Straight from  Jerry Bruckheimer’s Twitter feed comes the first look at Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp as sidekick Tonto in Gore Verbinski’s feature-film adaptation. Try as I might, I really can’t top what the AV Club had to say about the photo:

When it was announced that Lone Ranger star Johnny Depp would honor his Native American heritage by playing Tonto, perhaps the Native Americans’ most hated character in all of pop culture, the first question that sprung to mind was, “What nonsensical, disparate impressions of deceased character actors, rock stars, and cartoon characters would Johnny Depp say he combined for the role—like maybe Vincent Price as filtered through Sebastian Bach and Snagglepuss?” We’ll probably have to wait for a trailer for the official reply to that, but in the meantime producer Jerry Bruckheimer has already answered the other burning question—namely, what outlandish combination of thick make-up, animal parts, and every beaded necklace he can carry will Depp emerge wearing from out of a suddenly barren costuming department.

The Lone Ranger is scheduled to be released May 31st, 2013. The pertinent question here is: what the hell is going on with Johnny Depp? He used to seem selective about the movies he made during a time when he should have been whoring himself out, now he’s whoring himself out when he can afford to be selective.