For a poorly-reviewed box-office flop, The Lone Ranger has remained a steady point of conversation since its early-July domestic release, largely because the extent of its financial domestic failure has provoked speculation about Disney’s future efforts in the movie industry. This week saw the conversation shift over, however briefly, to the critical realm, as the film’s primary creative contributors went to work blaming U.S. critics for the lame gross. (Interestingly, over in the U.K. — where the film opens this week — reviews have been much kinder; here are two tweet-length examples.)
Meanwhile, a new report over at TheWrap has finally provided some concrete insight into Disney’s rebound strategy. According to the news, the company is planning to limit the freedom of producer Jerry Bruckheimer on production of Pirates of the Caribbean 5: not only will he likely be stripped of final-cut privileges, but the movie’s budget will probably be lowered as well, keeping it under the $250 million figure that the project had previously been approaching. Bruckheimer and Disney, of course, ran into their fair share of budget disputes on The Lone Ranger, a project which could end up losing close to $200 million of the corporation’s money.
It’s perhaps reasonable to assume that the low profile of the fifth installment’s directors — Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who are following-up their Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki — made it easier for Disney to trim the budget; the series’ previous installments were helmed by the bloat-happy Gore Verbinski and, for the fourth entry, Rob Marshall, both of whom have long been working in a big-budget realm. The optimist in me, in fact, even wonders if these cuts might benefit the cohesiveness of the production: it’s an oft-repeated bit of wisdom in the world of moviemaking that clipping financial resources can easily encourage out-of-the-box creativity.
According to the report, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Tower Heist) is still working on the script, though certain New Orleans shooting locations have been confirmed, while there’s no indication that the shooting start has been delayed. (Our previous report stated that filming was set to commence by the end of the year, or at the beginning of 2014, at the latest, in advance of the July 10, 2015 theatrical bow.) With these new restrictions in place, here’s hoping the coming months provide no more reasons to be skeptical about this fifth entry.
Do you think Disney is making the right moves here? Do you expect them to announce even more restrictions?