Jack White Out as ‘The Lone Ranger’ Composer
Earlier this year it was reported that former 'White Stripes' frontman Jack White would write the score for Disney's upcoming Johnny Depp action-adventure film 'The Lone Ranger' and this was quite exciting news. But now, after writing some music for the film, comes word from Disney that White has left the production and will be replaced as the film's composer.
After rumors earlier this week that White had left 'The Lone Ranger,' Disney released a statement this weekend that explained the situation.
Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, the musical mastermind behind Disney’s and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Pirates of the Caribbean, has signed on to compose the score for The Lone Ranger. Jack White, who had originally been contemplated to score and has contributed several pieces of music to the production, was logistically unavailable due to scheduling conflicts that arose when the film’s release moved to July of 2013.
White had signed on to the film when the release date was December 21 (which oddly enough would have the film hitting theaters this Friday) but, according to Disney, the release date shift made him unavailable. Or, perhaps more likely, Disney wasn't happy with the work that White produced.
This isn't a knock on White's music (we were actually very excited to hear what he came up with) but studios are notoriously picky about their film scores, especially on movies that cost them upwards of $200 million. So they hired a guy - Hans Zimmer - who has experience working on films of this size (White, for all of his hard rock pedigree, had never composed a film score before).
It's not the first time a well-respected rocker has been replaced on a Hollywood movie. Beck was hired to compose the music for the Jack Black comedy 'Nacho Libre' but was replaced by Danny Elfman.