Before Disney pulled the brakes on The Lone Ranger in order to trim the budget British actress Ruth Wilson (Luthur) was in talks to play the female lead and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) was being eyed for the villain.

The movie eventually got the green light but with the start of filming delayed from October to February there could have been some scheduling issues preventing the actors from appearing. Luckily for Disney both are free, and Deadline reports that Wilson and Wilkinson will star in the film as originally planned.

The site also notes that Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Dwight Yoakum are having their deals worked out, having been attached previously but not confirmed.

The Lone Ranger, which stars Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto, is to be directed by Gore Verbinksi and will be released May 31, 2013.

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Relativity Media has released the first trailer for Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror.

In interviews Singh has told us to be prepared for a “sickeningly kiddie” movie that’s a “fairy tale for children and the family”. What the director didn’t do, however, was prepare us for how bad it looks. Seeing a great trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman last week hasn’t helped it’s cause, either.

Watch below:

Mirror Mirror, set for release March 2012, begins with the evil stepmother (Julia Roberts) killing Snow White’s father (Sean Bean) and destroying the kingdom. Snow White (Lily Collins) then bands together with a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarves to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Armie Hammer plays Prince Andrew Alcott and Nathan Lane plays Brighton, the Queen’s servant.

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It’s easy to see how J. Edgar was one of my most anticipated films of 2011. It stars my favorite working actor, is directed by a living legend, and features a script by an Academy Award winning screenwriter. But who knew that those elements could combine to create something so…boring?

The film tracks the trajectory of the professional and personal life of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio), the first director of the FBI, from the early days of his career in 1919 until his death in 1972. Hoover meets a young graduate named Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), and even though he doesn’t fit the profile for a job on Hoover’s coveted new squad, Hoover brings him on anyway. See, Hoover’s been bullied into not accepting his homosexuality. Even his own mother (Judi Dench) says she’d rather have a dead son than a gay one. On a first date with a new woman at the Bureau (Naomi Watts), Hoover is so socially inept that she has to interrupt a proposal from him. She’s married to her work, she says, and Hoover brings her on as his personal secretary (a position she’ll have for the rest of her life). But he can’t help himself with Tolson, what with the young man’s booming voice and broad shoulders and all. Though things never get too sexual – check out another film that played at the AFI Film Festival this year, Steve McQueen’s Shame, if you’re looking for that – their relationship takes center stage as Hoover makes a name for himself and his department.

“Information is power,” an elderly Hoover dictates to one of numerous agents tasked with writing a book about him (the structure of the film is told from the old man’s point of view through flashbacks), and the film does add a tiny bit of complexity when dealing with the issues of how far Hoover is willing to go to keep his power in Washington, simultaneously commenting on the state of American politics and freedoms in a post-9/11 world. I wish more of those concepts were explored instead of what we are actually shown: a stale biopic about a tortured man whose private life was undoubtedly messed up, but was also, as the marketing hails, “the most powerful man in the world.”

There’s much made of the creation of the FBI and Hoover’s crusade to secure the adoption of the investigation techniques used in regular police work today. But since our modern media is saturated with a different CSI or NCIS show seemingly every night, the “magic” of the implementation of those tactics seems dull and uninteresting. The film doesn’t really help us out in this department: the centerpiece of the use of this technology surrounds the infamous Lindbergh baby case – specifically, agents studying wood from a ladder found outside the home the day of the kidnapping. Yep, you read that correctly – guys standing around in a lab analyzing a wooden ladder. Some movies may be able to make a scene like that interesting, but J. Edgar is not one of them.

Behind the camera, this is not the rough and tumble Eastwood I prefer. Instead, it’s as if adhering to his notoriously quick directing style – Fincher did 99 takes for the opening scene of The Social Network, while Eastwood prefers to do everything in one or two takes – became more important than the content of the film itself, rendering the movie completely devoid of any passion or personality. It could have been directed by anyone, and that was a big disappointment for me.

Another disappointment? This is not DiCaprio’s best work. More distracting than the heavy age makeup for me was his speech, as he adopts what one can only assume is an accurate representation of the way Hoover actually spoke. But accurate as it may be (or maybe it isn’t, how should I know?), DiCaprio’s delivery is brittle and jerky, with an accent sliding in and out depending on the scene. This is the same actor who received high praise for his South African accent in Blood Diamond, one of the most difficult accents to replicate. So I’m sure it was just a choice on his part in J. Edgar, but it was one that I could never quite get past as the movie progressed. Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts were both fine, but the monotonous script doesn’t allow them to live up to their potential and never gives them a true “moment” to make their own, save for a laughably over-the-top emotional outburst from Hammer seen in the trailers.

Sometimes the combination of some of the best talent in the business results in a misfire. In the blockbuster genre, take a look at Cowboys & Aliens from earlier this year: Jon Favreau, Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Damon Lindelof, Hawk Otsby, Mark Fergus, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci all had their hands in that pot, and it was pretty awful. If the nicest thing I can say about J. Edgar is that it’s the dramatic equivalent of Cowboys & Aliens…well, there’s that saying about “if you can’t say anything nice,” so maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all. Until next time…

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Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s potential Oscar contender, J. Edgar. The biopic stars Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was surrounded by controversy as his career in the Bureau progressed.

Watch the trailer below:

The films also stars Armie Hammer as lawyer-turned-FBI-official — and, some say, Hoover’s lover — Clyde Tolson. Though the pair didn’t always agree on political tactics, Tolson remained a loyal friend and advisor to Hoover. Naomi Watts plays Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk Hoover selected as his personal secretary at the age of 21 who wound up working for him for over 54 years, and Judi Dench appears as Hoover’s mother.

J. Edgar will have a limited release starting on Wednesday November 9th, followed by an Oscar-friendly wide release two days later on November 11th. Could this be Leo’s shot at a trophy after being nominated (and missing out) three times?

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Variety is reporting that Disney is having budget issues with The Lone Ranger, the classic western which has The Social Network actor Armie Hammer playing the title character and Johnny Depp playing the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto. The studio apparently wants to “trim the film’s escalating budget to get it closer to the $200 million that Disney was looking to spend to make the movie”.

THR earlier reported that production had been halted, with the studio wary about producing a big-budget western following the poor box office performance of Cowboys and Aliens. However Variety insists the project “is far from dead at the studio”, and Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are “trying to rein in the costs of the actioner before the price to produce the pic gallops away from them.”

The Lone Ranger, which has Pirates of the Caribbean‘s Gore Verbinski as director, was looking to shooting in October in New Mexico, which will offer the studio tax breaks. Whether these budget issues delay production remains to be seen, but the studio may still aim to meet the December 21, 2012 release date.

As well as Depp and Hammer, the movie is also set to star Ruth Wilson, Dwight Yoakam, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Barry Pepper.

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Entertainment Weekly got their hands on our first official look at Lily Collins as Snow White in Relativity Media’s yet-to-be-titled Snow White movie. Personally I think she looks great, if you ignore the dress and eyebrows.

Collins told EW her Snow White “is a naive innocent young girl who turns into a woman and really finds herself”. She is also “very much that fairy tale princess we’ve all read about in books. She’s been modernized in a way that she becomes a fighter in the end.”

Tarsem Singh’s movie, set for release March 16, 2012, begins with the evil stepmother (Julia Roberts) killing Snow White’s father (Sean Bean) and destroying the kingdom. Snow White (Lily Collins) then bands together with a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarves to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Armie Hammer will also appear as Prince Andrew Alcott.

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Heat Vision reports that Helena Bonham Carter, Dwight Yoakam and Barry Pepper are all in talks to join Johnny Depp in Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger.

Helena Bonham Carter, currently seen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, will play “the madam of a brothel who deals with gentlemen and scoundrels.” Dwight Yoakam (Crank: High Voltage) will play Butch Cavendish, leader of the gang that attacks the ranger and leaves him for dead, while Barry Pepper, Emmy-nominated for his turn as Bobby Kennedy in The Kennedys, will act as a military officer.

Disney will be releasing The Lone Ranger on December 21, 2012. The Social Network actor Armie Hammer will play the title character, with Johnny Depp playing the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto.

Filming is scheduled to begin in mid-October in Texas and New Mexico.

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According to Heat Vision Sean Bean, who was most recently seen in HBO’s brilliant first season of Game of Thrones, is in final negotiations to join the cast of Tarsem Singh’s Snow White movie.

Bean will play Snow White’s father and (as we’ve come to expect with Sean Bean roles) his character is unlikely to make it to the end credits.

Tarsem Singh’s movie begins with the evil stepmother (Julia Roberts) killing Snow White’s father and destroying the kingdom. Snow White (Lily Collins) then bands together with a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarves to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Armie Hammer will also appear as Prince Andrew Alcott.

Relativity Media recently moved the release date forward from June 29 to March 16, 2012 in order to get the advantage over Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman which stars Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron and hits June 1, 2012.

Filming is currently taking place in Montreal.

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According to Deadline British actress Ruth Wilson is in talks to play the female lead in Disney’s The Lone Ranger.

No details on the role have been released, although she is thought to be playing a character called Rebecca. Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) and Abbie Cornish (Limitless) were also up for the role, but Disney eventually entered talks with Wilson who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the miniseries Jane Eyre, and was most recently seen in BBC’s crime drama Luther opposite Idris Elba.

Disney will be releasing Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger on December 21, 2012. The Social Network actor Armie Hammer will play the title character, with Johnny Depp playing the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto.

Filming will begin later this year after Depp has finished work on Tim Burtons Dark Shadows.

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Tarsem Singh’s Untitled Snow White movie currently has the advantage over Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman. It’s already filming and will be released in March 2012, where as Huntsman is still in pre-production and (after a release date war) won’t be released until June.

In a recent interview Singh spoke about why he cast Julia Roberts as his Evil Queen, and increased the rivalry even further by declaring “there really, truly is only room for the first one of these” (which happens to be his).

From EW:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you think Julia Roberts would make a good bad-guy?

TARSEM SINGH: She’s the obvious choice of being goody-two-shoes, and I didn’t want an Evil Queen in the sense that already existed. In earlier versions, always it was mothers — mothers of the child. And then the Brothers Grimm came along, and said we’ve got to make it more family friendly and turn the mother into a stepmother, which I find really bizarre because most stepmothers are pretty great. I said, “It can’t be an evil, quintessential queen. I’m looking for a likable evil queen.” I couldn’t think of anybody who is more of a likable evil queen than her.

Are you confident there will be appetite for both?

TARSEM SINGH: Fortunately or unfortunately, there really, truly is only room for the first one of these. Two Snow White movies do not exist in this market. So for me, if you’re not first with this one, you’re not in the game. I made that very clear from the beginning to Relativity.

You can read the full interview here.

Tarsem Singh’s movie begins with the evil stepmother (Julia Roberts) killing Snow White’s father and destroying the kingdom. Snow White (Lily Collins) then bands together with a gang of seven quarrelsome dwarves to reclaim what is rightfully hers. Armie Hammer will also appear as Prince Andrew Alcott.

Singh’s Greek epic Immortals starring future Superman Henry Cavill and Mickey Rourke will be released November 11th, 2011.

Do you think Singh is right when he says there is only room for one, or can both be successful?

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