Singer and actor Dwight Yoakam was originally set to play the villain in Walt Disney’s upcoming western epic, The Lone Ranger.

Now Yoakam has had to step away from the project due to a scheduling conflict, and a replacement has already been found. William Fichtner, star of such titles as Armageddon, The Perfect Storm, Black Hawk Down, and Prison Break, has joined the movie and will now be the villain.

Now that the epic Walt Disney action adventure take on The Lone Ranger has survived that health scare and continued forward, casting has resumed.

The first to officially join Johnny Depp‘s Tonto, Arnie Hammer‘s Lone Ranger, and Helena Bonham Carter was female lead Ruth Wilson and the great Tom Wilkinson (both of which were said to be up for roles prior to the movie’s complications, but were only just confirmed recently), who’s set to play the film’s villain.

And now some smaller characters are being given faces with the report that James Frain, best known for his role as Thomas Cromwell on the hit Showtime series The Tudors, has now joined The Lone Ranger.

J. Edgar
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench
Release Date: November 11, 2011

Submerged in sloppy sentiment, J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood‘s latest directorial effort, is unrelieved of its melodramatic characteristics, growing sappier as the film approaches its conclusion. Instead of getting an aggressively bold portrait of J. Edgar Hoover, a man undoubtedly built into the firmament of American history, we get a dreary and almost entirely lifeless (save for Leonardo DiCaprio‘s vigorous performance as Hoover) film that teeters on a precipitous cliff until it finally crumbles and dissolves into a pool of cheap melodrama.

Mr. Eastwood usually navigates keenly the narrow road that divides drama from melodrama. We have been accustomed, to the point of being spoiled, to witness him effortlessly depict his craft in top form in Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, two films that could have easily mingled with cheap sappiness but instead were rescued by assured direction and consistently intelligent scripts.

The first trailer for Clint Eastwood‘s new awards season drama, J. Edgar, has been released by Warner Brothers Pictures.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of J. Edgar Hoover, the man who was the first director of the FBI and served in the position for almost five decades, taking down many notorious criminals and changing the way we find, charge, and convict people of crimes. He was often times considered to be the most powerful man on the planet.

J. Edgar also stars Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Josh Lucas, and Ken Howard. It will be released in theaters on November 9, 2011.

You can check out the trailer by heading on below now.

A bit of a refresher.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Disney had decided to scrap plans surrounding a much talked about Gore Verbinski project, a new take on The Lone Ranger. Budgetary issues had been considered as the reasoning behind the project’s demise.  However, according to THR, that may not be the case any longer.

The outlet is reporting that Verbinski as well as the film’s producers, are heading back to the drawing board, and are looking to take the scissors, for lack of a better phrase, to a collection of set pieces within the picture.  Originally given a $244 million budget (for what reason, I’ll never know), the studio is eyeing a $220 million or less budget for the film, which will be relatively difficult to come by, unless the right cuts are made.