were once more frequently portrayed, with a side of crazy for our entertainment. Since appearing in the HBO series, he’s gone on to take on a number of roles, including NBC’s short-lived superhero drama The Cape, and a part in Water For Elephants. And now it seems he’s set to improve the already strong cast of Disney’s The Lone Ranger.

The Hollywood Reporter posted the news, stating that the British actor has signed on to play the part of “a tough foreman overseeing Chinese and Indian rail workers who works for the story’s chief villain,” played by Tom Wilkinson. Should we expect another evil-crazy performance from him in this? Or just the standard variety villain employee? Frain joins Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Helena Bonham Carter and Wilkinson in the Gore Verbinski-directed film.

Production is said to begin for The Lone Ranger in six weeks and may still be aiming for a May 31, 2013 release date. In the meantime, Frain is also credited for a role in Antonio Negret’s Transit, starring Jim Caviezel, as an action/thriller by Vicky Jewson called Born of War.

At this point many of you, if not most of you, know about the troubles going on behind the scenes of The Lone Ranger these past few months. Back in August the production was shut down when Disney decided that they didn't want to spend $250 million making a western (which is totally reasonable thing) and had producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp work on the movie to try and lower its costs. The proper moves and cuts were made and in the last couple weeks it was announced that the project will be moving forward with a $215 million budget and is now scheduled to be released on May 21, 2013. But exactly what changes were made that equated to $35 million in saved moolah? Bruckheimer recently spoke with THR about it and the answer is actually kind of disturbing.

While the producer did say that some scenes were cut - including a sequence involving "supernatural coyotes" and an "animated segment" - the big thing that ended up being changed was the production schedule. Bruckheimer said that they would be trying to avoid winter by having the production hop around to different states (including alifornia, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah), but that's not what's messed up about this story. According to the interview, one thing that has been changed is the structuring of shooting days, bunching together the scenes involving a lot of extras and the ones involving just the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Said Bruckheimer,

The big question I have is why the hell was this not the plan from the beginning? If they hadn't been forced to change things, they would have poured $10 million down the toilet simply by avoiding common sense. We are living in a time of economic crisis, as protesters occupy cities around the country, and these people are basically setting money on fire. What truly worries me is the fact that Bruckheimer treats this as though it's some kind of big revelation. Exactly how long has he been making movies in such an abhorrently wasteful fashion? This level of stupidity cannot continue.

We speculated yesterday, when news broke that Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger was finally ready to go back into production, that the planned release date of December 21 next year would almost definitely have to change. Production on The Lone Ranger is set to start February 6, and now THR reports that The Lone Ranger has indeed gotten a date shift. Disney has pushed that film to a May 21, 2013 release date, and as a result now plans Thor 2 as a holiday season release for that year, coming November 15 instead of July 26 in 2013.

It's the Thor date shift that seems most striking to me-- you can launch a franchise whenever you want, but once you've got an ongoing property you generally want to keep it in the same time frame. And superhero movies, with very rare exceptions, have always been the province of summer-- all of the Spider-Man movies came out in May, every Batman movie until The Dark Knight came out in June, Transformers movies had July 4th weekend, and so forth. And last summer Marvel kind of crowned itself the king of the entire summer, releasing Thor in May and Captain America July. Next summer they'll top it off with The Avengers in May, and then totally change it up by pushing their next film, Thor 2, to the fall.

It's not necessarily a devastating decision-- movies can be hits whenever they please, and the Thanksgiving release period is almost as high-profile as early summer. But is it too much to ask for a little consistency here? if you build a franchise, you build in with it a sense of timing, so that when Fourth of July rolls around, you feel a Pavlovian impulse to see robots smash each other. I was totally ready to expect more Asgardian mayhem come summer 2013, but now I have to adjust it to sweater weather instead.

When Disney pulled the plug on the Johnny Depp-starring adaptation of The Lone Ranger just days before it was supposed to go into production, it seemed kind of foolishly optimistic when sources said they would try and work it out. The throwback western was already budgeted for somewhere in the $250-$300 million range, and even if they brought it down to Disney's requested $200 million, it was still a massively expensive movie and a gamble, even if they had all the Pirates of the Caribbean brain trust back for it.

But work on the budget they did, and Deadline reports today that they seem to have finally reached a deal. Apparently the budget is down to a "manageable" $215 million, which still makes it more expensive than the entire worldwide gross of the last Western-themed blockbuster, Cowboys & Aliens. Sure, that movie had a bunch of other problems that had nothing to do with the Western setting, but the fact remains that Westerns are hard to sell no matter how many Johnny Depps you cast.

Of course, everyone said that pirate movies were hard to sell back in 2003, when director Gore Verbinski and Depp made one of the best blockbusters in recent memory with the first Pirates of the Caribbean. That movie was expensive at $140 million, but still not quite this expensive. Despite all this skepticism I really am glad they're going forward with The Lone Ranger, if nothing other than to give Armie Hammer to show of his cowboy chops in the title role. I'm impressed that enough inflated egos could pull it together and slash the budget to make this work-- but I'll only be truly impressed if they manage to take this much money and studio anticipation and actually turn out something good.

It sounds like Disney’s about to get back in the saddle with Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, with an official announcement regarding the start of production potentially arriving next week.

If you haven’t been tracking the progress of the project, Disney pulled the plug on the Johnny Depp-Armie Hammer production weeks ago as budgets ballooned near $250 million. Reports surrounding the troubled production involved strange supernatural subplots tied to Depp’s Tonto character. One rumor even involved CGI werewolves which have subsequently been cut.

Last week, though, it was reported that Disney was inching closer to closing a deal that would put The Lone Ranger back into production, and now Deadline says that the stalemate likely will be resolved next week, with cameras rolling as early as January or February 2012.

The new budget, according to the report, is closer to $215 million after deals for Depp, Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were reworked. Disney’s hesitancy was tied, at the time, to the financial failure of Universal’s costly Cowboys & Aliens, which the site admits is going to cost the studio a "fortune" when all is said and done. Still, it was shocking that Disney would flinch on anything Verbinski and Depp wished to do together after the duo helped deliver the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

So, it sounds like The Lone Ranger is back on track. If the main players cut tighter deals, hopefully that means Verbinski can keep in some of the mystical elements that potentially would make the Wild West production a bit weird. There’s no confirmation if Disney’s back-and-forth means the film will back off of its previously announced Dec. 21, 2012 release date (where it would have gone head-to-head with Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and Brad Pitt’s World War Z). Disney move the release date back much like Warner Bros. did with its anticipated Superman reboot, Man of Steel. We’ll let you know the minute we hear any news regarding date shifts but for now, it looks like the Lone Ranger rides again. Are you happy?

When big news breaks late on a Friday night it's almost always bad, especially when it's a big Deadline story that starts with "SHOCKER!" That's how we all found out that The Lone Ranger, the huge Western with Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the titular hero, had been cancelled by Disney, even as production was gearing up in New Mexico. A few reasons seemed obvious on the surface, primarily the movie's ballooning price tag ($250 million or higher) and concerns about reviving a partly forgotten hero from the golden age of radio. But some evidence trickled through over the weekend that there's another culprit to blame: Cowboys & Aliens.

That $200 million sci-fi Western has tanked at the box office, making just $88 million worldwide so far, and according to Hollywood Elsewhere The Lone Ranger would have been a lot more similar to it than you would expect. An excerpt of the script posted there reveals that the plot would have involved werewolves, along with Native American occult remedies and spirituality and, it should go without saying by now, a lot of CGI special effects. Here's how an anonymous person familiar with the script describe it:

It's no surprise to hear that the story was going to focus on Tonto-- Depp, after all, is the world's biggest movie star, while Hammer is an up-and-comer who caught a seriously huge break getting cast in this thing. And I guess the mysticism shouldn't be a surprise either-- after all, look at how trippy Verbinski and Depp's last desert-set collaboration, Rango, managed to be. But it was entirely possible for this movie to be a lean, entertaining Western, a genre of movies that first came to exist because it was cheap to make; instead, producer Jerry Bruckheimer helped push for this to be yet another one of his expensive spectacles, and given that the fourth Pirates film is the only one of Bruckheimer's recent movies to be a hit, Disney rightly balked.

Deadline has updated their initial post to emphasize that The Lone Ranger could still happen-- an insider told them, ""Let's see how it all shakes out on Monday. There's always a chance that it could go. You never know until you know." Maybe Verbinski spent the weekend locked in a room with screenwriter Justin Haythe as they frantically reworked the script to cost less. Maybe they've ditched the whole werewolf idea entirely. It would be surprising if Disney dropped the project entirely, given how much money Depp has made them over the years and how much he deserves to do whatever the hell he wants. As surprising as the news on Friday was, if the result is a leaner, more efficient Lone Ranger, this may have all been for the better.

Heigh Ho Silver, away! Ride like the wind to Dec., 21 2012, which is when Walt Disney intends to open Jerry Bruckheimer’s big-budget reboot of The Lone Ranger.

Armie Hammer, last seen playing twins in David Fincher’s The Social Network, saddles up alongside Johnny Depp’s Tonto for director Gore Verbinski’s production, which, according to the Hollywood Reporter, takes place in 1869 and focuses on a Texas Ranger who fights Western criminals with the aid of his trusty Indian sidekick. Verbinski, of course, directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films with Depp in tow. Earlier this year, the duo teamed for the animated Rango, a box-office smash that has taken in $241 million worldwide to date.

But Verbinski’s Lone Ranger will face some stiff competition during that holiday season. Peter Jackson’s first installment of a two-part Hobbit adaptation hits theaters a week prior on Dec. 14. Meanwhile, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi adaptation recently moved to Dec. 21 to avoid Jackson’s epic, but now will face Ranger, Relativity’s Hunter-Killer and an as-yet-untitled Judd Apatow comedy. The Ranger may need a lot more than his usual sidekick and six-shooter to beat out all that competition.

I hate to say it, but the titular character in Gore Verbinski's upcoming adaptation of The Lone Ranger may be a thankless role. Johnny Depp has been attached as Tonto for ages and it was previously confirmed that the hero-sidekick dynamic will be flipped, putting the masked cowboy in the passenger's seat. That said, it still is a high profile gig - working alongside Depp alone assures that - and it would be a perfect fit for a young, up-and-coming actor. Hence why this is great news.

Deadline has learned that Armie Hammer has entered negotiations to star as The Lone Ranger. The story is quite slim on details and doesn't go much further than saying that the talks are still at the nascent stages. Hammer, one of the most in-demand actors following his critically lauded performance in David Fincher's The Social Network, has quite the full plate at the moment, but seeing as production isn't scheduled to begin until next year he should be able to make it work into his schedule.

The Social Network was easily my favorite film of last year and every single actor in the cast deserves credit, recognition, and work, particularly Hammer, who pulled double-duty as both Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. This project would be perfect for him, earning him attention in demographics that didn't pay enough attention to Fincher's film, and could easily launch him on to the A-list.

The Logan's Run remake has seemingly been in the works as long as The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp, but Ryan Gosling may find a way to be in both. According to The Wrap Gosling, already set to star in Logan's Run, is also in talks to play the titular character in the Disney project, in which Depp will play the intrepid Native American sidekick Tonto, and which Gore Verbinski will direct.

The Wrap points out that his Logan's Run commitment may make the Disney movie impossible-- that dystopian sci-fi movie starts shooting in the fall, and presumably The Lone Ranger may be aiming for similar dates, though given that it's not scheduled for release until 2014 they've got plenty of time to work with. Gosling has been leaning far heavier on indie projects since reaching teen heartthrob status in The Notebook a few years back, but doing both of these movies would be, well, a very Johnny Depp circa 2000 move. Both actors can be so mannered and out-there in their performances that it's kind of hard to imagine them sharing the same frame, but then again, it's a weird combination that might make for something far more interesting than your average blockbuster.

This past weekend the majority of movie-goers flocked to see The Green Hornet, the film pulled in $40 million in its three day opening. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the way that the hero/sidekick dynamic is flipped, with Kato being a genius martial artist and brilliant with gadgetry, while the Green Hornet is a bit of a schlub. According to Johnny Depp, that very same dynamic will find its way into the film about Britt Reid's grand-uncle, The Lone Ranger.

The actor recently spoke with EW about the upcoming film, which will be directed by longtime collaborator Gore Verbinski, and one of the biggest draws of the project to him is it's treatment of Native American characters. Depp, who is part Cherokee and will be playing Tonto in the movie, recognizes the horrible on-screen representation of Native Americans in film history and sees this project as a way of repairing that image.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and scheduled for a 2012 release, it's hard to know when things might get going for the project, particularly because they still don't have someone to play the title character. Here's hoping they can wrangle either George Clooney or Brad Pitt as previously rumored.