Reteaming with his Pirates of the Caribbean leading man for the surreal western Rango, Gore Verbinski marks his first full foray into CG animation. The director spoke exclusively this morning with ComingSoon.net and, while we’ll have the full interview available soon, he offered updates on a few future projects, chiefly another highly anticipated Johnny Depp team-up, The Lone Ranger.
“It’s sort of ‘Don Quixote’ told from Sancho Panza’s point of view,” said Verbinski of the Justin Haythe script, indicating that Depp’s Tonto will actually be the main character, “…But it’s coming along really great…[It] wouldn’t shoot until next year, probably, because Johnny’s doing ‘Dark Shadows.'”
In between then and now, however, Verbinski is likely to tackle another project, though he isn’t entirely sure what it will be.
“I don’t know, honestly,” he laughed, “I have quite a few options. If you ask me that question in three weeks, I can probably answer it, but there’s too many things that are conflicting schedules and I still have to factor availabilities and everything else. So whatever I tell you will be wrong in two days.”
Though he’s no longer actively involved in the project, Verbinski also discussed his take on the videogame adaptation BioShock and why it failed to get off the ground.
“I couldn’t really get past anybody that would spend the money that it would take to do it and keep an R rating,” he explained, “Alternately, I wasn’t really interested in pursuing a PG-13 version. Because the R rating is inherent. Little Sisters and injections and the whole thing. I just wanted to really, really make it a movie where, four days later, you’re still shivering and going, “Jesus Christ!”… It’s a movie that has to be really, really scary, but you also have to create a whole underwater world, so the pricetag is high. We just didn’t have any takers on an R-rated movie with that pricetag.”
Unlike Rango, which was very consciously not converted for 3D, BioShock, Verbinski added, is perfect for the format.
“[Bioshock] would be a great movie to do in 3D. I’d like to go into that world wearing a pair of glasses. I think in general, gaming is perfect for 3D. Anything where you’re the protagonist. The kid in ‘The Shining’ on the big wheel, going around corridors. That’s what 3D is perfect for. To make people feel on-edge.”
Check back soon for the full interview and be sure to catch Rango in theaters on March 4th.
