When the western television series “The Lone Ranger” first rode into U.S. homes in 1949, the masked man was the charming hero and the Native American Tonto his loyal sidekick.

    The movie will open in U.S. theaters tomorrow, but it will be Tonto who takes center stage. Played by Johnny Depp with the same charm as his Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Tonto is the brains of the operation.

    In an opening sequence — a breakneck* fight scene on a runaway train — Tonto directs an escape from outlaws while a mask-less Lone Ranger, played by Armie Hammer, is the naive one, unsure at the outset* that he was even in danger.

    “It’s a story we’ve all heard, but we’ve never heard it from the guy who was there,” said the film’s director, Gore Verbinski, 49.

    Through Tonto’s eyes, audiences get an original tale of how former lawman John Reid, the Lone Ranger, came to fight injustice in the Old West.

    “This is not history told from your radio station, your movie studio or your network,” Verbinski said. “It’s told from Tonto and his memory — and his memory may be questionable.”

    To make Tonto’s point of view authentic, a Native American consultant was used on the set, Verbinski said, adding that they also spoke with various tribes to get certain details correct.(SD-Agencies)