Ugh, kemo sabe! Tonto in the new production of the Lone Ranger is...

I'm much more excited about this.

My first thought, too, was Christian Bale....but Paladin has a point you can only play so many iconic figures.

How about Joaquin Phoenix?

Interesting you should bring that up, because here's the story of how Tonto got his name. Basically, the writer was looking around for a name, spotted Tonto Basin on a map, and figured that'd be the perfect name for the Lone Ranger's sidekick. No idea of how that place came to be named, however.

Cool! I've been to the Tonto Basin before when hiking + camping.

There's also the "Tonto National Forest" in Arizona.

Rumor has it Clooney will be the Lone Ranger: http://johnny-depp.org/johnny/news/entry/1404/

Hmmm...

Meh, it will just be a long Hollywood tradition of white guys playing indians in movies and tv.

But then you have to decide what's more important - the actual ethnicity of the actor, or their ability to play the role.

For instance, I can't stand Keiko O'Brien - not because Rosalind Chao is Chinese and playing a Japanese character, but because she plays it so damn whiny. Now, part of that is how the character's written (Gee, honey, your husband's a career Starfleet officer, and you're surprised that he occasionally gets transferred somewhere that doesn't have a job market tailor-made for you?), but the rest is the actor's tone of voice.

Also, I love nontraditional casting. Unless a character *has* to be of a particular ethnicity to fit into a family setting, let's say, or a specific place in history (Shoehorning a black character into Robin Hood, for example, is distracting), very often the script won't specify, and you can get some interesting casting decisions.

Obviously you wouldn't cast a blue-eyed blond as Tonto, but beyond that, there should be some wiggle room, IMO.

Aye, having Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man added a whole new level of badass to the character that few actors could have brought to the role.

Much as I agree with the point, that's a bad example: black people have lived in England since Roman times, have a respectable amount of archaeological evidence since Norman times, and are represented in art from the early Medieval age.

Funny thing is, there are some all-white people whose ancestry in this country doesn't go back as far...

First time I saw Daredevil, I was struck by just how much Michael Clarke Duncan looked like Kingpin in the original comics, apart from one little detail...

Bah. If you're going to tell me Depp can't play Tonto because he doesn't look Indian, you might as well tell me he can't play Hunter S. Thompson because he looks nothing like him.

It isn't Depp's look that I object to; clearly, he could be made to look very Indian.

It isn't Depp's race/ethnicity that I object to; an actor doesn't have to be the race/ethnicity of the character he plays.

It's that Depp is such a huge star that placing him in the sidekick role is bound to draw TOO MUCH attention to Tonto, upstaging what the Lone Ranger story is supposed to be about. Also, Depp's tendency to play 'offbeat' suggests that Tonto won't be played seriously, but will instead be exaggerated in some respect, probably to comic effect.

The Lone Ranger is (IMHO) a story that needs to be told with some respect for the source material. To tell it comically will ultimately be demeaning to it. That would be as bad as "re-imagining" it and making the Ranger a cold-blooded killer...

If I were Chief O'Brien, Keiko would've had an airlock accident about halfway through season 1.

Plus, I've never liked Chao as an actress, all the way back to the M*A*S*H finale.

Isn't SLJ's Nick Fury based on the Ultimate version, which itself is based on SLJ?

Wouldn't know. I stopped reading comic books in the late 80s. I've heard that there is a bit of recursive nature to the character, so you might be right.

Hm.....not sure how to feel about that one. At first I thought, "OMG! You must be kidding!" But then the more I thought about it the better I feel. If it's supposed to be funny.....which it sounds like it will be....then Clooney could do it. I just thought maybe someone more....rugged....might would fit.

Joaquin Phoenix.

If I could cast anyone as the Lone Ranger, I could cast Joaquin Phoenix.