Disney gets Depp to play Lone Ranger’s sidekick

JOHNNY DEPP is to play sidekick Tonto in a Disney remake of The Lone Ranger.

The Hollywood star is also set to reprise his role in Pirates Of The Caribbean and has confirmed reports he has been cast as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton remake of Alice In Wonderland.

The actor announced his projects at a Disney gala, packed with Hollywood stars, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

Tonto is the trusty native American sidekick of cowboy hero the Lone Ranger, which started life on the radio in 1933 and became a hit US TV show in the 1950s.

Depp, 45, has Cherokee Indian as well as German and Irish ancestry.

The opening titles to the TV show featured the hero galloping on his horse, Silver, to the William Tell Overture and the slogan: “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-yo, Silver!”’

The big screen version of The Lone Ranger is being made by Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Alice in Wonderland will feature a mix of live action and performance capture CGI.

Released in 2010, it will be Burton and Depp’s most recent collaboration following Sweeney Todd.

Disney also announced that Oprah Winfrey will voice the character of Eudora, the mother of an African American heroine, in the Princess and the Frog.