Over two months, blockbuster movie fans watched, mouths agape, as a surprisingly public scuffle over the budget of Disney's The Lone Ranger brought the project to a screeching halt.  This despite the involvement of Pirates of the Caribbean triumvirate Johnny Depp, director Gore Verbinski, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.  The film, which stars Armie Hammer as the titular masked western avenger and Depp as Tonto, saw its budget balloon to reportedly over $250 million, and Disney put preproduction on hold until the number could be brought down to a still expensive $215 million.  Just last week, though, Disney announced a new release date for a good-to-go The Lone Ranger, and with the ballyhooed budget fracas, Bruckheimer is speaking openly about the whole thing and the process of bringing the costs down.  Read on for his thoughts on sensibly arranging the production and an update on another Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.

Since August, Disney's The Lone Ranger has been embroiled in a surprisingly public and seemingly endless budgetary retooling, ever since the studio put preproduction on hold due to an untenably massive budget in the neighborhood of $250 million.  While it looked for some time like the virtually guaranteed blockbuster might not happen, the last several weeks saw promising reports assuring the world that the creative team, including stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, director Gore Verbinski, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were working to bring the budget down to level Disney found acceptable.  Well, they're done just that, and Disney has officially announced a new May 31, 2013 release date for The Lone Ranger.

Last month, Paramount Pictures unveiled the first poster for this Winter's sequel Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and it featured franchise star Tom Cruise simply glaring out from under a stylish hoodie with maximum intensity, implying that things might get a little rough fro IMF agent Ethan Hunt in this latest go-around.  Now, a new IMAX-specific poster for the film again features Cruise looking intense, but for entirely more obvious reasons, as he's making like Spider-Man and dangling rather precariously from the side of the Burj Khalifa.  At a ridiculous 2,717 feet tall, that would be the tallest building in the world, located in Dubai.

Synopsis: A group of British expatriates retire to a home for the elderly in Bangalore, India, and find that the location is not as palatial as advertised, but nonetheless bond and share transformative experiences not just with each other, but also with the hotel's staff.

A few weeks back, Disney pumped the brakes on The Lone Ranger, the would-be western blockbuster starring Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as his Native American buddy Tonto.  Why would Disney do such a thing to a project reteaming Depp with his Pirates of Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer?  Because of a budget that, according to various reports, was somewhere between $250 million and $275 million.  After a brief period during which Verbinski, screenwriter Justin Haythe, and the creative team retooled the film for a lower budget, Deadline reports that Bruckheimer has indeed brought a new lower pricetag to Disney, and also that if the studio wants to make The Lone Ranger, it'll have to be directed by Verbinski, as Depp is resolutely standing by his man,

Right before last weekend got properly underway, news broke that Disney had kicked The Lone Ranger, its high-profile update of the serialized western avenger, to the curb due to a truly massive budget.  Despite the presence of Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and Johnny Depp set to play Tonto alongside Armie Hammer as the title character, Disney apparently could not write a $250 million check for the film. 

Subsequent reports suggested that the project wasn't completely dead, but that Verbinski and company were working with Disney to bring the budget down to a more palatable level.  Now it looks like that's true, Disney is looking for huge cuts in a very short amount of time, and many associated with the production believe it to be doomed.

On Friday, the news broke that Disney was suddenly shutting down the cinematic adventure of The Lone Ranger that the studio's been talking up for a few years now.  The reteaming of Pirates of the Caribbean triumvirate Johnny Depp, director Gore Verbinski, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer would apparently cost in the area of $250 million, and Disney is wary of spending more than $200 million on the western starring Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the titular masked hero.  Subsequent reports suggest that the project might not be dead, but that the studio and creative team could be retooling the concept in order to save some cash.  The question remains, however, just why would The Lone Ranger need a budget of $232 million, other than the expensive talent involved?

Johnny Depp reteaming with Gore Verbinski – who directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies – and Jerry Bruckheimer – who produced the same – on a property as recognizable as The Lone Ranger sounds pretty much like a sure thing; a money cow with billion dollar teats, a gravy train with biscuit wheels, a cask of cash aged to perfection.  And yet Disney has suddenly killed the project right in the middle of pre-production.  Armie Hammer was set to play the title character, with Depp playing his ostensible sidekick Tonto, with a release date of December 21, 2012 but Disney has deemed the project too expensive, putting the kibosh on the whole endeavor.

Way back in 1996, we first saw Tom Cruise engaging in all manner of heroics as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.  Since meeting Mr. Hunt, we've seen him running a lot, engaging in crazed aerial stuntwork, making optimal use of a motorcycle, and just generally handling things like a boss.  Now, with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, it looks like we'll be seeing Cruise's last dance as Hunt.  The first trailer, previously seen as a low-quality French bootleg, is now available officially and in English.  It not only doubles down on Hunt's signature action moves, but also introduces the hopeful franchise heir Jeremy Renner and even utilizes Eminem's "Won't Back Down" to maximum effect.

Over his career, Tom Cruise has done a lot of onscreen running, whether it be running from the law in Minority Report or sprinting through an airport in Jerry Maguire.  His signature franchise, the Mission: Impossible series, has featured no shortage of heroic sprinting, so of course the first trailer for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol includes plenty of running, along with explosions, and Spider-Man style vertigo-inducing action scenes.  It's a confident, action-packed trailer that introduces Jeremy Renner as the man who Paramount hopes will take the franchise reigns.  The downside?  It's a leaked international version, so it's not great quality and is entirely en francais.  Still, it's the first look at Brad Bird's live-action directorial debut.