Johnny Depp's 'Lone Ranger': Disney Hits The Brakes

by Sterling Wong Its a tough economy out there right now, and even Hollywood, chief creator of dreams and fantasies, is feeling it. Even with proven box office rainmakers Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski attached, word got out last Friday that Disney was shutting down the production of "The Lone Ranger because of its overblown $200 million price tag. With franchises like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Thor proving that conservatively budgeted movies can still become hits, studios have seemingly tightened their reins and become more and more reluctant to greenlight expensive projects. Indeed, The Lone Ranger is not the only big-budget project Hollywood has closed its doors in recent months; after the jump, check out three other ambitious films that also got the boot this year. "At the Mountains of Madness" The saga of Gullermo del Toros pet project has been well-documented in these parts. Madness, a cult short story by horror writer H.P Lovecraft, told the tale of an Antarctic expedition that discovers some fantastical and horrific ruins, including mythical creatures. The movie was all set to go, with del Toro at the helm and Tom Cruise attached, until Universal slammed the brakes on the $150 million project over del Toros insistence to release it with an R rating instead of a PG-13. Presumably the studio was worried that an R rating would limit the films audience and make it harder for it to turn a profit. All is not lost though for us film geeks. Speaking to MTV News last week, the director is confident that Mountains will be made some day, saying, 'Mountains' will happen one day. Cthulu willing, well get it made. Sounds like a promise to me! "The Dark Tower" This ones not so surprising. Last month, Universal declined to go ahead with Ron Howards risky and ultra-daring adaptation of Stephen Kings classic 7-novel series starring Javier Bardem that was supposed to include three feature films and two television seasons. While no official reason was proffered, it is likely that the studio had commitment issues and wasnt ready to splash its cash to shoot an unproven property back to back across multiple media platforms. (Not every series shot back-to-back turns out like The Lord of the Rings of course). It's possible that Howard will continue shopping the Dark Tower project to other studios that might greenlight it, but one imagines that he might have to compromise, shoot the first movie and go from there, rather than indulge his initial ambitious plan. "Oblivion" Heres a happy ending at last. Oblivion, a futuristic sci-fi love story project directed by Tron: Legacy lensman Joseph Konsinki, was let go by Disney in March because the studio felt that it did not fit with the Disney brand. Also Disney wanted the film to be released with a "PG" rating while Konsinki had targeted a "PG-13". Luckily for sci-fi fans, Deadline reported in May that Universal -- the very same ones who broke geek hearts with their decision to pass on Madness and Dark Tower -- stepped in to finance the film, provided Kosinski can keep the budget around $100 million. Tom Cruise is set to star (I guess his schedule is clear given "Madness"s no-go!) and cameras are set to roll in October. With mega-expensive fare like Cowboys & Aliens disappointing at the box office, it is perhaps understandable that Hollywood is less than keen to finance films with $200 million price tags, unless they are proven franchise fare like Pirates, Transformers or Harry Potter. At the same time, in the cases of auteurs like del Toro, Howard and now Verbinski, perhaps their budgetary requirements are necessary to fulfill their cinematic visions, not because they simply want to add in an extraneous explosion here and there. Film geeks like me can only hope that these filmmakers can somehow work out deals with studios, as Konsinki did, so we will be able to catch their realized ambitions on the big screen, with artistic intents uncompromised. Tell us what you think in the comments section and on Twitter!