Not much is known about the upcoming animated film Rango, outside of the fact its directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Johnny Depp and somewhere near a million other great actors (Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Timothy Olyphant, Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Stephen Root and Harry Dean Stanton round out most of the cast).

Well, nothing more outside of the thinnest of plot details, which at this point point to Rango being a chameleon having an existential crisis of some degree, and who dreams of being a swashbuckling hero until he stumbles upon a town terrorized by bandits and he has to live this role and protect them. Granted this plot line is alluding more towards Seven Samurai than any of the films about a certain wandering ronin, but hey, I’ll get my Kurosawa fix any way I can get it. Even if it comes from a chameleon.

Rango is scheduled to open in the US on March 4th of next year.

Hopefully next weekend, James and I shall record Where the Long Tails Ends first podcast. Titled High and Low (Brow), it will focus on reviewing two films during each episode that either come from the same source material or uses similar themes, preferably on opposite ends of the artistic spectrum. Think Seven Samurai and Battle Beyond the Stars, or if you are lucky, A Bug’s Life and Three Amigos.

Though for our first episode we will go with something a bit simpler, with the double bill of the 1945 Agatha Christie iconic murder mystery And Then There Were None (based upon Christie’s novel Ten Little Indians)  and Mario Bava’s giallo styled adaptation of the same source material, 5 Dolls for an August Moon. Hopefully it should make for some interesting conversation.

We aren’t sure how frequently we will be able to record, but hopefully we can do a few episodes each year. Feel free to leave any comments on the basic premise, tips, or even potential films you’d like us to consider watching. Thanks!

And Then There Were None trailer

5 Dolls For an August Moon clip