TheWrap‘s Josh Weinstein is reporting that Ryan Gosling is in talks to costar with Johnny Depp in Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinkski‘s The Lone Ranger for Disney…which I presume is going to be some kind of big-budget western wank. What else could be expected from the guys who teamed on the first three Pirate pics?

I don’t want to get all cranky on a Friday afternoon but this strikes me as one of the most laughable and pathetic sell-out prostitute gigs by an exceptionally expressive and widely respected actor in Hollywood history. It’s not unlike Montgomery Clift agreeing to costar in a big-budget Roy Rogers musical directed by Mervyn LeRoy after making From Here to Eternity, or Marlon Brando agreeing to play Tarzan right after On The Waterfront.

Everybody takes paycheck money (including me), but “Ryan Gosling as the Lone Ranger” is truly ridiculous…an act of self-mockery.