Gore Verbinksi is eyeing Disney’s The Lone Ranger for his next project, reports Deadline.

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Verbinksi, who has worked with Johnny Depp on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films and the upcoming Rango, would re-team with the actor, currently attached to play the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, Tonto.

The Lone Ranger’s origin story begins with a group of Texas Rangers chasing down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish. The gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto, who nurses him back to health. The Ranger, donning a mask and riding a white stallion named Silver, teams up with Tonto to bring the unscrupulous gang and others of that ilk to justice.

The film version will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer with a script from Justin Haythe.

Clark Kent says: No word yet on when production is set to start. We’ll keep you posted as more word breaks.

Columbia Pictures has set a December 10 release date for thriller The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Dalton and Steven Berkoff.

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Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck from a script by Julian Fellowes, Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, the film revolves around Frank (Depp), an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise (Jolie) is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Venice, Frank pursues a potential romance but soon finds himself the pursued as he and Elise are caught in a whirlwind of intrigue and danger.

The other two films scheduled for Dec. 10 are The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Fighter.

Clark Kent says: The next three months will be a dope time to go to the theater — or will it be another case of the good, the bad, and the ugly? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

RadarOnline.com has posted 33 photos from the Hawaiian set for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides that give us a first look at Penelope Cruz in character.

Clark Kent says: Penelope Cruz > Keira Knightley in my opinion. More pics after the jump.

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Also pictured are Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs, and possibly Sam Claflin as Philip.

Clark Kent says: Here’s a selection of the photos and you can check out the full gallery here and some more flicks below:

Clark Kent says: Has ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ jumped the proverbial shark? Not if you ask Jack Sparrow! Find out what the crazy captain has to say after the jump!

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides captures the fun, adventure and humor that ignited the hit franchise—this time in Disney Digital 3D. Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed tale of truth, betrayal, youth and demise. When Jack crosses paths with a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz), he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know who to fear more: Blackbeard or the woman from his past.

On Stranger Tides co-stars Ian McShane as Blackbeard, alongside Stephen Graham, Max Irons, Sam Clafin, and French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey. It should dock in cinemas in May next year.

Clark Kent says: Below check out this special message from Captain Jack and share your thoughts about the new flick in our comments section too:

Rob Marshall will only have a couple of hundred million bucks to play with on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, compared to the $300m that Gore Verbinski had to throw at the last instalment.

Clark Kent says: It’s a recession… can you blame Disney? More about the Caribbean cutbacks after the jump.

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It’s all part of a scaling back, under Disney’s new chairman Rich Ross, designed to protect that all important bottom line. The LA Times blames increasing marketing costs and deteriorating DVD revenues. Ross “wants to be mean and lean and cost effective,” says producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

This has meant screenwriters Ted Eliott and Terry Rossio facing the music to keep Johnny Depp and company on land as much as possible. Filming is taking place in Hawaii and London (rather than LA and the Caribbean) for the tax incentives. The shoot will be fifty days shorter than At Worlds End, and there will be several hundred fewer FX shots. The script has lost an expensive scene on a frozen river Thames, and a chase through the streets of London has had its schedule cut from a fortnight to under a week.

“The hard thing is you have to make painful decisions that cut into some very entertaining sequences,” says Bruckheimer, but concedes “the audience will never miss them.”

Gore Verbinski had some serious clashes with the studio brass over the wildly spiraling costs of At World’s End, and most would agree that the bloated second sequel was not necessarily the better for them. If On Stranger Tides trades overblown spectacle for, say, a coherent screenplay, we reckon that’s a decent compromise.

And it’s not as if $200m is chickenfeed.

On Stranger Tides sees Johnny Depp returning as Jack Sparrow, alongside Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbosa, Ian McShane as Blackbeard, and Penelope Cruz as Blackbeard’s wayward daughter. Shooting starts in June for a 2011 summer release.

Walt Disney Pictures has brought online this first full clip from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, coming to 3D theaters and IMAX 3D on March 5th.

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The anticipated fantasy-adventure stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse and Barbara Windsor.

Clark Kent says: This is definitely something worth checking out. Peep the full clip below:

Lionsgate announced today that it won’t be releasing the Dominic Sena-directed supernatural thriller Season of the Witch on the crowded date of March 19th as was previously scheduled.

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There, the film was facing four other wide releases, including The Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Repo Men, and The Runaways.

The studio has not yet set a new date for the film, starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Robert Sheehan, Claire Foy, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham and Christopher Lee.

Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures announced an August 5, 2011 release date for 21 Jump Street, the big screen adaptation of the popular ’80s show starring Johnny Depp. Jonah Hill stars in the feature directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Clark Kent says: ‘Season of the Witch,’ eh… But I am interested to see how Jonah Hill can flip the classic TV show for today’s ADD audience.

Justin Haythe, who adapted Revolutionary Road, is negotiating to write the script for Walt Disney Pictures’ The Lone Ranger.

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Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the project, which will star Johnny Depp as Tonto. “Pirates of the Caribbean” scribes Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were previously attached to write the script.

The Hollywood Reporter says Haythe’s last gig at the studio, writing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, ended when the project was canceled during the recent executive turnover.

The Lone Ranger’s origin story begins with a group of Texas Rangers chasing down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish. The gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto, who nurses him back to health. The Ranger, donning a mask and riding a white stallion named Silver, teams up with Tonto to bring the unscrupulous gang and others of that ilk to justice.

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday in the States, which means companies – film studios among them – shelled out millions to buy ad time during the breaks. One of them was Disney, which showed a new ad for Tim Burton’s take on Alice In Wonderland.

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The new promo doesn’t have a load of new footage, though there are some fresh glimpses at the action to be found later in the movie and brief moments for other characters besides Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter – the Mad March Hare and the Stephen Fry-voiced Cheshire Cat.

Clark Kent says: Although the Super Bowl commercials were weak, check out ‘Alice In Wonderland’ below:

Captain Jack Sparrow will soon take to the seas again, and this time he is after the most sought-after treasure imaginable: the Fountain of Youth.

Clark Kent says: Which Depp has a private stash in one of his fancy mansions, probably! [Laughs] More about this after the jump.

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It was announced this week that the fourth installment of Disney’s highly successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise will begin filming in Hawaii this summer. Johnny Depp once again plays the flamboyant Captain Jack, and Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as his adversary, Barbossa. However, costars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are not expected to return.

The film’s story is loosely based on the 1987 pirate novel, “On Stranger Tides” by award-winning fantasy author Tim Powers. The book tells the story of a young man — coincidentally named “Jack” — who is captured by the pirate Blackbeard and forced to join in the search for the Fountain of Youth.

Ted Elliott, the co-writer of the first three “Pirates” movies, said that the story of the novel just happened to align with where they wanted to take the fourth film. He told Empire magazine, “We wanted to do a story about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth, and Tim Powers wrote a book about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth… it just turns out that to do that story you would need that book.”

Johnny Depp signed on to appear in the fourth movie in 2008, before there was a script. It was announced at the same time he would also be playing Tonto in a film version of “The Lone Ranger,” but that project has been delayed until after “Pirates” is finished.

Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have both said they had no desire to return for a fourth movie. Knightley said in an interview, “It was a completely fantastic experience, and it was an amazingly large portion of my life, but I don’t think I need to go there again. I think that it’s done.” Also, the director of the original trilogy, Gore Verbinski, will not be coming back. He is being replaced by Rob Marshall, the director of “Chicago” and “Nine.”

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is scheduled to dock into movie theaters on May 20th, 2011. Johnny Depp will next be seen as the Mad Hatter in director Tim Burton’s new version “Alice in Wonderland” coming this March.

Clark Kent says: To see why he says the role is “a dream come true,” watch the exclusive interview with him in the player below: