The Lone Ranger: first picture of Johnny Depp as Tonto

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's definitely a bird. What looks like a stuffed crow is perched on Johnny Depp's head in the first official picture of the upcoming Lone Ranger film, tweeted last night by producer Jerry Bruckheimer . The Lone Ranger's travails have been well documented: after shuffling from studio to studio through an extended development period, it was taken on by Disney at a reported $250m budget. But after the disappointing results for another action-western, Cowboys and Aliens, production was halted so the budget could be scaled back . After a period of considerable uncertainty, when it seemed that the entire project could collapse, agreement was reached and filming could begin, and a release date set for early summer 2013 . So are you looking forward to The Lone Ranger? Anxious to see Depp hamming it up wildly in another high-camp role? Let us know below.