In a college conference call, director Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring fame) spoke to justArts about his career and his new film, Rango. An animated take on the classic Western tale, Rango follows a lonely chameleon of the same name (Johnny Depp), who accidentally wanders into the town of Dirt, a broken-down ruin full of crime and in desperate need of a sheriff-a position that the town natives hope their hapless new arrival can fulfill. Rango is the fourth collaboration between Verbinski and Depp. Verbinski spoke about his work with the actor, saying "I met him in London in a restaurant, and we just stayed there until like 3 in the morning, just talking. Certainly with Johnny [and I] doing so much work together we developed a shorthand-I mean, a lot of times I'll speak almost in sound effects and nonsensical words; . it's like we're finishing each other's sentences. So, on Rango, there was a tremendous amount of trust. I said [I was going to consider doing] an animated movie about a lizard with an identity crisis and [Depp] just went, 'Fantastic, let's do that.'"

"Rango started with [an] idea, which was 'Western with creatures of the desert' and 'animated Western.' We knew we needed a fish-out-of-water story to kind of bisect that [idea of] 'man with no name' and 'a stranger coming into town.' [Storyboard artist Anthony Leonardi III] wanted [the character's appearance] to be slightly absurd, so [he came up with] an aquatic creature in the desert, a chameleon, and then from a chameleon the concept [transformed him into] a thespian."

Rango's creation occurred through his development as a character who blends with his environment; this idea meshed well with his thespian alignments. The character development also coincided with Depp's work; Depp, being a method actor, lives with his characters, just as a true chameleon lives never as one color. This idea made it easy for Depp to identify with the character. The question ... 'Who is Rango?' "was a really great thing to discuss with Johnny because I feel like quite often he'll refer to himself as [living with] a little bit of Jack Sparrow, a little bit of Ed Wood, a little bit of Scissorhands in there and my response would be, 'Well, there's not much room for Johnny Depp.' [And as for Rango,] with all those characters in there [the question remains]: Who is Rango? So, [that question] was really the origin [of the character]."

In the interview, Verbinski spoke about how the western action hero has always attracted him, "I think there's something about the silhouette, the desert, the minimalist. . [You're] always trying to cast the silhouette of the protagonist-all those characters are trying to find out who they are. [There's a feeling now that] these myths are dying. ... The Western landscape is a great way to get back to a primal [idea of] 'what is it about the lizard, what is it about this individual?'"

Responding to a question about the process of changing from a live-action director to an animation director, Verbinski has learned lessons from both experiences. "We brought a tremendous amount of live action to this . animation. ... It's a lot harder than I ever imagined. ... You had to fabricate every frame from zero. So other times [in live action] when you're shooting, you're orchestrating chaos and you're sort of poised with capturing a moment of truth and [the moment is] giving back. ... There's no motor [in animation]; you're just completely generating everything."

Verbinski, always a proponent of finding new material, stressed the importance of never becoming stuck doing something you no longer can learn from.

"It's . an intuitive response to material. The reason not to do another pirate film was it didn't scare me anymore. As soon as you feel like you know how to do it, I think the potential to [make a mistake] is present. You['d] better love it. And you better be willing to crawl through broken glass to tell your story. I try to share that [drive] with the team.