First Look at Johnny Depp & Army Hammer in THE LONE RANGER

[romantico]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 12:34pm

I don't know what to think. Does not really look like Tonto as I imagined him.This is NOT a Tim Burton film by the way.



http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/lone-ranger-disney-johnny-depp-armie-hammer-photo/

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 12:37pm

Tonto looks like he was born in the wagon of a traveling show.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 12:44pm

I swear that headpiece was used in the most recent revival of Dracula at the Little Shubert.

Really? Really with this? And I don't care how hot or talented he is, I cannot get over the name Armie Hammer.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 1:19pm

Is this going to be a comedy?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 1:42pm

I'm so glad Cher is back in films!

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 1:53pm

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 1:59pm

Hayulf breeeeeed! That's all I ever heard!

[strummergirl]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 2:19pm

Since it's Gore Verbinski, I kinda hope it's a little more Rango and the first Pirates of the Caribbean film.

And Armie Hammer's given name is Armand as in Armand Hammer. He has every right to hate his parent's for that one.

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 2:31pm

He was named after his very wealthy great-grandather, so I imagine that tempers the hatred somewhat.

Coincidentally enough, the elder Armand served on the board of Arm & Hammer's parent company, but the name had already been around for decades and didn't stem from him.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 2:43pm

Is Tim Burton designing Tonto's make-up?



Boobs, that picture is cracking me up!

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 2:44pm

I recognize that the problem I have with his name is my own. It's not particularly fair. It just is.

And the whole 'named after welthy relative' thing just answered my 'Why didn't he just CHANGE it???' question.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 4:05pm

Is it just me or is casting Johnny Depp as Tonto pretty much akin to casting Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast in Tiffany's? I get that Depp's a draw and he has deep ties with Disney but wouldn't it have been better to cast a Native Americam actor?

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 4:42pm

You just know that there's the 'one quarter Cherokee' defense somewhere in his family tree.

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 5:10pm

Tonto's treatment especially bugged him because Depp had always been told his family was part Indian. "I guess I have some Native American somewhere down the line," he says. "My great grandmother was quite a bit of Native American, she grew up Cherokee or maybe Creek Indian. Makes sense in terms of coming from Kentucky, which is rife with Cherokee and Creek."

^ That's from EW site:
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/05/08/johnny-depp-tonto-lone-ranger/

I'm certain I've also read in older interviews where he's mentioned being part Native American. It's not something he's pulling out of then air for this movie.

Edit: thin air!

Updated On: 3/8/12 at 05:10 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 5:13pm

He went from Captain Jack Sparrow to Chief Tonto Crow. XD

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 6:34pm

Where is Klinton Spilsbury when you need him?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 5:32am

"I swear that headpiece was used in the most recent revival of Dracula at the Little Shubert."

I think it was inspired by the Kirby Sattler painting "I Am Crow":




"I recognize that the problem I have with his name is my own. It's not particularly fair. It just is."

I've always had the same complaint regarding Tonto's name. In Spanish it means "stupid one" or "dummy."

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 7:47am

^ Great observation, SM2. Obviously that's it.

There's something about Armie Hammer that scares me. Aside from him being related to "the" Armand Hammer (uber rich dude), he was brought up in a string of hardcore "Jesus" schools.

He's sort of the west-coast version of the Winklevoss twins in real life.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 7:50am

But he was so good in "The Social Network" that even now, a year and a half later, I often forget that he doesn't have an identical twin brother... or that there aren't two of him.


EDIT: Was he really raised uber-Christian, bestie? According to his Wikipedia page, he describes himself as "half-Jewish," and his great-great-grandfather was the founder of the Communist Party of New York. That's all very curious.

Updated On: 3/9/12 at 07:50 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 8:46am

Looks like a bible-thumping Baptist to me. Then again, looks can be deceiving. But here's some info from IMDb.com:

In addition, his father is a member of the board of trustees for Oral Roberts University. His mother was a former bank loan officer and teaches Bible study in Los Angeles.

His family moved to Dallas, Texas, when he was approaching school age. They moved to the Cayman Islands in 1993, where they stayed for 5 years. While here, Armie attended the Grace Christian Academy, a school that his father set up. They returned to Los Angeles when Armie was age 13. He attended L.A. Baptist High School and Calvary Junior High School.

He left school in the 11th grade so that he could pursue acting. His parents were keen for him to continue his studies, so he took courses at Pasadena City College and UCLA.

He had various small parts, before being cast as Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years (2008 ).
IMDb.com link

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 8:49am

Thanks for the info.

Heavens to bestie.

What a difference 100 years can make!

[strummergirl]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 8:50am

He was more than willing to play Clyde Tolson in J. Edgar.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 8:57am

Now, HE'S someone I'd do in a park and worry about the guilt later. There probably wouldn't even really be any guilt, actually.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 10:05am

I was kind of upset to find out he wasn't twins...

Until I met a set of hot triplets....

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 3/9/12 at 3:33pm

SM2, thanks for that image. Like Bestie said, that's got to be the inspiration for Tonto's costume.

Bestie, I found this, from 2008 Christianity Today interview with Armie Hammer for the Billy Graham movie (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/interviews/2008/armiehammer.html):
------------------------------------------------
The question has to come up when you play a character like this: What about your own personal beliefs?

Hammer: I have my own spiritual life, and I value it very much. I feel like spirituality is something that is for each person and something that needs to be alive for each and every person. With this, I was given a chance to get into the spiritual life of Billy Graham and, as an actor, take that on. I started reading the Bible quite a bit, so I could understand the word that Billy Graham was saying. His sermons were so rich and deep with revelations, that as an actor, if you just say those words and you don't understand the meaning behind them, it won't make sense. It'll fall flat. But if I can understand his sermons on a deeper level by reading up on the Bible, then I'm able to, as an actor, experience that as well, and that was a beautiful thing.

Is there anything from Graham's spiritual teachings that you would take away from the film, or apply to your own spiritual life?

Hammer: I'm sure that, in the process, I just discovered so much about my own spiritual life. But nothing's jumping to the top of my head.
------------------------------------------------------

He doesn't seem like a bible-thumper type here. Maybe he was being deliberately non-committal and vague, perhaps to appeal to a wider audience, but it seems that if he had wanted to play up a personal Christian faith, the perfect time to do so would have been for that interview, for that movie.

As for Tonto, I found this, fwiw, from http://www.endeavorcomics.com/largent/ranger/faq.html:
-----------------------------------------------------
Isn't it true that Tonto means "fool" in Spanish?

This *is* true, but it was not that meaning that was intended by the producers of the show.

There are two versions of the story.

Fran Striker told the Saturday Evening Post that he invented Tonto's name and that it was picked by merely alterring the consanants in the name Bobo. (This was a caveman character Striker had created in another radio program.)

Jim Jewell says that Striker was remembering wrong. Tonto, he said, is another Potowatomie word.

There were a few Indians who would come to the camp to tell stories to the children.

One of the Indians apparently had a penchant for drinking after the children had gone to sleep. Sometimes he would get rowdy and the other Indians would call him "tonto." This meant "wild one."

Jewell remembered the word, liked it, and gave the name to the Lone Ranger's Indian companion.
-------------------------------------------------------

Trivia -- both the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet were created by Fran Striker. Britt Reid aka Green Hornet is the grand/great/something-nephew of the Lone Ranger (whose first name is apparently debatable).

All right, I'm boring y'all, I can feel it. LOL As you were, everybody!

Updated On: 3/9/12 at 03:33 PM