Cowboys & Aliens: Difference between revisions

Cowboys & Aliens
Teaser poster
Directed by	Jon Favreau
Screenplay by	Damon Lindelof Alex Kurtzman Roberto Orci
Story by	Mark Fergus Hawk Ostby Steve Oedekerk
Produced by	Brian Grazer Ron Howard Alex Kurtzman Damon Lindelof Roberto Orci Scott Mitchell Rosenberg Steven Spielberg
Starring	Daniel Craig Harrison Ford Olivia Wilde
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Edited by	Dan Lebental
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Production companies	DreamWorks Pictures Relativity Media Imagine Entertainment Platinum Studios Reliance BIG Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (US) Paramount Pictures (International) [1]
Release date	July 29, 2011 (2011-07-29)
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$100 million[2]

Cowboys & Aliens is an upcoming 2011 American science fiction Western film based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. Cowboys & Aliens will be released in the United States on July 29, 2011.

In 1873 Arizona, a loner named Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) awakens with no memory of his past and a mysterious shackle around his wrist. He enters the town of Absolution where he learns that he is a notorious criminal wanted by many people, including Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), who rules the town with an iron fist. But Absolution soon faces an even greater threat when alien spaceships attack the town. While his shackle holds the key to defeating the aliens, Lonergan must ally with Dolarhyde and other former enemies to make a stand against them.^[3]

• Daniel Craig as Jake Lonergan.
• Harrison Ford as Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde. Dolarhyde rules Absolution with an iron fist.^[4] Ford and Steven Spielberg did not want to have the character wear a cowboy hat because they were worried that it would remind audiences of the Indiana Jones films, which starred Ford and were directed by Spielberg.^[5] Ford described his character as a "grumpy old man."^[6]
• Olivia Wilde as Ella.^[7] Jon Favreau called the character the key to the film.^[8]
• Sam Rockwell as Doc, a bar owner. In the original script, Doc was described as a huge Mexican. Once Favreau and the writers learned that Rockwell was interested in the film, they reconceived and expanded the role.^[4][9]
• Noah Ringer as Emmett.
• Paul Dano as Percy Dolarhyde.^[7]
• Clancy Brown as Meacham.
• Keith Carradine as Sheriff Taggart.
• Adam Beach as Nat Colorado, a half-Apache working for Dolarhyde.^[7]
• Abigail Spencer as Alice, the former lover of Lonergan.^[10]
• Ana de la Reguera as María.
• Walton Goggins as Hunt.

Favreau is known for appearing in his films. However, he chose not to act in Cowboys & Aliens because a director cameo could break the tone of the film. He said: "I wanted the characters to be freaked out, but the audience to be laughing."^[8]

In 1997, Malibu Comics founder Scott Mitchell Rosenberg conceived the idea for Cowboys & Aliens as an ashcan and subsequently saw its potential in a film adaptation.

In May 1997, a bidding war for Cowboys & Aliens ensued between Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Fox, but Universal Pictures and DreamWorks partnered to purchase the film rights. Rosenberg formed Platinum Studios to help produce the film, and Steve Oedekerk was hired that same month to write, produce and direct Cowboys & Aliens with an estimated $3.5 million salary. He planned to start writing the screenplay after completing the script for Nutty Professor II: The Klumps^[11] but left because of his interest in a remake with Warner Bros. on The Incredible Mr. Limpet with Jim Carrey.^[12]

In October 2001, Chris Hauty had completed a rewrite for Cowboys & Aliens,^[13] but the option on the film rights for Universal Pictures and DreamWorks eventually expired.^[14]

In May 2004, the film rights were taken to Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Rosenberg also working with Escape Artists to finance Cowboys & Aliens. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer were hired to rewrite a script^[15] from Thompson Evans's rewrite.^[16]

In December 2006, with Cowboys & Aliens languishing in development hell, Rosenberg decided to publish the property in graphic novel format.^[17][18]

In June 2007, it was announced that Universal Pictures and DreamWorks would return to the project, with Ron Howard and Imagine Entertainment. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby worked on a new script,^[18] which was rewritten by producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who collaborated with Damon Lindelof.^[19] The writers struggled with the tone of Cowboys & Aliens. The screenplay originally had a broad, jokey tone before it was decided to take the approach seriously. "Imagine you're watching Unforgiven and then Aliens land," Orci explained.^[20] The aliens were loosely based on the Anunnaki gods of Babylonian religion, who have a distinct interest in gold.^[21]

In June 2008, Robert Downey, Jr. became attached to star.^[22] Jon Favreau had heard about Cowboys & Aliens several times. He said: "There's a really great version of a film called Cowboys & Aliens. There are a lot of really bad versions of a film called Cowboys & Aliens, too." While working on Iron Man 2, he got updates about Cowboys & Aliens from Downey, Jr., who hoped that the right tone for the film would be found.^[8] In September 2009, he circled to direct the film,^[23] eventually being named the film's director.

In January 2010, Downey, Jr. finally dropped out because of his commitment to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows^[24][25][26] and Daniel Craig replaced him to take the lead role of cowboy Jake Lonergan.^[27][28] Favreau cast Craig because the actor could play a "badass hero." The director stated: "Though Daniel Craig has never been a Western gunfighter, he has been James Bond. He has been the lead in crime dramas, like Layer Cake."^[29] "On the one hand, he's [Craig] like this Jason Bourne type, a leading man who's also a lethal character, but on the other hand, he's also got a lot of humanity and vulnerability to him," he also said.^[30]

In February 2010, Olivia Wilde joined Craig in the film.^[31]

In April 2010, Favreau confirmed on Twitter that Harrison Ford would play in Cowboys & Aliens. He wrote: "Please stop asking if Harrison Ford is in Cowboys and Aliens. Okay? He is. Please don’t tell anybody."^[32][33] Talking about the casting of Ford, Favreau said: "We never thought [Ford would] want to come back to genre. To have him bring that pedigree, it's almost like when you cast John Wayne in a Western."^[8] Howard stated: "For years, I’ve thought the Western – as a genre – needed this guy. (...) Harrison has this persona that fits the Western. In a way he was a cowboy in Grafitti and Star Wars and when you see him on screen in this setting it just feels right."^[34] Orci explained: "We found out that he's [Ford] been interested in doing a Western for a long time. He was skeptical about the genre blend, and agreed to a meeting. And it wasn't until he actually came in and saw the artwork, saw what the amazing production design team had done, saw the production design and what the aliens look like and what the ships look like. That's when he said, 'Ah, now I get it.' And that's when he agreed to join, when he came in and really saw the stuff on the walls."^[35]

In May 2010, Sam Rockwell joined the cast. Favreau had already worked with him in Iron Man 2.^[36][37]

In November 2010, it was confirmed that British film composer and Grammy Award nominee Harry Gregson-Williams would compose the score.^[38]

On June 30, 2010, principal photography for Cowboys & Aliens began^[39] at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico.^[40] The film was also shot in Plaza Blanca in Rio Arriba County. The property was owned by the Dar al-Islam Mosque. In Plaza Blanca, there were beautiful white rocks and gorgeous landscapes, which explained why Cowboys & Aliens was not the first Western to be shot there. Among other Westerns filmed at this location were The Missing, 3:10 to Yuma, City Slickers, Young Guns and The Legend of the Lone Ranger.^[21][41] Sound stage work took place in Los Angeles, with additional location shooting at Randsburg, California.^[39] Filming finished on September 30.^[42]

Scott Chambliss was hired as the production designer based on his work on Star Trek, produced by Orci and Kurtzman.^[43] The visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic, represented by Roger Guyett as the visual effects supervisor.^[44]

Cowboys & Aliens will not be shown in 3-D. When approached with the idea by DreamWorks, Favreau was not interested, stating that Westerns should be shot only on film (as opposed to being shot digitally, which is required for modern 3D technology).^[45] "That would be like filming in black and white and colorizing it," he reasoned.^[46]

Cowboys & Aliens is loosely based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Rosenberg. Orci explained: "The comic has the themes of enemies uniting to fight a common enemy and has the setting of that specific time period, so we kept the inspiration from all of that. In terms of the specifics of the story and who these characters are, we wanted the audience to be surprised and to not feel like they've already seen everything if they were fans of the comic. So, while the themes and the setting and many of the elements are a great inspiration, the story is completely adapted and translated for live action."^[47] When asked about how the movie looked in contrast to the comic book, creator Scott Rosenberg stated in an interview with Nicholas Yanes that "It’s incredible. Sometimes it’s like seeing exactly what was going through my head when I first had that spark in my head as a kid. Jon Favreau’s bringing his own talent and vision with the adaptation, but at the same time it remains true to what I was really trying to get at in the original story."^[48]

Cowboys & Aliens is a science fiction Western film. It blends the Western and science fiction genres: aliens invade the Old West, cowboys fight back.^[49]

Even if the film contained elements of science fiction, the director and the writers tried to keep the tone of a classic Western. Favreau explained: "We tried to maintain the tone of a Western (...) as the movie goes on, because it's very easy to just cut the string and then all of a sudden the action starts and you're in Independence Day." But he added: "You want the sci-fi to stand on its own, too. It's about finding the intersection of those two genres. If you do it right, it honors both, and it becomes interesting and clever and a reinvention of two things that people understand the conventions of (...)."^[30]

The fusion between the Western and science fiction genres leads to original situations. Whereas the invaders would be the pioneers and settlers in Western films, they are not the cowboys but the aliens and the cowboys are like Native Americans in Cowboys & Aliens. Favreau pointed out: "It is a bit of a flip, because the cowboys find themselves as the low-tech culture. And what’s also fun is it allows the cowboys and Native Americans to come together, which would be impossible had there not been a greater common enemy. It sets the Western up in a very classic way and then turns it on its ear."^[50]

Favreau emphasized that Cowboys & Aliens was not a comedy. He stated: "I think people’s first response on hearing the title, which is a play on words, is that it’s going to be a comedy. They’ve been disappointed in the past when people have played with the Western genre, and not stuck to what’s bad-ass about it. When they throw that out the window, and play a pastiche of it, they don’t feel like they’re getting what they want. What you want is the grizzled warrior on the parched plains, and you want to see this iconic figure, who almost magical emerges from mirage of the horizon." It explained why Favreau cast two actors (Craig and Ford) known more for action-adventure than for comedy. Talking about a shot of Craig riding a horse along a ravine and jumping onto an alien spaceship, the director mentioned: "It was something that echoes Indiana Jones chasing the truck in [Raiders of the Lost Ark], and that was echoing stunts that were done in Stagecoach." He also wanted to make a dramatic and thrilling film. "Sometimes it’s fun to play things as thriller, sometimes verging on horror, like Alien or Aliens. We wanted to maintain that gravity," he said.^[50][51]

Favreau noted that Cowboys & Aliens focused on a specific aspect of the alien genre which mostly revolved around the films of the eighties.^[50] "And although we have quite a bit of CG – I like the way they told stories before – before you could show everything with CG. And it was a real unveiling of the creature, little by little, and using lighting and camera work and music to make it a very subjective experience. And so we tried to preserve that here," he pointed out.^[35]

Before the production of the film started, Steven Spielberg went over the script as well as the artwork, and educated the director and the writers on Western and science fiction. He screened The Searchers for them. Orci mentioned: "[Spielberg] even did commentary in the theater with us. (...) He got a new print of The Searchers, and he took me and Jon and Alex and Damon to the Warner Brothers Theater. (...) Where's the horizon? Why do you think the horizon is there? What is the horizon's relationship to the actors mean about the scene? (...) and we're taking notes." Favreau revealed that Spielberg gave him an iPad loaded up with classic Westerns.^[52][30][34] "I definitely watched and went through all of the John Ford films I could get my hands on," he said.^[53] He also stated that Spielberg's films, including his science fiction classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, were sources of inspiration.^[51][50]

On May 13, 2010, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks unveiled the official synopsis for Cowboys & Aliens.^[54][55]

On May 19, 2010, Jon Favreau disclosed via Twitter the first picture of the film. The picture depicted a cowboy, but his identity could not be determined. Then, Favreau revealed that the mysterious cowboy was Daniel Craig.^[56][57]

On July 24, 2010, Favreau and the main cast members were in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con International to briefly talk about the film. Jon Favreau showed some footage of the film. To the audience's surprise, Harrison Ford made his first appearance at Comic-Con. Though he had starred in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, he had never attended the event before, avoiding fan conventions. Favreau persuaded him to take the trip for the promotion of Cowboys & Aliens. Ford was led onstage in handcuffs by two security guards, giving the audience the impression that he was being dragged to Comic-Con against his will. However, the actor's arrival involuntarily referred to an actual assault that occurred in Hall H shortly before the presentation of the film, after which the alleged assailant was taken out of Hall H in handcuffs. Ford received a long standing ovation as he joined his co-stars Craig, Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell. Apparently surprised by the warm welcome, he told the audience: "I just wanted to make a living as an actor. I didn't know about this."^{[46][58][59][60][61]}

In November 2010, several media were invited to visit Favreau in the editing bay of Cowboys & Aliens.^[62][63] Favreau showed them the teaser trailer and the first forty minutes of the film. "What happens next is that it becomes a road movie as they band together and try to track this thing and find where all the people are being held. All the people they meet along the way and all the different groups coming together, this ragtag group finally confronting this unapproachable enemy," Favreau said.

On November 15, 2010, the US teaser poster was released.^[64] It featured Craig as Jake Lonergan with his face in shadow. Hinting at the fusion between the Western and science fiction genres, it showed him with contrasting weapons, a rifle and the futuristic shackle around his wrist. It also focused on his backside, which reminded of the Unforgiven poster.^[65][66] On November 17, 2010, the teaser trailer debuted on Yahoo! Movies.^[67] On December 8, 2010, the international teaser poster was released.^[68] Except the angle and the color scheme, it was very similar to the US teaser poster. It featured the dark and shadowy image of Craig as Lonergan with a Western gun and his glowing shackle.^[69]

On February 6, 2011, a commercial for Cowboys & Aliens was released during the Super Bowl. Before the game, Favreau had already tweeted a link to view it online via YouTube.^[70][71] On April 2, 2011, Favreau and Roberto Orci were at San Francisco's WonderCon to present nine minutes of footage from Cowboys & Aliens and answer questions about the film.^[72]

On April 14, 2011, the first full theatrical trailer was released.^[73] If you could see alien spaceships snatching cowboys with their ropes from the ground or an alien spaceship crashing in the desert, the aliens themselves, with the exception of an alien's hand, were not shown in the trailer as opposed to the cowboys featured extensively. Favreau explained at WonderCon: "For this film I want to make sure that if the audience goes to see it that there is going to be a lot of surprises in it that they haven’t seen in the marketing materials."^[74]

On May 9, 2011, it was announced that Platinum Studios had licensed its Cowboys & Aliens graphic novel to Gameloft to produce a mobile video game. Scott Mitchell Rosenberg said: "Gameloft understood the opportunity of uniting the Cowboys and Indians to fight against the alien invasion and the cool gadgetry and combat play that it represents."^[75]

On May 24, 2011, the second official TV spot was released. It focused on Lonergan and mostly featured action sequences.^[76]

• Official website
• Cowboys & Aliens at IMDb
• Cowboys & Aliens at AllMovie
• Cowboys & Aliens at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cowboys & Aliens at Box Office Mojo

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