Disney stops production on THE LONE RANGER over high costs

The Lone Ranger will not ride off into the sunset with his sidekick Tonto as expected. Deadline reports that Walt Disney Pictures has stopped production on film described by director Gore Verbinski as "'Don Quixote' told from Sancho Panza's point of view." What is most surprising is that the film was to star Armie Hammer as the titular western hero with Johnny Depp as Tonto. Ruth Wilson, Dwight Yoakam, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Barry Pepper had been cast in supporting roles. 

According to Deadline, production has halted because of "ballooning production costs and an increasingly expensive upcoming slate for the studio." Filmmakers were trying to reduce the budget from $250 million, and had gotten down to $232 million. This was still too far away from $200 million Disney wanted to spend. The studio already had a number of other big live-action films on the slate that have been very costly. For instance, John Carter cost more than $300 million because of extensive re-shoots and Sam Raimi's The Great and Powerful Oz, whose budget is at $200 million. 

The western genre has not been fairing well unfortunately. Cowboys & Aliens fell short at the box office, and Stephen King's The Dark Tower has been put on hold. Filming was slated for this fall and a release date had been set for December 21, 2012, but that is no longer the case.  This is pretty shocking news to me. What are your thoughts?