Updated:EW said last night that Ryan Gosling won't be starring in The Lone Ranger.
Ryan Gosling, who upon winning his Oscar nomination for Half Nelson was compared by some critics to a modern day Marlon Brando and was unfortunate to miss out on a second nomination for Blue Valentine last year, is close to taking up his first real paycheck gig -
The Wrap reporting that the actor has begun early talks with Disney to star as
The Lone Ranger. Because of his desire to mostly take dramatic parts in small budget and indie fare and his penchant for characters with a limiting sense of humour (though he has shaken things up a bit recently with his hyper masculine role in Crazy, Stupid, Love and a re-teaming with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn for Logan's Run) Gosling would not be somebody we would have thought of in a million years for this but a deal looks like it could be sealed before the month is out. Gosling would star opposite
Johnny Depp's Tonto, in what is basically a Pirates of the Caribbean style humorous Western adventurer from writer Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) and directed by
Gore Verbinski and mega producer
Jerry Bruckheimer (POTC). The only potential scupper to the deal is a potential scheduling clash with Logan's Run (films in the fall) as Ranger is likely to film around then. Hopefully Logan's Run is the priority in his mind but Disney's will be the better paycheck. And maybe he's wanting his piece of the pie his peer Ryan Reynolds is getting for much less challenging work.