Cowboys & Aliens Set Visit Report

Towards the end of August, we were invited (along with a group of other online journalists) by Universal Pictures to the set of Cowboys & Aliens. Production was finishing up shooting in New Mexico at the time – before moving to Universal Studios in LA to work on some interior stage shots.

Most of us had only seen the 10 minutes of unfinished footage presented by director Jon Favreau at San Diego Comic-Con a few weeks earlier, footage that Favreau pushed the cast, crew, Industrial Light & Magic and the studio to work extra days on just so they could test it with the hardcore audience of Comic-Con attendees.

What we saw was a total crowd-pleaser and everyone bought into the authenticity of the Western that Favreau and crew were attempting to convey. It’s not a slapstick, tongue-in-cheek comedy poking fun at the extreme idea of aliens fighting cowboys. The film stays true to what both genres represent and that’s how it’s able to work.

This is by far the biggest call out I want to emphasize from my set visit. The title of the movie earned a few laughs as the Cowboys & Aliens trailer premiered alongside Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows Part 1 the weekend before last. But that’s okay because up until the logo popped up at the conclusion of the teaser, everyone in those theater seats were completely sold on seeing Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in a straight Western, reacting to the situation presented. Note that there was not a single shot of what the alien creatures look like in that trailer. This trailer and the Comic-Con footage work the same way in that respect and this is what Jon Favreau is going for (as you’ll find out from reading through my set visit reports this week). You’ll find out more on where he draws his inspiration and what types of alien movies work and don’t work, which are more interesting and captivating, etc. and how he balances that into Cowboys & Aliens.

Throughout this week we’ll put up posts on our talks with Favreau, Bob Orci and more, as well as several interesting discussion pieces from what we learned about the production of the film. But for now, let me take you along the journey I experienced before we get down and dirty with the details.

Simon Says... shoot down the Alien UFO

I was in the first group to land in Albuquerque, the largest city of New Mexico. From there, I was driven an hour or so to our hotel in Sante Fe. We were still over an hour out from where the set visit would take place the following day, but it still offered a damn good indicator of the temperatures on set. Filming action scenes is a tough and grueling process. Doing it in the hot desert weather and avoiding destructive flash floods is another challenge entirely. This was but one of the obstacles faced by cast and crew at the particular location we were going to visit.

We traveled out the next morning in a bus and went into the wild. The landscapes and scenery on this ride is reminiscent of any visuals you can conjure when thinking of a Western (or playing the video game Red Dead Redemption – more on that later). As we made our way to the crew parking lot, we transferred from vehicle to vehicle to yet another vehicle as we passed through the rocky paths and eventually through the trailers for cast, equipment and props.

From this point onward, no one was allowed to take photos; Not of the trailers before we got to the set and not even of the scenery around us. It was our own little Area 51 and secrecy was of utmost importance.

As we arrived at the canyon where shooting would be taking place, we entered a large cast tent with over two dozen chairs and a monitor at one end to view the shots taking place. Sam Rockwell was in there fixing his grimed up and battle-worn cowboy outfit, greeting us before picking up his rifle and heading back out on set.

About the scenes being shot, I have good and bad news regarding what we saw. The good news is that due to a last minute scheduling change, we ended up watching them shoot one of the final and most important scenes of the film where everyone was included. The bad news is that we can’t tell you about anything we witnessed or how epic it was.

The sequence was being shot at White Place (Plaza Blanca), a beautiful and famous rocky canyon owned by Dar al Islam Mosque in Abiquiu, New Mexico. A location where The Missing was shot and not far from where previous Western films such as 3:10 to Yuma, Young Guns, Legend of the Lone Ranger and Wyatt Earp were made as well. Other projects that used these landscapes include City Slickers and Earth 2.

White Place - Plaza Blanca, New Mexico

What I can say about what was being shot (and this harkens back to the big call out of the film) is that this movie is a straight up Western at its heart and in its style. Yes, instead of the traditional feuds between cowboys and Apache natives, Cowboys & Aliens pits them all against a new threat. But who these characters are and how they react to this situation is all within the realm of the Western genre archetypes… and it completely works.

Even when Favreau first entered the tent with us for a few hours, one of the very first things he said to us was about the authenticity of what and how they were shooting. He asked us if it was “better than a green screen” which reminded me of exactly what he spoke of at SDCC when he came out on stage and introduced the presentation by speaking of the “breaking news” that Cowboys & Aliens would be coming in 2D, shot on film, not digital video to keep the authentic look of the period piece. The use of on-location shooting and practical effects offers authentic/raw visuals which match the film’s tone.

Movies are a business, but they’re also an entertainment art form and it’s nice to see that balance shift in favor of the moviegoers for once. As Favreau re-emphasized to me on set and to our own Roth Cornet the other week at the Cowboys & Aliens edit bay, the film was not shot or converted in 3D as per most upcoming big budget blockbusters and instead was shot like traditional Westerns in 35mm anamorphic by Matthew Libatique, the same cinematographer who brought us the stunning visuals of The Fountain.

Throughout our day on set, we had the chance to meet and chat with most of the cast, including Sam Rockwell, Noah Ringer, Keith Carradine, Paul Dano, Ana de la Reguera, Walton Goggins and Raoul Trujillo. We also of course had little visits by Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford which made for some of the most special moments of the day.

Stay tuned to Screen Rant all this week for your in-depth Cowboys & Aliens coverage as we’ll have something new up every day, from interviews with Jon Favreau, Bob Orci and Sam Rockwell, a look at what it takes to build an authentic Western with a sci-fi twist, to why Daniel Craig taking over the lead role from Robert Downey Jr. may have been the best thing that happened with the project.

We’ll also talk about why this film is quite a bit different, not only in style but in development, for producers Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman and director Jon Favreau and whether or not there’s potential of a sequel.

For more on Cowboys & Aliens:

And follow us on Twitter @rob_keyes and @screenrant.

Cowboys & Aliens is scheduled for release on July 29th, 2011. It is directed by Jon Favreau and produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The screenplay is written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, inspired by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s graphic novel.

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‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Trailer Breakdown With Jon Favreau

The innate silliness of the title Cowboys & Aliens aside, director Jon Favreau has selected to avoid going for the cheap joke with his comic book adaptation and aims to deliver a serious but fun romp that revolves around an extraterrestrial invasion of the Old West.

Fans were highly receptive to the official Cowboys & Aliens trailer when it premiered last week – enough so for Favreau to sit down and provide a bit of commentary on the trailer itself.

Favreau sat down with MTV to breakdown the trailer for Cowboys & Aliens, which he approached from the perspective of “if you’re doing a mashup of two genres, like science-fiction and a western, if you play one of them tongue-in-cheek, the combo’s not what’s going to be special.”

He went on to discuss how his decision to cast Daniel Craig as the amnesia-struck loner, Jake Lonergan (get it?), was motivated by the desire for Cowboys & Aliens to feel very much like an authentic western – even before the visitors from another planet show up.

For more about Cowboys & Aliens (including tidbits about why Favreau sees Harrison Ford as the John Wayne of his generation and who came up with the idea for Longergan to be tagged with alien tech), just watch the full trailer commentary below:

We like how seriously Favreau is taking Cowboys & Aliens, which frankly sounds like it should be the title of a goofy B-movie from the 1950s. The casting is spot on (especially with Ford), the action looks like a cool blend of western shoot-outs and sci-fi warfare, and the tone of the film looks to match that of a Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah movie.

Cowboys and Aliens arrives in theaters in the U.S. on July 29th, 2011. Are you excited to see this one?

Source: MTV

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Jon Favreau Talks Cowboys & Aliens (Plus Trailer Preview & Poster)

Cowboys & Aliens is already generating enough buzz to make it one of the most eagerly anticipated films of 2011. Last week, the buzz started to increase over the impending release of the film’s trailer. Folks have been speculating about which movie (or movies) the trailer would appear with, and when it would be available online.

We were fortunate enough to be among the few to get a sneak-peak at the Cowboys And Aliens trailer in an edit bay visit with director Jon Favreau last week, and can assure fans that they will not be disappointed when it becomes available online this coming Wednesday.

In addition to an advance look at the trailer, we were also given the opportunity to view very early, work-in-progress footage from the film and will be bringing you a full report on our edit bay visit in the coming weeks.

What we are able to report now is that the trailer that you will see on Wednesday is highly reflective of the extended footage we’ve seen from the film. There is always the danger of misleading a film’s audience with an deceptive marketing campaign. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Cowboys & Aliens.

Favreau himself reflects “what I like about it as a filmmaker, is that it feels like they are selling the same movie that we’re making.” He goes on to say that this trailer encapsulates “the tone of the first act of the movie, and as we get deeper, and as more trailers come out – more will be revealed.”

Keep an eye out here on Screen Rant as we continue to bring you the latest about the film.

In addition to Wednesday’s trailer countdown clock and film experience page, the first Cowboys & Aliens teaser poster debuted on Yahoo this morning and we have it for you below.

Take a look at the official teaser poster below:

Poster source: Yahoo! Movies.

Here is the official synopsis for the film:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Daniel Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky.  Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation.  As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force.  With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

As film-goers, we have become comfortable, and used to “genre-bending” films; in fact, the tricks and tropes of genre-bending (or blending) have become so familiar and shorthand, that filmmakers now must essentially bend the bending in order to surprise audiences.

In his 2001 essay on The French Connection, writer Todd Berliner explains that, “genre-bending films rely on viewers’ habitual responses to generic codes, misleading audiences into expecting conventional outcomes.” In other words, genre-bending films typically set viewers up for the expected, only to then twist the tropes, “creating a more unsettling experience than the genre traditionally provides.”

Audiences have become sophisticated enough that most genre-films are now self-reflexive in some way, or ways.

In casting Harrison Ford, Favreau is tipping his hat (metaphorically) at fans; and said hat tip plays into the tone of the film. He likens the casting choice to that of a classic Western star, explaining that “when John Wayne stepped onto the screen, he brought his entire body of work with him, and you have to acknowledge that. You can go with expectation or against expectation…”. However, both filmmaker and audience are well aware that a wealth of history comes with the casting choice – a lesson Favreau learned while working with Robert Downey Jr., on Iron Man.

A wealth of history is also intrinsically present in any genre film; that element of the past is heightened in a film that blends genres, as Cowboys & Aliens does. Self-reflexive, and genre-blending it may be, and yet, from what we have seen, Cowboys & Aliens feels like a film that honors its predecessors far more than many films that attempt to genre-blend, or bend, do.

Wild, Wild West This is not.

Continue to more about the Cowboys & Aliens experience…

Cowboys & Aliens presented an opportunity for Jon Favreau to do something he had longed to do; direct a classic Western, in a time when audience appetites are geared towards sci-fi and fantasy films in general, and alien-invasion films specifically.

Cowboys & Aliens does not “go for the easy joke” that many filmmakers would have been tempted to go for with this particular brand of genre mash-up, however.“You can work in humor” Favreau explains (and we assure you that the humor will be present), but “in the way that the old Westerns did; a little bit here, a character actor there – but really at its core, like the John Ford films, which were unflinching in what the main characters are up against.”

Cowboys & Aliens emphasizes character, and as such, the actors “all played it straight.” The film does not “back-off of the Western genre”, and as Favreau says “young it up”, in a way that degrades the particular beauty of the style.

Rather, by drawing on films like The Magnificent Seven (and Kurosawa’s prior film, Seven Samurai), Stagecoach, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, High Planes Drifter and The Professionals, this film embraces the genre, approaching it with a sensibility that is simultaneously modern and faithful in tone to the classic Western.

Cowboys And Aliens will be one of the only summer event films of 2011 that was neither shot in 3D, or converted to 3D in post-production. It was shot in traditional 35mm anamorphic, in the vein of a traditional Western, by the phenomenally talented cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Iron Man, The Fountain, Black Swan), giving the film an organic quality that audiences will (hopefully) be thirsty for.

Favreau was able to go straight to the source, executive producer Steven Spielberg, to explore some of the late 1970s/1980s science fiction movies that he used as both template and inspiration for this movie. Films like Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Alien/Aliens, E.T and even Jaws. Science fiction that, often by necessity, invited the audience members to participate in the storytelling by actively engaging their imaginations.

These films relied on the imaginations of viewers to fill in the blanks that were left by the technological limitations of the day. What many of us have come to realize since that time is that our individual fears will, more often than not, serve the emotional current of a film far more than overblown CGI ever could. Though there will certainly be plenty of action available in Cowboys & Aliens.

Soon enough you will be able to see for yourself that the classic Western style blends beautifully with the particular brand of sci-fi this film will be expressing.

As far as the Cowboys & Aliens are concerned, as Favreau says, “they (the aliens) didn’t know they were coming to the old-west, and they (the cowboys) didn’t know there were aliens coming – they were both coming from their own place.”

We believe the two worlds will seamlessly collide, come summer 2011.

We look forward to bringing you the trailer this Wednesday – as well as further details from our incredible edit bay visit – in the coming weeks. In the interim, you can find the countdown clock for the Cowboys & Aliens trailer below, so we can all count the minutes together:

Cowboys & Aliens

The trailer will also be appearing in theaters, beginning this weekend with Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

Cowboys & Aliens has a powerhouse team of Hollywood heavy-hitters behind it; starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, written and produced by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (Star Trek) and Damon Lindelof (television’s Lost); produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, with executive producers Steven Spielberg and Denis L. Stewart.

Cowboys & Aliens is scheduled for release on July 29th, 2011.

Follow me on twitter @jrothc and Screen Rant @screenrant

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