Johnny Depp 'drops fee for Disney's Lone Ranger'

Johnny Depp has reportedly reduced his fee for Disney's big-screen version of Lone Ranger.

The project stalled after the studio asked for the film to lower its predicted budget of $250 million (£159.8m).

It will now be filmed for $215 million, with Depp agreeing to slash his asking price from $20m (£12.8m), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer will reportedly no longer be demanding $10m (£6.4m) for their respective roles.

A source also claimed that the film's crew will lower their fees, with several expensive planned sequences to be dropped from the lower cost version of the film.

In August, it was rumoured that Verbinski had been dropped from the film because of its budgeting problems.

Despite the new progress, Disney has not yet decided whether to release the film by the original date set in 2012.

Depp has described the film as an update on the television series, with the screenplay focused on him as the sidekick Tonto.

The star has said that Tonto's role will challenge ideas about Native Americans in the original television series on US television.

Watch the trailer for Johnny Depp's Rango below: