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.

Lone Ranger #23
Written by Brett Matthews
Art by Sergio Cariello
Cover Art By John Cassaday
Colors: Marcelo Pinto
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 18, 2010

Dynamite’s The Lone Ranger #23 is Part 7 of a storyline entitled “Resolve.” The first thing that catches your eye is the awesome John Cassaday artwork on the front cover. From page one, the story picks up as we see the Lone Ranger’s foe Butch Cavendish torturing a sheriff that he has kidnapped. The sheriff’s ordeal is shown throughout much of the book as the story alternates between those scenes and Lone Ranger and Tonto preparing themselves for a final showdown.

We also see a young Lone Ranger in this book, still a bit unsure of himself. Refreshingly, Tonto is portrayed as very capable and not constantly needing to be rescued by his “Kemo Sabe.” This is clearly not your father’s Lone Ranger and Tonto. Also, we see that the Lone Ranger has the potential for a romantic interest with a character named Linda. Brett Matthews has truly scripted a very unique interpretation of the Lone Ranger mythos.

It was Disney day today and in an event held at the Kodak Theater, the company announced some of its gigantic upcoming projects including Cars 2, Alice in Wonderland, and The Lone Ranger, and what Johnny Depp has to do with most of them.

In Tim Burton‘s upcoming CGI/3D/live-action (I’m not sure if anyone really knows WHAT it will actually be) take on the classic Alice in Wonderland story, Johnny Depp was long-rumored to be playing the Mad Hatter. Considering that he is now to Tim Burton what John Ratzenberger is to Pixar, we all knew this was likely and Disney confirmed today that Depp would indeed be taking on the role for his pal.

From what sounds like quite a spectacle, apparently the University of Southern California’s marching and came out, playing the Lone Ranger theme song followed by someone dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow wearing the Ranger’s iconic mask. When the mask was removed, it was Johnny Depp himself. Hmm, would have liked to see that one. At first, everyone just assumed that this meant that Depp will be playing the Ranger, but MTV has JUST reported that Disney reps are now saying he’ll be playing the Lone Ranger’s sidekick Tonto.