Johnny Depp is blaming the messenger. Now that "Lone Ranger" can pretty much be considered a flop (made for $250 million, it's only taken in $87 million at the domestic box office), he's turning his ire on critics for its failure.
"I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we even released the film," he told Yahoo! Movies UK and Ireland. "I think the reviews were probably written when they heard that Gore (Verbinski) and Jerry (Bruckheimer) and I were going to do 'The Lone Ranger.' They had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I didn't have any expectations of that. I never do."
Producer Bruckheimer was equally miffed at the reviewers. "I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie. The audience doesn't care what the budget is — they pay the same amount to see the movie if it costs a dollar or $20 million."
He added, "It's unfortunate because the movie is a terrific movie, it's a great epic film. It has lots of humor. Its one of those movies that whatever critics missed in it this time, they'll review it in a few years and see that they made a mistake."
Star Armie Hammer was equally disappointed. "While we were making it we kind of knew that people were gunning for it. I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain to jump on the bandwagon to try and bash it. They tried to do the same thing with 'World War Z'; it didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie.”
Currently, "The Lone Ranger" holds a low 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, indicating percentage of positive reviews. Compare that with Depp's "Dark Shadows" (38 percent) and "Rango" (88 percent), along with Bruckheimer, who hasn't had a Tomatometer score go above 55 percent since 2004.