CowboysAliens

The concept of a movie about gunslingers in the Old West taking on an alien invasion is either the greatest idea in the history of cinema or the absolute worst. It's the type of thing I would have enacted with action figures as a kid, blending my fascination with cowboys with my love of aliens. Cowboys & Aliens feels like my kind of guilty pleasure. So very silly. So very awesome.

Part of my attraction to this project was Jon Favreau hopping on board to direct and the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as the film's hero, the leader of the titular cowboys and presumably alien killer extraordinaire. Unfortunately, one half of that equation has left the building: Downey Jr. has left the film.

I would have loved to have seen these guys work together beyond the Iron Man franchise and a goofy concept like Cowboys & Aliens would be an ideal playground for an awesomely geeky filmmaker like Favreau and a performer with the proper mixture of charm, wit and self-awareness like Downey Jr. Sadly, some things are too good to be true and it looks like the folks with the money want to fast-track Sherlock Holmes 2, immediately tying Downey Jr. up for the time being.

Cowboys & Aliens is still set to start shooting this summer. Although losing Robert Downey Jr. feels like a major blow, Favreau has an incredible instinct for casting, so I'm sure he'll find a more than suitable replacement. My thoughts? Without knowing a single thing about the characters or plot outside of the basic concept? I've always wanted to see Jeff Bridges shoot down UFOs with a six shooter. You can have that one for free, Jon.

(Via the LA Times)

At a press day for the release of Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on DVD and Blu-ray, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman discussed the futures of those respective franchises, and offered a few highlights from their upcoming slate of screenplays and producing projects. When asked about their process for developing sequels, Kurtzman said, "Every franchise has a different need, so you have to look at them differently, based on whatever the mandate is. You need to be able to not have seen the first movie to appreciate the second one. But, for us, it's always about going back to the sequels that we loved as kids and asking ourselves why we loved them."

Offering a list of their favorite follow-ups, Kurtzman continued, "there's Empire Strikes Back, Superman II, Aliens, Terminator 2, Star Trek 2. What do all those movies have in common? Well, they're amazing stories all on their own. You didn't have to see the first movie. And, there was some incredible, emotional test of character, in all of those movies. Superman has to give up his powers for love. The Spock and Kirk relationship is tested by Khan. Ripley finds a daughter. All of those things are such big ideas, in and of themselves, and you really can't tell those stories in movie number one because movie number one is very much about establishing a world."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen debuts on DVD and Blu-ray October 20, 2009, and Star Trek follows on November 17. The following is an edited version of a news conference featuring Orci and Kurtzman.

In terms of Star Trek's expanded universe, are there any elements from the later series that you might want to throw into the next film?

By: Elisabeth Rappe (originally posted on Cinematical)

I really believe this is the best geek news we'll have all month. Not only is Robert Downey Jr. officially on board Cowboys & Aliens, The Hollywood Reporter announced that he's bringing Jon Favreau along for the ride. Considering the graphic novel was penned by Iron Man screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, it's literally a dream team come true.

As if it wasn't touched by the movie gods enough, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, they-who-can-write-no-failures, are penning the script, and producer Damon Lindelof came aboard last fall. There's no way this can fail. Even if the movie was one big trick, and simply 2 hours of Robert Downey Jr. in a cowboy hat reading a phone book, it would succeed. We would just call it arthouse, and praise them all for subverting our expectations!

But there's no danger of arthouse here, Cowboys & Aliens really does promise to be pure fun with this team. The story takes place in 1880s Arizona, where a war is raging between settlers and Native Americans. Their war is interrupted by the arrival of a UFO, which promptly unleashes hell onto the plains of Silver City. The Native Americans and settlers must unite to fight a larger threat, and are led to battle by Zeke Jackson (Downey), a gunslinger and former member of the Union Army. You can read the entire graphic novel online, which should keep you satisfied until Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters in the summer of 2011.