Name	Cowboys & Aliens
Caption	Official one-sheet poster
Alt	A man mostly in shadow, a hat on his head and revolver in his right hand. On his left wrist is a metal bracelet glowing with a blue light.
Director	Jon Favreau
Producer	Brian GrazerRon HowardAlex KurtzmanDamon LindelofRoberto OrciScott Mitchell Rosenberg
Screenplay	Damon LindelofAlex KurtzmanRoberto OrciMark FergusHawk Ostby
Story	Mark FergusHawk OstbySteve Oedekerk
Based on
Music	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Editing	Dan Lebental
Starring	Daniel CraigHarrison FordOlivia Wilde
Studio	Fairview EntertainmentK/O Paper ProductsPlatinum StudiosImagine Entertainment
Distributor	DreamWorks PicturesUniversal PicturesParamount Pictures
Released
Runtime	118 minutes
Country
Language	English
Budget	$163 million
Gross	$129,476,060

Cowboys & Aliens is a 2011 American science fiction Western film starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde. The film, directed by Jon Favreau, is based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Cowboys & Aliens was released in the United States and Canada on , 2011, and in other countries on ensuing weekends.

Plot

In 1873, Arizona Territory, an unnamed loner (Daniel Craig) awakens in the desert injured, with no memory, and a strange metal band shackled to his wrist. He wanders into the small town of Absolution, where the local preacher, Meacham (Clancy Brown), treats his wound. After the stranger subdues Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), who has been terrorizing the populace, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) recognizes him as Jake Lonergan, a wanted outlaw, and tries to arrest him. Jake nearly escapes, but a mysterious woman named Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) knocks him out.

Percy's father, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a rich and influential cattleman, arrives with his men and demands that Percy be released to him. He also wants Jake, who stole Dolarhyde's gold. During the standoff, alien spaceships begin attacking the town, and Percy, the sheriff, and many townsfolk are abducted. Jake shoots down one ship with a device concealed in his wrist band, ending the attack.

Dolarhyde, Ella, and some townsfolk form a posse to track an alien that may have ejected from the downed ship. Jake, meanwhile, travels to an abandoned cabin, and in a flashback, recalls returning there with the gold just before he and a woman, Alice, were abducted by the aliens. Jake returns to join the posse. During the night, the alien they were tracking appears and kills Meacham, who sacrifices himself to save Emmett, Taggart's grandson.

By the next morning, most of the posse has deserted, and the others are attacked by Jake's former gang. Jake, who stole the gang's loot after their last heist, attempts to retake control, but fails. As he and the others flee, the aliens begin attacking again and Ella is seized. Jake jumps aboard the ship and attacks the alien pilot, causing the ship to crash, but Ella is mortally wounded.

Chiricahua Apaches capture the posse, blaming them for the alien attacks. As Ella's body is dumped on a fire, she is fully resurrected. Ella is actually an alien who traveled to Earth to help resist the invaders after they destroyed her homeworld. The aliens, who have been abducting humans to perform experiments on, are also mining gold to power their machines. They are not invulnerable, however: Jake's gauntlet weapon can kill them, as well as stabbing and shooting, though the creatures are far stronger and more durable than humans and have superior weapons. Ella claims Jake holds the secret to the aliens' whereabouts and says they must stop them before they exterminate all life on the planet. After taking Mescaline offered by the Indians, Jake recalls that Alice died in an alien experiment, but he escaped, inadvertently stealing the alien weapon. He can also remember the aliens' hidden location.

Armed with this knowledge, the group, now led by Colonel Dolarhyde, prepares to attack the aliens' grounded mothership. Jake returns to his old gang and persuades them to join the fight. In a sneak attack, the humans breach the spaceship, forcing the aliens into a ground battle. Jake and Ella board the ship and free the captives, but Jake is captured. Dolarhyde rescues him and both men escape the ship after killing the alien leader. As the remaining aliens are taking off in their damaged craft, Ella sacrifices herself, destroying the ship using Jake's gauntlet.

Jake's memory partially returns, and some abducted townsfolk can recall their past. Still a wanted man, Jake decides to leave; the sheriff and Dolarhyde say they will claim that he was killed. The citizens intend to rebuild the town with the expectation that the newly discovered gold mine will soon bring many new settlers.

Cast

The cast includes:

Daniel Craig as Jake Lonergan, a wanted outlaw with amnesia

Harrison Ford as Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, a powerful and rich cattleman who controls the town of Absolution

Olivia Wilde as Ella Swenson, a mysterious traveler

Sam Rockwell as Doc, a saloon owner

Paul Dano as Percy Dolarhyde, Woodrow's trouble-making son

Clancy Brown as Meacham, a kind, plain-spoken preacher

Keith Carradine as Sheriff John Taggart

Noah Ringer as Emmett Taggart, John Taggart's grandson

Adam Beach as Nat Colorado, Colonel Dolarhyde's right-hand man

Abigail Spencer as Alice, Jake's lost love

Ana de la Reguera as María, Doc's wife

Walton Goggins as Hunt, a bandit

Julio César Cedillo as Bronc, a bandit

David O'Hara as Pat Dolan, Lonergan's former gang-member

Raoul Trujillo as Chiricahua Apache chief, Black Knife

Brendan Wayne as Deputy Lyle

Production

Development and casting

The project began development in 1997, when Universal Pictures and DreamWorks bought film rights to a concept pitched by Rosenberg, former president at Malibu Comics, which he described as a graphic novel in development. They hired Steve Oedekerk to write and direct the film, which Oedekerk planned to do after completing Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Rosenberg, who formed Platinum Studios to pursue adapting Cowboys & Aliens and other Malibu Comics properties into film and television, joined as a producer. By 1998, Oedekerk left the project to pursue a remake of the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet with Jim Carrey. By 2004, the film rights were acquired by Columbia Pictures, who did not move the project beyond development.

In 2006, Rosenberg published Cowboys & Aliens as a graphic novel. In the following year, Universal and DreamWorks partnered again to adapt Cowboys & Aliens into a film. In June 2008, Robert Downey, Jr. entered negotiations to star in the film as Zeke Jackson, a former Union Army gunslinger. While Downey, Jr. was making Iron Man 2, he told director Jon Favreau about Cowboys & Aliens. Favreau investigated the project, and in September 2009, he joined as director. Downey, Jr. left the project in January 2010, to star in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and later in the month, Daniel Craig was hired to replace him. Favreau said Craig's portrayal as James Bond "brings a certain virtuosity". He also described Craig, "On the one hand, he's 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."

In April 2010, Harrison Ford was cast alongside Craig. Favreau had cast Craig and Ford in the film because they were actors who suited the action-adventure roles so the characters would be less seen as comedic. The director compared Ford, in particular, with John Wayne in having "a sense of history" with the actor and the role. Before Cowboys & Aliens, Ford had previously acted in the Western films A Time For Killing in 1967, Journey To Shiloh in 1969 and The Frisco Kid in 1979. While Ford is well-known for playing Indiana Jones, the filmmakers wanted to avoid giving him a cowboy hat that would remind audiences too much of Jones. Writer Alex Kurtzman said, "We needed to make sure that—no pun intended—we tipped a hat to iconography of Harrison Ford and also presented the audience with a very different version."

Olivia Wilde was cast in one of the lead roles, and Favreau called Wilde's character the key to the film. Sam Rockwell was also cast in a supporting role as Doc. The character was described as a large Mexican in the original script, but when Favreau and the writers learned of Rockwell's interest in the film, they reconceived and expanded the role. Favreau himself is known for appearing in his films, but for Cowboys & Aliens, he chose not to have a cameo because he thought it would affect the tone of the film.

When asked about how the film was developing, Rosenberg stated, "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."

Steven Spielberg, one of the film's executive producers, visited the director and the writers during pre-production to look over the script and the artwork. He provided Favreau with a collection of classic Western films. Spielberg also invited the director and the writers to a private screening of several Western films and provided live commentary on how to make one properly. The films included Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, and Destry Rides Again.

Writing

In the film's period as a developing project under several studios, different versions of the screenplay were drafted by numerous screenwriters, beginning with Oedekerk. Other screenwriters involved included David Hayter, Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, Jeffrey Boam, Thompson Evans, and Chris Hauty. When Universal and DreamWorks re-partnered in 2007, they had hired Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus. In 2009, Ostby and Fergus were replaced by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Damon Lindelof. Kurtzman and Orci watched and analyzed American Western films including The Searchers. Orci said, "The first draft was very kind of jokey and broad and then it went very serious. You kind of swing back and forth between the two extremes and the tone until you find the exact right point where a Western and a sci-fi movie can really shake hands without it seeming unnatural." "Imagine you're watching Unforgiven and then Aliens land," Orci explained.

Orci also said, "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." The aliens were loosely based on the Anunnaki gods of Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation of the Babylonian religion, who have a distinct interest in gold.

Filming

On June 30, 2010, principal photography for Cowboys & Aliens began at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico. One of the filming locations was Plaza Blanca, "The White Place", where Western films like The Missing, 3:10 to Yuma, City Slickers, Young Guns and The Legend of the Lone Ranger had been filmed. Sound stage work took place in Los Angeles, with additional location shooting at Randsburg, California. Filming finished on September 30.

A scene in which Craig's character rides a horse alongside a ravine and jumps down it onto a spacecraft emulated many scenes in American Western films where cowboys rode along a moving train and jumped on it. Favreau said the scene referenced the one in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones chases a truck and noted that a similar scene existed in the 1939 film Stagecoach, saying "We're constantly referencing back to our roots."

Design and effects

Scott Chambliss was hired as the production designer based on his work on Star Trek, produced by Orci and Kurtzman. The visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic, represented by Roger Guyett as the visual effects supervisor. The film also features practical puppet aliens created by Legacy Effects, under the supervision of Shane Mahan.

Favreau noted that Cowboys & Aliens focused on a specific aspect of the alien genre which mostly revolved around the films of the eighties. "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.

Cowboys & Aliens was originally not going to 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), and didn't want it to be converted after filming. "That would be like filming in black and white and colorizing it," he reasoned.

Themes

Director Jon Favreau sought in Cowboys & Aliens a plausible approach to how humans from the late 19th century could confront extraterrestrial beings armed with advanced weaponry. He said, "It was very well laid out, well planned, and there were a lot of discussions with a lot of actors who called me to task on things that seemed too convenient, so we made sure we earned each step." The director also sought to maintain a Western tone as aliens appeared in the film, saying, "It's very easy to just cut the string and then all of a sudden the action starts and you're in Independence Day." Favreau cited the works of John Ford and Sergio Leone as sources of inspiration as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Favreau also wanted the science-fiction element to stand on its own, referencing Alien, Predator, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He said of both genres, "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, instead of just a retread or remake or sequel or reboot of a film you've seen before."

In the Americas, Native American nations were severely damaged by European settlers, specifically because of the Europeans' advanced military technology. Favreau compared the film to the historical confrontation "in the frustration of not having the technology to allow you to prevail". He said. "It's always the low-tech culture that feels powerless when faced with an enemy that has technology on their side." In the film, the cowboys are the low-tech culture, and the aliens with advanced technology possess the belief of Manifest Destiny. Favreau also said of the premise, "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." When the aliens appear, the film becomes a road movie in which the main characters try to track the aliens, team up with different groups, and ultimately confront the aliens. Favreau compared the gathering to The Magnificent Seven in facing seemingly insurmountable odds in their confrontation.

Marketing

and the cast of Cowboys & Aliens at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con]] Cowboys & Aliens, which crosses genres with the American Western element of cowboys and the science-fiction element of extraterrestrials, has an "inherently comic" title and premise. At the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010, director Jon Favreau hosted a presentation and was accompanied by the film's primary cast members, including Harrison Ford in his first Comic-Con appearance. In the presentation, Favreau explained to audiences that he intended the film as a serious mix of the Western styles of Sergio Leone and John Ford and "really scary" science fiction like Alien and Predator. The first trailer for the film appeared in the following November, and The New York Times reported that film audiences found the premise comedic. Eddie Egan, the president of marketing at Universal Pictures, acknowledged the misconception and said, "The trailer is the first very public step in reconciling the tone of the movie with the more immediate effect of the title on its own." The studio anticipated a marketing campaign that would demonstrate that the film is "a tough-minded adventure" like Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood.

During Super Bowl XLV on , 2011, the studio aired a TV spot for Cowboys & Aliens. Hours before the American football game, Favreau used Twitter to link followers to the spot online. Entertainment Weekly reported, "It . . . roused the geek-hive fan base and stirred new speculation about his hybrid of classic Westerns and extraterrestrial-invasion thrillers." After the spot aired, Favreau said the first trailer was intended as an introduction to pique people's curiosity and that the Super Bowl TV spot was "showing more of the sense of adventure as things unfold".

In April 2011, Favreau and Roberto Orci appeared at WonderCon in San Francisco, where they presented nine minutes of film footage and answered questions about the film. Favreau explained that marketing would show "only a brief glimpse of the aliens of the title" before the film is released. He explained the withholding of certain elements, "I think there are enough visionary people involved with this film that there is an understanding that there is a personality that the marketing campaign can take on as well as the film itself . . . I want to make sure that if the audience goes to see [the film], there is going to be a lot of surprises in it that they haven't seen in the marketing materials."

Release

Cowboys & Aliens had its world premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego on , 2011. It was commercially released in the United States and Canada on , 2011, and in other territories in ensuing weekends. Paramount Pictures International will also release the film in IMAX theaters around the world, as it did for Favreau's previous film Iron Man 2.

Box Office Mojo forecast that Cowboys & Aliens would gross total in the United States and Canada. For the comparatively low figure, the website cited that the marketing had not contextualized the film effectively and that hybridized Western films like Jonah Hex and The Warrior's Way were not successful at the box office. In territories outside the United States and Canada, the website forecast total, citing that American Western films are not historically popular, but that the premise of the alien invasion and the presence of international stars like Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford would generate interest. In contrast, box office tracker Paul Dergarabedian said the film's combination of cowboy and extraterrestrial themes in particular would attract audiences. Dergarabedian also believed that audiences' familiarity with Craig as character James Bond would help the film.

Box office

On the opening day of Cowboys & Aliens, estimates showed that its opening day gross was $13.0 million and it came in second place to The Smurfss opening day gross of $13.3 million. This was considered a surprise since Cowboys & Aliens was expected to be the clear winner for the weekend. Estimates then showed Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs tied at the #1 spot for the weekend with $36.2 million each. However, when the actual results for the weekend were announced Cowboys & Aliens won the weekend with $36.4 million just beating out The Smurfs, which grossed $35.6 million. As of August 2011, the film has grossed $93,976,060 in the U.S. and Canada as well as $35,500,000 internationally bringing its worldwide total to $129,476,060.

Critical reception

Cowboys & Aliens was released to mixed reviews, earning 45 percent approval from 214 critics on review-aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes and garnering a score of 50 out of 100 from 41 critics on Metacritic. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a B on an A plus to F scale.

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, giving a summary that "It sounds kooky on paper but on the screen cowboys and aliens make beautiful, fun music together." Honeycutt felt that the success of the film's blend of aliens and western themes was due to "the determination by everyone involved to play the damn thing straight. Even the slightest goofiness, the tiniest touch of camp, and the whole thing would blow sky high. But it doesn't." Honeycutt appreciated the casting and performances in the film, giving particular mention to Ford, Wilde, and Craig. Criticism was given to the aliens however, which Honeycutt claimed "don't rate as characters", existing as "moving blobs you shoot at in a video game." Varietys Peter Debruge echoed Honeycutt's sentiments that the "potential hamminess" of the premise is offset by the cast, particularly Craig through a "mix of ruthlessness and sensitivity." He considered however, that Wilde had the opposite effect, stating she "appears out of place among her grizzled co-stars". Debruge appreciated the attention paid to the roots of the two genres, saying "beneath all the state-of-the-art special effects beats an old-fashioned heart, one that prizes both of the genres in play" and concluded that "a canny blend of CG and practical effects serve the sci-fi elements well, while location shooting and Mary Zophres' form-fitting period duds make the West look its best." The Village Voice praised the Western elements of the film as "lovingly" handled but felt the Sci-Fi aspects a "gimmick" and "much more standard fare" in comparison. The Village Voice appreciated Favreau's storytelling and singled out Ford for his performance, saying "Ford, enlivened by dude garb, seems to enjoy himself in front of a camera for the first time in decades".

Roger Ebert positively received the film and cast, saying "as preposterous moneymakers go, it's ambitious and well-made. The acting from the large cast is of a high standard, Craig and Ford were more or less born into their roles, and director Jon Favreau actually develops his characters and gives them things to do, instead of posing them in front of special effects." He however lamented the film not being a pure Western, saying of the Aliens "there is more genuine suspense when [Percy Dolarhyde] starts shooting up the town than when countless aliens appear". Salons Andrew O'Hehir offered a mixed response, claiming the film to be well made and clever, and singling out Craig and Ford for their performances. O'Hehir was, however, critical of the combination of western and science-fiction elements, calling it "a mediocre western clumsily welded to a mediocre alien shoot-'em-up".

Slants Nick Schager reacted negatively to the film, stating "Cowboys & Aliens mashes up genres with a staunch dedication to getting everything wrong, making sure that each scene is more inane than the one that preceded it"; giving the film one star out of four. Schager continued "Cowboys & Alienss western accoutrements are . . . so false as to be stunning, with every steely-eyed glare from Craig's Man With No Memory, every confrontation between his Jake and Ford's grizzled Dolarhyde, and every silhouetted horseback ride across a sunset range seeming like a wan approximation of a familiar genre staple . . . Favreau's visuals have an inauthentic and bland blockbuster sheen, and his actors are similarly afflicted with a case of poseur-itis (Craig's affected silent-type glowering, Ford's gruff racism, or Wilde's blank, wide-eyed stares), failing to deliver a single believable line-reading or gesture."

References

External links

Category:2010s science fiction films Category:2010s Western films Category:2011 films Category:Alien invasions in fiction Category:Alien visitation films Category:American science fiction films Category:DreamWorks films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on comics Category:Films directed by Jon Favreau Category:Films produced by Steven Spielberg Category:Films set in Arizona Category:Films set in the 1870s Category:Films shot in California Category:Films shot in New Mexico Category:Imagine Entertainment films Category:IMAX films Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:Relativity Media films Category:Science fiction Westerns Category:Universal Pictures films

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