TRAILER: 'The Lone Ranger'

The trailer to Disney's The Lone Ranger debuted on The Tonight Show during Ranger star Armie Hammer's after midnight appearance, and the footage went online later this morning. Behold how a big budget western is put forth as only the team behind Pirates of the Caribbean can do it.

With a reported budget of over $250 million and a massive 150-day shooting schedule, the trailer shows off where the time and money went, and its far from a throwback to a spaghetti western. Plot-wise, this first look all out ignores any reference to the actual backstory of the iconic masked title character or how his relationship to his wild west Native American companion Tonto came to be. Rather it focuses on the importance of who controls the Transcontinental Railroad. There is no hint (yet) of the rousing theme associated with the character, The William Tell Overture, but with Jack White composing the score, hopefully we will here a tribute to it in some form.

The Gore Verbinski-directed film stars Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger, Johnny Depp as Tonto, and also features Ruth Wilson, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tom Wilkinson.

The Lone Ranger rides into theaters on July 3rd, 2013.

You can also check out images from the film here, which were posted yesterday when the teaser one-sheet was revealed.

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Poster & New Images From 'The Lone Ranger' Revealed

The first trailer arrives online tomorrow, but as a lead-up to the first live action glimpse of The Lone Ranger, we not only get a look at the teaser poster, but MSN Movies has unveiled three new images from Disney's upcoming film starring Armie Hammer as the legendary masked man and Johnny Depp as Tonto.

The film reunites Depp with his Pirates of the Caribbean director and producer team of Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer for what promises to be one of next summer's biggest action adventures. Check out the entire gallery of images from the re-imaging of the iconic character, which is scheduled to ride into theaters on July 3rd, 2013.

“The Lone Ranger” is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption."

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SOURCE: MSN Movies

TRAILER: 'The Walking Dead' Season Three

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 14 at 9pm. Check out the brand new trailer below in addition to some previews images from Seed, the Season Premiere.

"With the world growing increasingly more dangerous and Lori’s pregnancy advancing, Rick discovers a potentially safe haven. But first he must secure the premises, pushing his group to its limit."

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SOURCE: AMC

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Revealed For Joss Whedon's ABC TV Show

The identities of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents set to appear in the TV series produced by Joss Whedon have been declassified.

TVLine got their hands on the casting details for the pilot regarding the new faces we will see on ABC in the show set in the same universe as The Avengers.

The pilot will be written and likely directed by Avengers mastermind Whedon, and it remains to be seen which, if any, of the familiar faces from the big screen will appear to bridge the movie and TV version closer together. If that would happen, it would be a priority to keep that top secret, as many things are in the live action Marvel Universe.

According to the TVLine casting scoop, here are the Agents Whedon is looking to assemble:

SKYE: This late-20s woman sounds like a dream: fun, smart, caring and confident – with an ability to get the upper hand by using her wit and charm.

AGENT GRANT WARD: Quite the physical specimen and “cool under fire,” he sometimes botches interpersonal relations. He’s a quiet one with a bit of a temper, but he’s the kind of guy that grows on you.

AGENT ALTHEA RICE: Also known as “The Calvary,” this hard-core soldier has crazy skills when it comes to weapons and being a pilot. But her experiences have left her very quiet and a little damaged.

AGENT LEO FITZ and AGENT JEMMA SIMMONS: These two came through training together and still choose to spend most of their time in each other’s company. Their sibling-like relationship is reinforced by their shared nerd tendencies – she deals with biology and chemistry, he’s a whiz at the technical side of weaponry.

“It’s new characters. It needs to be its own thing. It needs to be adjacent [to the MCU] but you don’t want to do a show where you’re constantly going, ‘Iron Man just left, but he was totally here a minute ago.’ You want them to do their own thing,” Whedon told Collider at the Toronto Film Festival last month.

While perhaps the easiest and most logical cross-over would be for Samuel L. Jackson to make an appearance as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. Cobie Smulders could also suit up for a quick cameo as Agent Maria Hill. But whether CBS would play nice and let her appear in an ABC show while she is still on How I Met Your Mother is an issue for the lawyers to figure out. I wouldn't count out Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson either. Who is to say flashbacks would not factor into the pilot, assuming the series is set in the post-Avengers timeline.

But Whedon assures fans that an underdog factor will be a major theme for the show, as all the agents will not possess superpowers like Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

“Well, what does S.H.I.E.L.D. have that the other superheroes don’t? And that, to me, is that they’re not superheroes. But they live in that universe. Even though they’re a big organization, that [lack of powers] makes them underdogs, and that’s interesting to me,” he also revealed in the Collider interview.

SOURCE: TVLine, Collider

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NBC Passes on 'Munsters' Reboot 'Mockingbird Lane'

Looks like NBC's modern day reboot of The Munsters may not make it to the air after all. According to Deadline, Mockingbird Lane, starring Jerry O'Connell as Herman, Portia de Rossi as Lily, and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, is not looking like a shoe-in to go to series as planned, or hoped.

The pilot episode was directed by Bryan Signer (X-Men, X2, Superman Returns), and written/ produced by Pushing Daisies mastermind Bryna Fuller. Deadline reports that while the first look at the new take on the '60s monster comedy scored points for its visual style, but its high concept approach ultimately ended up being considered too risky for the NBC network brass.

Last year NBC also passed on another high profile reboot, and didn't move beyond the pilot of the re-imagining of DC Comics' Wonder Woman written and produced David Kelley, which starred Adrianne Palicki. Mockingbird Lane maintained a lower profile on the internet than Wonder Woman did, which received much negative buzz once a promotional still of its heroine in full costume was released and promptly met with a big thumbs down.

I was definitely interested to see what the team of Fuller and Singer could bring to the table with the property, and its unfortunate to hear that a high concept approach may have been its undoing, which is precisely what you would have expected from that creative team. While there was some obvious skepticism of the darker edgier reboot, a welcome curiosity factor grew the more we learned and saw about the show.

You can check out an earlier post on Mockingbird Lane here, which has concept art and pictures of the cast in full costume. The image to the right shows original Eddie Munster Butch Patrick posing with the new cast on the new 666 Mockingbird Lane set. Its a shame to hear we will not see what the new Spot looks like, who is likely lurking under that staircase.

SOURCE: Deadline

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