I don't really see anything new or anything to get worried about in the piece in Variety. Variety is a movie industry resource, and most in the industry are well aware that Tim Burton is tied up with
Alice in Wonderland and
Frankenweenie and won't be doing the Depp/DS film certainly until
Alice in Wonderland is complete and
Frankenweenie is at least sufficiently to a point where Burton doesn't need to be hands on all the time. And that time is still months into the future. Those in the industry understand that it's common place for films to be delayed for a variety of good reasons and that those films will indeed be made when the time is right. They also know that it's been months since Depp intended the DS film to be his next film and that he's planned to do a fourth Pirates film while he waits for Burton to be free to do the DS film. The only things this article revealed is that Depp might actually slip
The Tourist in before he does a film for Disney. It doesn't say both the Pirates film and
The Lone Ranger will be done before the DS film. It simply says that to Variety the "emergence of Depp" being in talks to do
The Tourist "is surprising, since he was expected to make his next film at Disney" - and one of the films he was expected to do was either "a fourth installment of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' or 'The Lone Ranger.'" Though I have to say that considering the Pirates film supposedly isn't going to begin production until April, it doesn't really surprise me that Depp might be willing to slip
The Tourist in beforehand and beginning in February because he doesn't come across as a man who likes to be inactive for too long a time. I mean, even while doing films he found the time to do voice work for Sponge Bob and to narrate a Doors documentary. That's not a man who likes too much idle time.