The Lone Ranger crew blames enormously powerful movie critics for conspiring to kill The Lone Ranger
While only our grandchildren will have the necessary perspective on the noble Lone Ranger’s massacre at the box office—and see this dark chapter of American history as the missed opportunity for wacky Johnny Depp spectacle that it is—the film’s principals aren’t waiting until then to render judgment. They’ve already decided what the problem is: Critics who preemptively rendered judgment, writing reviews “seven to eight months before” the film even came out, and wielding their enormous influence over a moviegoing public that routinely turns to movie critics to decide which expensive summer blockbusters to see. Indeed, it was an insidious, yellow journalism campaign akin to William Hearst sparking the Spanish-American War, except that didn’t even have any super fun train chases.
Once again seeking the more sophisticated, sympathetic counsel of England, the Mr. Belvedere of nations, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and stars Depp and Armie Hammer spend the entire three minutes of this Yahoo U.K. interview montage complaining about the brutish American press.