Is Bruckheimer's LONE RANGER Movie Close To Finding A Director??

Merrick here...
THIS piece at Deadline says that Gore Verbinski - director of the first three PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films - is "getting serious" about directing the Jerry Bruckheimer produced, Johnny Depp starring adaptation of THE LONE RANGER. I read a draft of the script for this a year or so ago - not sure how it has changed since then, but what I read showed quite a bit of promise. Hope they haven't tweaked too much in the meantime. We'd previously heard that Mike Newell could be directing this one - guess that's not the case anymore. Maybe Bruckheimer put him in director jail after PRINCE OF PERSIA last Summer? I have no knowledge that this is the case...just making an observation. Except for the involvement of Johnny Depp, to date the talent attached to this picture seems to be moving through a revolving door - so it might be safe to take Verbinski 's purported association as a "very probably so, but with a margin for error" kinda thing until official announcements are made.
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