Jon Favreau has made it. The guy can do it all. Truth be told he’s one of the guys I admire most in the industry. He can write, act and direct and he’s awesome at the entire trio! Who would’ve thought the guy with Vince Vaughn in SWINGERS and MADE would be directing big budget Summer blockbusters? Nobody could have guessed that one!
Favreau is finishing up next Summer’s IRON MAN 2 as we speak, with a third film almost guranteed to follow. But is the linebacker from THE REPLACEMENTS ready to just keep hanging with Stark? Well apparently… Kind of. You see The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog reports that ‘The Favs’ will be paired with IRON MAN star Robert Downey Jr. once again, but the duo will trade in super-tech suits for some cowboy hats and spurs. Nice!
In case you haven’t guessed it yet, Favreau has just signed on to direct the upcoming adaptation COWBOYS & ALIENS. What’s COWBOYS & ALIENS? Well I actually told you about it last Summer. Yes, LAST Summer. That’s over a year ago… and Downey Jr. is still attached! Now that’s a surprise… At the time IRON MAN writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby were working on a draft of COWBOYS & ALIENS but the duo have since been replaced by COWBOYS executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci along with Damon Lindelof. Damn this thing is building up some names behind it.
Another major difference from our last update is that COWBOYS & ALIENS has been pushed back a year thanks to the mess over at DreamWorks. Once pegged for a Summer 2010 release, COWBOYS & ALIENS is now looking to hit theaters Summer 2011. The graphic novel, and therefore movie, is about an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey), that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz. The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the “savage” Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens’ assault on Earthlings, who must join together to survive the invaders’ attack.
Awesome. Downey Jr. battling aliens? With Favs behind the camera? You can definitely sign me up for this one! The only problem with this is the expectations will be insanely high considering it’s from the guys that brought us IRON MAN… So what do you think? Think it’ll match the adventures of Tony Stark? Allow me to remind you nobody cared about IRON MAN before that movie… so maybe there’s a chance we could be in store for an awesome sci-fi adventure? As always keep it here for updates as we hear them!