Walt Disney Studios has show down the movie adaptation of “The Lone Ranger” due to budget problems, the Associated Press reported.

The long-awaited film, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer is now in jeopardy, the AP reported, citing an anonymous source close to the production.

Deadline Hollywood first reported on the film’s production halt.

According to the reports, the film had trouble reducing its $250 million budget down to $200 million.

The film had a ton of revenue potential, with its well-known storyline, cast, Gore Verbinski direction and Jerry Bruckheimer production.

Hammer was set to play the ranger, with Depp playing Tonto, the title character’s partner.

Get your boys together. Find some girl and sing “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” over and over.

Tom Cruise’s epic fighter jet movie is about ready to take off again in the newly announced “Top Gun” sequel.

According to New York Magazine, Paramount Pictures has made producing and directing offers to Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott to make a follow-up to the 1986 action flick, which won an Academy Award for best song for Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away.”

Despite earlier reports that Cruise would reprise his role, his agent has announced he will not be involved in the sequel.

NBC's Trauma premieres tonight at 10

Not a lot of new stuff on the tube tonight, but there’s some news to discuss below.

On network TV, FOX premieres “Lie to Me’ at 9 p.m. tonight, while NBC debuts its “Trauma” at the same time. MTV premieres another reality show, “Disaster Date” at 6 p.m., and truTV has the premiere of “Operation Repo” at 10. Tonight is also the season finale of A&E’s “Hoarders,” which is also on at 10.

The Ashton Kutcher-produced series “The Beautiful Life” staring Mischa Barton appears to be an abject failure. The CW pulled the show from its fall schedule after just two episodes and ordered production on the show halted after miserable ratings.

Also getting axed is A&E’s “The Cleaner.” The Benjamin Bratt drama will not get renewed for a third season.

ABC announced that the new alien-infused drama “V” will debut November 3, with a four-episode run, followed by a major cliffhanger, followed by nine more episodes next spring.

In other ABC-related news, the always busy Jerry Bruckheimer is working on a pilot for a new series called “Hopscotch,” which Variety says promises to be a “high-concept police procedural” drama. Variety reported several networks were vying for the opportunity to land the new series, which is chock-full of “hit potential.” Chris Levinson will write the series, and Warner will producer.

The CW approved a new, untitled reality series about New York socialite Tinsley Mortimer, because they know you just can’t get enough of watching rich people spend their money. The series is approved for at least eight episodes.

NBC has an interesting-sounding project in the works. In the tentatively titled “Slacker Sons,” Variety reports that two brothers get rich by developing their own energy drink. They buy the family home and end up helping out their divorced dad who gets laid off from his corporate wageslave job.

Finally today, Vincent D’Onofrio is leaving Law & Order: Criminal Intent after eight seasons playing the quirky detective Robert Goren.

HOLLYWOOD — September is the biggest month for TV fanatics as the new lineup makes its debut on the small screen.

Blast went on the sets of some of ABC’s hottest new shows. In a series called “On the Set,” Blast will showcase both a gallery of images and a set of candid interviews with stars like Kelsey Grammer, Sara Rue, Ed O’Neil and Joseph Fiennes.

The first piece comes later tonight with the premiere of “The Forgotten” by executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, slated for Tuesdays at 10 p.m. This drama centers around a group of volunteer citizens who team together in solving John or Jane Doe cold cases outside the realm of law enforcement. The leader of the group is Alex Donovan played by Christian Slater.

Coming up later this week:

• Wednesday: Modern Family — The return of Ed O’Neil to primetime
• Thursday: Flash Forward — This season’s biggest show starts with a bang!

MTV Games announced Wednesday an agreement with famed film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer to develop a new video game studio.

Viacom, parent company of MTV and MTV Games, hopes to capitalize on the producer’s entertainment and drama successes and build Bruckheimer’s original style into modern interactive entertainment.

“Video games represent a new and innovative medium for what we’ve always tried to do, which is to tell great stories,” Bruckheimer said. “But this medium is unique in that it gives the player control over how those stories unfold.”

The new gaming studio will work on all phases of game creation from concept to marketing, MTV Games said in a statement Wednesday. MTV will tap Jeff Yapp, executive vice president of programming enterprises, and Bob Picunko, VP of electronic games and interactive products to work directly with Bruckheimer’s studio.

The resulting games will have the benefit of immense targeted marketing on all MTV/Viacom television networks and Internet channels, which will attempt to generate a buzz among the MTV fan base and translate that into sales.

MTV announced in August that they would invest more than $500 million over the next two years info developing interactive products. They have already seen success after purchasing Harmonix in 2006. Harmonix developed the original Guitar Hero games as well as the new hit, Rock Band.

Bruckheimer is responsible for some of the biggest movies and television shows ever including Top Gun, The Rock, Black Hawk Down, Crimson Tide, Bad Boys, Gone in 60 Seconds, National Treasure and the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He also produced King Arthur, which is a great watch if you are looking for something that rings somewhere between Braveheart and [insert any medieval movie here].

Bruckheimer is no stranger to video games. Many of his properties have been turned into games, but most of them have met minimal success due to low budgets and the stigma of movie-to-video-game titles. Games included:

• A dark ages tale of the knights of the roundtable in “King Arthur,” which saw a PS2/Xbox/GC adaptation to reviews in the 6′s and 7′s
• Highly (financially) successful game ports of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series
• Awful mobile phone ports of National Treasure
• Bad Boys: Miami Takedown on the Playstation 2, one of the worst of a thousand games to hit the PS2
• A series of poorly reviewed PC games based on the CSI television show
• A whole bunch of Top Gun flight sims

Bruckheimer also has a movie coming out in 2009 based on the the Prince of Persia video game series called “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.”

It’s a fair bet that future Bruckheimer-title-based video games will have the financial and technical backing of this new studio. No word yet on the original content they are looking to develop, but if Bruckheimer is making a serious leap into the video game world, it’s definitely worth paying attention.