Just over a week after it was revealed that Disney's The Lone Ranger is riding the artisanal locomotive all the way to potential financial ruin, Deadline reports that another ridiculously expensive Johnny Depped nostalgia property is giving a studio pause. Depp's update of The Thin Man—which, like The Lone Ranger, was to be helmed by a Pirates Of The Caribbean collaborator used to catering to his every indulgence—has now been back-burnered by Warner Bros., with director Rob Marshall instead concentrating on that adaptation of Into The Woods as his next project. The studio denies any "drama" behind the decision, noting that The Thin Man was never officially green-lit in the first place, adding that "there isn’t a big rush here because Depp wants to take some time between films," perhaps using the interim to consider what other 20th-century pop culture might benefit from putting his face in it, or maybe just get divorced get a "non-divorce" (that will still cost him around $150 million).
So, officially, it is all just a coincidence that the studio made this move right after first receiving the film's proposed $100 million-plus budget (a figure that would account for all those promised splashy musical numbers, and approximately half of its hats) as well as right after seeing the disappointing returns on Dark Shadows. Whatever the reasoning, there is now plenty of time to winnow down that previous short-list of actresses to play Nora to Depp's Nick, or also just forget you ever saw it.