Thought of as a pretty massive production for years, it seems that Disney is finally getting wind of the potential stack of cash it will cost to make the Gore Verbinski’s Lone Ranger and they aren’t too happy.

Back in 2008, it was announced and promoted that Johnny Depp was attached to the project as Tonto, and more recently The Social Network’s Armie Hammer was attached to play the lead role. It seems that if the film can’t get to a more reasonable budget, there may not be a Lone Ranger–at least not for a while.

From what Variety has to say, it looks like the film isn’t completely dead, just in a state of adjustment.

Despite reports that Disney has pulled the plug on the bigscreen adaptation, the pic is far from dead at the studio, sources close to the production told Variety.

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Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer has been quite a busy man, particularly of late. He’s been the driving force behind the Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchises, both of which have been the flagship action and adventure films of the past few years.

He’s also been working on the Nic Cage vehicle The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and an adaption of the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s also got a few rather popular shows on tv at the moment that you might have heard of.

Recently, ComingSoon caught up with Bruckheimer  to talk about the future of the Pirates franchise and how that future could affect The Lone Ranger. According to the site:

“Bruckheimer told us that for Disney, the priority is most definitely “Pirates.” “It’s a great franchise for them and for us, too,” he said. “A beloved character and Johnny’s really excited about coming back to Captain Jack. He certainly is interested in Tonto, but Disney’s priority is to get ‘Pirates’ made first. You never know what’s going to happen, but they would like it.”

Bruckheimer also shared that the original writers, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot, were “writing ‘Pirates’ as we speak,” and he said it was “funny” and a “whole new way of going” although he wouldn’t share more than that.

When asked if Gore Verbinski will return to the director’s chair for the fourth Pirate’s film, Bruckheimer said that he’d “love for him to return, given his history with the franchise, but the ball is 100% in Verbinsnki’s court.”

Lone Ranger currently has a tentative release date sometime in 2012.