A few of us at
Obsessed With Film firmly believe that
Armie Hammer will be Warner Bros' first choice to play their rebooted Batman character in the
Justice League movie they tentatively hope to unleash in 2013 (as you will remember he was cast
the first time around for director George Miller) but before then he's sure going to make sure to stack up the tentpole gigs, just in case. He's already set to play the Prince character in Tarsem Singh's
Snow White re-imagining at Relativity and now
Deadline reports that the breakout Social Network star is in early talks to play
The Lone Ranger for Disney, opposite the long cast
Johnny Depp as his sidekick Tonto. Mike Fleming expects "he'll soon be shouting "Hi Yo Silver! Away!" - so that's that then.
Ryan Gosling had been
previously rumoured for the role and they definitely share a physical resemblance, so I imagine Hammer has turned out to be second choice for Disney. But a good choice, I feel. As the Harvard twin brother rowers in The Social Network he oozed masculinity and his deep voice was commanding and powerful. I could imagine myself running into battle for Armie Hammer but maybe not so much Gosling. He's also tall too, standing at an intimidating 6"5, so he will dwarf over Depp's Tonto (5"10, by most accounts) and he's an astonishing 23 years younger than Depp, but I expect all of this to play a part in the movie. Expected to shoot in the fall, The Lone Ranger is to be directed by Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 helmer
Gore Verbinski from a script by
Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road). The expensive tentpole movie is basically Disney's attempt to create 'another' POTC-style franchise and I would expect Hammer to the be straight man and Depp to be the goon, ala Jack Sparrow. Expect a love interest to join them soon.