With its production drama and budgetary battles reportedly solved, THE LONE RANGER director Gore Verbinski continued to add to the cast of the highly anticipated adaptation of the classic western starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and J. Edgar star Armie Hammer as the titular masked man.
Deadline reported that 33-year-old actor James Badge Dale, currently in director Steve McQueen’s drama Shame opposite Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, looked likely to join the period western as the older brother to Hammer’s character.
Pre-production work resumed on the film after producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Verbinski and Depp agreed to cut their own salary packages to help shrink the film's budget from $250 million closer to the $215 million mark set by Disney.
Tom Wikinson, Ruth Wilson, Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter and James Frain also joined the film that follows the Lone Ranger and Tonto as they battle the Cavendish gang.
Pirates of the Caribbean scribes Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio wrote Lone Ranger with Revolutionary Road scribe Justin Haythe.
Up next for Dale is the Arctic action drama The Grey and the zombie thriller World War Z.