By You may recall that The Lone Ranger was put on hold a while back in order to scale down the $250 million budget. They cut it to a meager indie movie budget of $215 million, supposedly by nixing the werewolves or supernatural coyotes from the story. Shooting started at the end of February. How you can make a western for any less than $230 million I will never know.
Unfortunately, the production may be weeks behind its 120-day schedule, with a budget that could exceed $250 million. This comes from insiders who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter. Bad winds and dust storms (i.e., nature’s werewolves) have caused a number of delays and have damaged the sets. But the big reason for the budget woes: director Gore Verbinski is making his own choo choo trains. According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Period trains are a huge element in the movie, say sources, and Verbinski opted for the production to construct its own locomotives from scratch rather than employ existing railroad vehicles.
If Verbinski is going for authenticity, I’d hate to see who he’s hired to lay track and what the working conditions are like. No word if they’re also making bullets from real silver and actually shooting people with them. As of press time, they have not yet constructed the giant robotic spider.
[The Hollywood Reporter via /Film]