Disney’s ‘Lone Ranger’ may still have a shot

Hold your horses, Tonto.

Film crew workers, who were told last week to dismantle a western town set being built near Silver City, N.M., for Walt Disney Studios’ planned production of “The Lone Ranger,” were instructed Wednesday night to hold off on the tear down, said a person close to the project.

The development was an apparent sign that Disney and the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski may yet resolve a budget dispute that would put the masked man and his Native American sidekick -- played by Johnny Depp -- back in the saddle.

Since Disney suspended the project last Friday, the filmmakers have been trying to cut the estimated $250-million cost of the movie to satisfy the studio’s demand to shoot the production for around $210 million. COMPANY TOWN