Another trip into “the unknown”– Gore Verbinski talks about THE LONE RANGER

In a recent interview with Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net., director Gore Verbinski discussed his next film project, The Lone Ranger, which will re-team him with his Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango star, Johnny Depp. Verbinski stressed that although his last film, Rango, and The Lone Ranger are both Westerns, they have little but their setting in common: the stories are very different.

ComingSoon: I was kind of surprised when I learned you were doing The Lone Ranger because you’d think you got doing a Western out of your system with this [Rango], but I guess it just made you want to do another Western really soon. Was that your thinking when you took that [The Lone Ranger] or did you just like the character?

Verbinski: Yeah, those things were set in motion a long time ago. I’d worked on that script [Lone Ranger] for about 18 months with Justin Haythe. So it’s different. It’s a Western, but it’s a completely different narrative and I just feel like I’ve got my hands on the steering wheel, finally, in terms of having a story that I really . . . I think you have to be able to answer the question, “Why must you tell this story?” Otherwise, you’re going to be halfway through a movie and want to slit your wrists.

ComingSoon: I think when you made the first Pirates movie, a lot of people were shocked [. . .] by what a big success it became. Do you find it’s very different now when you want to make a Lone Ranger movie? I would think people at the studios would be more trusting now that you have many hits. Or is it even harder to make movies like The Lone Ranger, when you know there’s so much baggage and expectations?

Verbinski: It’s really nice to be the underdog. It’s really nice when people say, “They’re crazy. That’s never going to work. What do they think they’re doing?” That’s a great place to be. There’s something reassuring about (it). You feel like you’re doing your job if you’re making executives nervous. When they’re not nervous anymore then you start to get nervous like you’re doing something wrong or you’re not pushing it far enough [. . .].

ComingSoon: I guess that must come from out of your punk background. I think there must be a little bit of that left in you . . . .

Verbinski: Honestly, it’s just an endless education. So if you can reach for things you don’t know how to do, you wake up in the morning, and there’s more kick in your step and you’re leaning into every day because you’re like, “Wow, I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never done this before.” [. . .] I think it’s just nice to [. . .] get into something unknown.

The Zone thanks Theresa for sharing the Gore Verbinski interview; you can read more of the ComingSoon interview on the Porch General Discussion forum.

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