Who was that masked man? Audiences will soon have the chance to find out. The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Disney plans to revive The Lone Ranger franchise (as previously reported when it was in rumor form).

And this is going to be a big budget reboot. Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the two folks behind the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Mask of Zorro screenplays, are in talks to write the script for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. If they can revive pirates, a long dead and verboten franchise, surely they can do the same for the Lone Ranger.

It will definitely need all the help it can get. The last time the character was revived on the big screen was 1981 in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. It was such a failure that the film's star, Klinton Spilsbury, never worked in Hollywood again. There was a WB television movie in 2003, with the idea of launching a weekly series, but it too failed.

Hi-Ho Silver, bring me lots of money! According to the Hollywood Insider, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, the pens behind Pirates of the Caribbean, are trying to cook up a draft of The Lone Ranger for Jerry Bruckheimer to turn into the latest cash cow. Yes, the old masked ranger who rides a white horse, righting wrongs with the help of Tonto. Sure, remakes of old stories, even radio classics, are all the rage, but is a cowboy on a horse going to rake in the cash for Bruckheimer and Disney? Could this really be true?

According to the report, the studio won't confirm the assignment, so they can only go by their sources, and as HI describes it, the writing duo is "trying to create a new juggernaut for Bruckheimer to exploit." Sure, they made pirates all the rage, but can they do the same with cowboys? It doesn't seem to be one of those areas that gets tons of mileage, at least, not in the wide world of kids and marketing. I guess if anyone could do it, it's this team, but still. Cowboys and Indians? Can they really pull it off?

As HI says, the concept hasn't been as popular as it used to be. After the '50s television show, there was a 1981 film flop, and more recently, the WB tried to get a television version off the ground with Chad Michael Murray. It's really too bad that that project didn't even make it to the boob tube -- CMM as the Ranger would've amused me. So there you have it, the Lone Ranger might hit the big screen once again, under the powerful arm of Bruckheimer. Does that scare you? Excite you? Or maybe make you feel a little queasy?

As one of the few film critics to actually enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to more from the franchise, even after the current trilogy ends. Well, actually, I'd probably lose interest if Johnny Depp did -- not that it seems he will ever let go of Jack Sparrow. As you've probably read here and there, a fourth installment is still up in the air, and even screenwriter Terry Rossio isn't sure if it will go ahead. "It's like the fourth Indiana Jones picture," he told Moviehole. "There are forces in play to make it happen, and forces in play to make it not happen. I think we will try to write a screenplay. I can't say if we'll be able to solve the challenge of making a good fourth film, or if our screenplay will be enough to get a film made."

Last summer, Jerry Bruckheimer stated that if Rossio and Ted Elliott continued to write 'em, the producer is interested in making 'em. And this was before Dead Man's Chest went gangbusters in theaters and on DVD (Disney shareholders will likely demand more sequels if the profits keep coming.) Obviously the series will eventually dwindle in quality, as does any franchise, but considering most reviews of Dead Man's Chest were negative, this shouldn't matter. Other tidbits that Rossio shared with Moviehole include the series' origins, the difficulty of back-to-back sequels and the subject of Keith Richards: "Well you don't hire Keith Richards to get a guy who shows up in the morning, on time wearing a suit and tie," he said. "You get a guy who shows up at night, on time, with a bottle of wine. There were good times on the set."