A year ago, next to no one had heard of Ruth Wilson or Armie Hammer. Cut to the present and well, they’re not exactly world famous yet but their careers are certainly taking a turn for the better. Armie Hammer‘s rise to fame came with The Social Network in which he played both the Winklevoss twins to great effect (next to a hidden Josh Pence, who will finally be seen in The Dark Knight Rises). One of Hammer’s major up-and-coming roles is as the male lead in Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp (a fifth film together for Depp and Verbinski) as his sidekick, Tonto.
It has now, rather amazingly, been announced that British actress Ruth Wilson, a woman who has never appeared in a feature film before, is to play the female lead. [Deadline] It is most likely this is due to her eccentric but rather electrifying performance as the sick but strangely heartwarming Alice Morgan in the Idris Elba starring British TV show Luther, for which the second series recently aired.
The Lone Ranger is due for release on December 21st, 2012 (or “the end of the world”) which means it faces tough box office competition from movies like Peter Jacksons‘ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained.
However, Verbinski and Depp’s last film together, Rango, made almost $250 million at the box office so there’s no doubt they have a strong financial pull. Still, with the next Superman film Man of Steel, the next Star Trek film and numerous others rumoured to be released around that time period, I find it very unlikely there won’t be some delays, which means it’s quite possible we won’t be seeing this film until 2013.
Are you excited for The Lone Ranger? What do you think of Ruth Wilson joining the cast?