It Gets Weirder: Jack White Set to Score 'The Lone Ranger'

The Walt Disney Studios seem bound and determined to make their big screen take on the classic "The Lone Ranger" stand out from the rest of the remake crowd. Not content to throw in talking robots or lens flares or revisionist history, it looks like the Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer-starring film is going for a decidedly hip look and feel for their update. But more than just look and feel, Disney is going for some cool sounds too, announcing at CinemaCon that Jack White will write, produce and perform the score for Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ "The Lone Ranger." Hey, the man once made a guitar out of a Coke bottle, so this should be pretty easy for the musician.

White has just released his first solo album, “Blunderbuss,” this week, but he's still best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist of the rock band The White Stripes and then as a member of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. White is also a songwriter and producer, so the demands of putting together the score for "The Lone Ranger" are not far outside his wheelhouse. "The Lone Ranger" will be White's first venture into scoring film. Traditionally, "The Lone Ranger" featured theme music from the overture of Gioachino Rossini's "William Tell" opera, and it will be interesting to see what (if any) of that classic music White infuses into his work.

The film started production in February after a long, long trail to the screen, and we got our first look at both Depp and Hammer in March. The inclusion of Jack White's music, paired with that giant bird on Depp's head seem to signal that this will be the most hipster take on "The Lone Ranger" ever. The film's official synopsis describes it as "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 recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, 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."