The digital rental deal of the day over at Amazon today is Johnny Depp-starring animated film Rango for only $.99.

This deal is valid only for today, Tuesday, November 1, 2011, until 11:59 PST. Once you activate the rental through Amazon’s Instant Demand service, you’ll have access to the movie for 24 hours. If you’re interested in purchasing the digital version, the cost is $14.99.

Also, if you’d like to own a physical copy of Rango, the Blu-ray/DVD Combo is $20.99; the DVD is $14.99; Both versions are part of Amazon’s “Buy This DVD and Watch it Instantly” program “” you get the film as a FREE digital rental you can watch immediately when you purchase the physical copy.

Things are getting really interesting on the Lone Ranger front.

After having a handful of issues with its budget, things appear to be moving forward on the project still. However, at this year’s D23 expo, producer Rich Ross made the web a buzz by instead of mentioning someone, he omitted someone.

Deadline has noted that, in a discussion about the film, the producer stated that “I’m hoping to do it. I’m certainly hoping. I think it’s a compelling story and no one wants to work with Jerry and Johnny more than me, so we’ll see how it works.” Normal statement, right? Not when taking into account the omission of director Gore Verbinski.

News is breaking that The Walt Disney Company has made the shocking decision to completely shut down production on one of their huge upcoming projects, The Lone Ranger.

We’ve been hearing about the movie for a few years now with Johnny Depp attached to star as Tonto (alongside The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer in the title role), Gore Verbinski in the director’s seat, and Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer””all three of which were integral in bringing billions (plural) of dollars to Disney with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

It’s being reported that Helena Bonham Carter, Barry Pepper, and Dwight Yoakam are all in talks to join Walt Disney’s revival of The Lone Ranger.

The trio join stars Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer on the project, as well as director Gore Verbinski, who of course directed Depp in the first Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and the recently released Rango.

For a while now, director Gore Verbinski has been hovering around Disney’s new feature take on the tale of The Lone Ranger. According to Deadline, who first heard word of Verbinski’s possible involvement, rumor has become fact, and he will indeed be directing the movie.

We first heard of a new Lone Ranger movie in March of 2008, and later that year during a big Walt Disney event it was revealed that Johnny Depp was also involved, set to play the Ranger’s faithful sidekick, Tonto.

Verbinski directed the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy for Disney, but decided not to take on their upcoming fourth installment in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, so that he could take on the proposed video game adaptation, BioShock. That project ended up having quite a few complications and Verbinski stepped away from it too to direct his animated feature, Rango, which also features the voice of Depp.