Sci-fi westerns are dangerous territory for directors: Barry Sonnenfeld’s six-gun parody “Wild Wild West“ collected five Razzie Awards and Joss Whedon’s 26th century cowboy yarn “Serenity” met with tumbleweeds at the box office. But, based on the release Wednesday of his trailer for “Cowboys & Aliens,” Jon Favreau might be the white-hatted hero for the troubled mash-up genre.
Favreau has all the western essentials covered here. The trailer opens with a grimy, confused Daniel Craig waking under a bright blue Arizona sky to discover a mysterious metallic cuff on his wrist and a posse encircling him. Craig is an amnesiac gunslinger, Olivia Wilde the town saloon-keeper and Harrison Ford a grizzled sheriff on Craig’s trail. “I want that man,” Ford hisses. “You give him to me now, or I’m gonna take him.” A stiff wind blows and, just when it seems John Wayne is about to stride through the saloon doors, the enemies arrive — in spaceships.
Harrison Ford, left, and Daniel Craig in "Cowboys & Aliens" (Universal)
The sight of Ford working some of his old Indiana Jones-style swagger may allay recent fears that the action star has lost his way professionally. And Favreau has a knack for reviving moribund careers — “Iron Man” helped give Robert Downey Jr. the kind of stardom his drug problems had always stymied.
This project has the backing of some of sci-fi’s heaviest hitters, including executive producer Steven Spielberg and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (“Star Trek“) and Damon Lindelof (“Lost“). Producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are working on another space western franchise from Stephen King‘s “Dark Tower” series.
But whether “Cowboys & Aliens” rides to box-office glory might have as much to do with next summer’s stiff competition as it will with any of the filmmakers’ creative choices. The movie is due next July, in the same busy blockbuster season bringing the second part of the “Harry Potter” finale and latest installments in the juggernaut “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Transformers” franchises.
– Rebecca Keegan
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Serenity might of flopped, but it was fricking amazing.
“Iron Man” helped give Robert Downey Jr. the kind of stardom his drug problems had always stymied.
An Oscar nomination doesn't count as "stardom?"
Producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are working on another space western franchise from Stephen King‘s “Dark Tower” series.
There's no "space" in the Dark Tower series. The entire saga is earthbound, and while the heroes journey through apparent multiple realities, they remain always on earth.
Won't even address the final paragraph, which seems to suggest that people can only see one movie in an entire summer.
Hero Complex – setting the bar lower, one fact-challenged article at a time.
OMG. SQUEEE! Favreau can have my money. That looks awesome. Olivia is gorgeous. And Daniel Craig…hmm… /melts
Wow this looks really, really bad.
Whatever Cal Godot said was hilarious xD
Not to sound like a completely nerdy geek, but is the main characters name "Lonergan" an intentional reference to the Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan?!
If it is, there are some serious messages about the human condition in this film.
If it isn't, well it is sci-fi w/ aliens, so there are still some serious messages about the human condition in this film.
Either way, FTW!
"Cowboys and Aliens" looks very good. At least, it looks interesting. I'll give it a shot.
"Serenity" was a box office flop because it didn't have the support of the studio that produced it. It was a very good film. "Wild Wild West" was a flop for four reasons: Barry Sonnenfeld's ham-fisted direction; Will Smith as a black gunslinger/former slave (?) named James West (who had been a white guy on the TV show); Kenneth Branaugh as a paraplegic villain with bad puns, and Kevin Kline in a dress. It also didn't have a script or a reason for existing. Besides, they didn't think it would fail because no one had looked at the script prior to filming.
I think Serenity did okay, considering it was basically fan-service for a brilliant, yet canceled TV series called Firefly. I don't think anyone expected it to light up the box office. Firefly and Serenity has done well in DVD sales though.
And do a little bit of research on "The Dark Tower" series. None of the books have to do with space.