Ever since the film’s embarrassing, sub-$30 million opening, the people behind The Lone Ranger have been complaining about critics. And now, as the film opens internationally, they seem to be doubling their efforts. That’s where this interview clip with Yahoo U.K. comes in. For three minutes, it features Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski just complaining about the American press.
Depp posits that “the reviews were written seven to eight months before†the film’s release. Bruckheimer adds, “they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie.†Best is Hammer who, despite his publicist trying to stop him from speaking out, asserts that the American press was “gunning†for The Lone Ranger “ever since it was shut down the first time.†They don’t name names, but considering the film was universally panned (27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), they probably realized they just didn’t have enough time to do so. Frankly, this point might’ve made more sense if two weeks earlier World War Z, another very expensive movie with its share of well-documented production woes, had not opened to solid reviews. But it did (67 percent on RT) and it has since gone on to make $488+ million worldwide and counting.