New LONE RANGER will have “a boatload of humor,” Johnny Depp tells Larry King

One of the highlights of Johnny Depp’s interview with Larry King, which aired on CNN on Sunday night, was the opportunity to hear Johnny speak about the next film role he will create, Tonto in Gore Verbinski’s Lone Ranger. Johnny assured King that the budgetary problems with Disney have been solved and the film will shoot early next year, with Armie Hammer playing the Ranger to Johnny’s Tonto. “There’s a very funny, good script” with “a boatload of humor,” Johnny said. But which character is the hero and which is the sidekick?

Don’t expect the conventional answer to that question: Johnny strongly implied that Tonto, “this character who’s thought of as the sidekick, you know,” really isn’t. “[T]he thing that bugged me always about The Lone Ranger is, why is the Indian the sidekick? Why does he have to go get you [the Ranger] that thing?” Johnny is planning to turn the tables with a Tonto who is not, in King’s words, the Ranger’s “slave.”

“My approach to Tonto is that [. . .] there’s sort of a ‘crazy like a fox’ stoicism to Tonto, you know, that — that Tonto probably believes that the Lone Ranger is [. . .] his sidekick.” When the Ranger gives him an order, Tonto will say, “No, no, no. You go get it. [. . . ] You’re the one dressed in the funny outfit. You do it.”

But Tonto still doesn’t get the girl; asked by King if there’s “a love interest” in the film, Johnny replied, “Not for Tonto.” Too bad. Nonetheless, Johnny’s enthusiasm for the character is unmistakable. He compares Tonto to Captain Jack Sparrow: “[W]hen I came up with Captain Jack, I thought, okay, I’ve really arrived at something, you know, different here [. . .]. And Tonto feels right on a par with Captain Jack. It feels like another Captain Jack to me.”

The Zone thanks Emma for the transcript of the Larry King interview; you can read more on the Zone’s News & Views forum. For a larger version of Evochka’s screencap of Johnny, CLICK HERE. Thanks, Evochka!