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The Obama administration sends up a trial balloon
The making of a new "Lone Ranger" Disney movie, and the announcement that Johnny Depp is playing sidekick Tonto, have reawakened feelings about a character that has drawn much criticism over the years as being a Hollywood creation guilty of spreading stereotypes.
Gyasi Ross grew up decades after the "Lone Ranger" aired on TV, but his friends would still call him "Tonto" when they teased him.
Walt Disney Studios' much-anticipated big-screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer has been shut down, according to a source close to the production.
The reengineered "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel "On Stranger Tides" found its smoothest sailing overseas, where it took in a record $256.3 million at the international box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Johnny Depp chuckled when asked if he was worried about the notoriously harsh critics at the Cannes Film Festival, where his new swashbuckler "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" played amid far more sober fare.
The hardest thing about a pirate's life for Penelope Cruz was not all the swashbuckling and sword fighting and sailing the high seas.
The Cannes Film Festival is like Rick's Cafe Americain, Humphrey Bogart's nightclub in "Casablanca" about which one character proclaims, "Everybody comes to Rick's."
Johnny Depp's tour guide on his "Pirates of the Caribbean" voyages is plotting the course for a fifth installment even before the fourth movie sails into theaters.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is anything but a sleeper as the thriller opened big with $60.4 million and a No. 1 finish at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is anything but a sleeper as the thriller opened big with $60.4 million and a No. 1 finish at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Glory Road" is an air ball — a sappy, overwrought narrative that turns one of the most important and captivating stories in sports into an instantly forgettable, underdog-coach-and-ragtag-team formula film.
He had Cruz's picture on his planning boards as the character was being developed, and "it made it a lot easier when Rob committed, because she likes him, and she worked with Johnny before, so any trepidation she had about the project was lessened," Bruckheimer said.
"With the star power of Johnny and Penelope, it's just great to have them walk down that red carpet there," said "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer. "You have the world media there. That's the biggest boost for us, because if you open a picture in May and you want to go to London and all these other places to promote it, there's nobody there. They're all in Cannes. So that's where you have to be."
