Unintelligible yelling will emanate from Moscow’s Pushkin Square on Thursday evening, as Johnny Depp strolls down the red carpet for the premiere of his new film ”The Lone Ranger.”
The “handsome mass of fabric and ornate bangles,” according to a satirical report in February’s “Onion,” will be accompanied by his co-star, Armie Hammer, alongside director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer: the pair responsible for the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films.
The $250 million adventure comedy is based on the old fictional legend of a masked crusader for justice and his native American sidekick. The legend spawned a variety of serials from the 1930s onwards, including a television adaptation that Depp remembered watching as a child.
“Why is the [expletive] Lone Ranger telling Tonto what to do?” Depp said to Entertainment Weekly before filming kicked off in 2011, recalling the serials.
Verbinski has styled the film as “Don Quixote” told from the point of view of Sancho Panza. Depp plays iconic American Indian warrior Tonto, whose eyes the stories of the Lone Ranger’s escapades are told through.
Depp’s thick makeup is almost a second skin to him nowadays. His white face paint is symbolic of both peace and wolflike stealth to Native American tribes, but has echoes of earlier film incarnations. His costume also contained a (fake) dead bird.
He explained the move to include it last year. “[Kirby] Sattler [the artist who produced the print which inspired Depp] had painted a bird flying directly behind the warrior’s head,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It looked to me like it was sitting on top. It’s his spirit guide in a way.”
Depp claims to have some distant but unconfirmed Native American ancestry, with his taking the role fueling both compliments and criticism that an on-screen Native American was not being played by a Native American.
However, Depp had forged links in this direction prior to the films release and was adopted as an honorary son by a member of the Comanche Nation last year, having also played Native American Raphael in his directorial debut,“The Brave,” in 1997.
Depp has visited Moscow on a previous occasion: He arrived in May 2011, in order to promote “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Hoards of screaming girls, lively jostling and the outstretched anemone-like arms of the crowd greeted the Hollywood star. Reports detailed a combination of ready wit, class and humility. Expect a similar scenario this time around.
“The Lone Ranger” premiere will be held on June 27 at Rossia Theater, 2 Pushkinskaya Ploshchad, Metro Pushkinskaya.
