Director Gore Verbinski joined stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer and producer Jerry Bruckheimer to promote their latest film, The Lone Ranger, at an exclusive Q&A with Yahoo! Movies at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Verbinski emphasized how hard his production team worked to make the film as realistic as possible; rather than relying on green-screen and CGI effects, they went to remote areas in the mountains and the desert to film. “I tried to actually put people on trains, on horses, under horses, in the dirt,” Verbinski told the crowd. “I tried to make it feel like all of it actually occurred. We were a very large production, but lo-fi.”

Verbinski’s insistence on realism took its toll on cast and crew. “The weather was horrendous,” he recalled. “It rained, it snowed, it was 145 degrees … this was the hardest film ever.”

Johnny said that he considered The Lone Ranger “the most dangerous movie I’ve ever done, and I’ve worked with Michael Mann. [. . .] Staying alive on a horse that’s moving at high speed … that was the greatest challenge.”

Photos of Johnny onstage with Gore at the Las Vegas Q&A are available HERE.

The Zone thanks Emma for sharing the news and Theresa for sharing the pictures. You can read more about The Lone Ranger on the Zone’s News & Views forum. Yahoo!Movie’s Movie Talk article on the Las Vegas Q&A is available HERE.