Harrison Ford to join Cowboys and Aliens

07 April 2010

John Howell

Cowboys and Aliens is a 2006 alternate history comic by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg about an extraterrestrial species that lands in Arizona in the mid-1800s. The story sounds potentially very funny (I'm assuming it's meant to be?). After aliens invade the Wild West with plans to enslave humanity, cowboys and native Apache fight back and all hell breaks lose. Director Jon Favreau recently started adapting the comic book for DreamWorks and Universal. While Robert Downey Jr. was initially in talks to star as Zeke Jackson (a former Union Army gunslinger), Daniel Craig took on the role instead due to scheduling conflicts with Downey's other projects. If the rumours are true, it appears that Harrison Ford will now also be joining the cast.

Latino Review reports that they have it from a good source that Ford would be joining "a huge comic book movie to be directed by a director coming off a soon to be released huge comic book movie" and Cowboys and Aliens and director Jon Favreau fit this rumour perfectly. Jon Favreau has just finished directing the Marvel comic book inspired movie Iron Man 2. This tip was given added weight when Favreau reportedly posted a message on Twitter that read: "Some very cool Cowboys and Aliens casting news coming soon..."

Harrison Ford hasn't been in many science fiction and fantasy films since the heady days of Blade Runner and Star Wars (apart from the recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) so it will be interesting to see him make a proper return to the genre (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was "improper" in the sense that I really hated it).

The Cowboys and Aliens screenplay was written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. Kurtzman, Orci, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, and Brian Grazer are producing. The expected release date is June 2011.

You can check the comic book version of Cowboys and Aliens on the Drunk Duck website here.

UPDATE!
It's just been confirmed that Harrison Ford will indeed be joining the cast of Cowboys and Aliens.

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