Recognize Armie Hammer behind that black mask?
On Thursday, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures unveiled the first image of the actor dressed up as the lead character in The Lone Ranger. In the photo still, Hammer, 25, stands beside Johnny Depp, 48, who plays his Native American companion Tonto.
Depp is equally unrecognizable, wearing white and black face paint and feathers in his hair; a black crow is also fixated on the top of his head. The film, which is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski, will be released in May 2013.
The Lone Ranger, which also stars William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson and James Badge Dale, is a a modern version of the 1940s television and radio series. Unlike the original, Depp's character will be more than just The Lone Ranger's trusty sidekick.
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"When the idea came up [for the movie], I started thinking about Tonto and what could be done in my own small way try to reinvent the relationship," Bruckheimer once told Entertainment Weekly, "to attempt to take some of the ugliness thrown on the Native Americans — not only in The Lone Ranger, but the way Indians were treated throughout history of cinema — and turn it on its head."
