At this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, we got a glimpse at the Jon Favreau-directed Cowboys & Aliens. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the sci-fi film stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. Bringing the Iron Man series to the big screen successfully has garnered Favreau an almost iconic status within the comic community.
Making his first appearance in Comic-Con history, Ford received a warm welcome (i.e. standing ovation) that lasted nearly 5 minutes before the crowd calmed down. With only four weeks of filming under his belt, Favreau still managed to piece together a short clip for all the fans to enjoy. Thanks to Screen Rant, here’s a run down of what was shown:
Panel
* Jon Favreau got things started by coming out and thanking the audience for their support of the Iron Man films. Then he called on several special guests to come on stage. To huge applause from the audience, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Bob Orci, and Alex Kutrzman took the stage.
* Then, in the best surprise of the night, Harrison Ford showed up for his first appearance in Comic-Con history. The applause for Harrison Ford lasted for a good five minutes.
* Daniel Craig was asked about when the next James Bond movie might come out. Obviously, given MGM’s woes, he didn’t know but he said he wants it to get started as fast as possible.
* Jon Favreau talked about mixing a traditional John Ford-style western with the kind of alien movies from his youth. Rather than describing it further, he decided to show some rough footage.Footage
They have only been shooting the film for four weeks, but Favreau gave the crowd a huge sneak peek at the film. You heard it here first – this movie looks awesome! The footage had a very traditional western feel, but viewed through the lens of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Early in the footage, we see Daniel Craig’s character cleaning up a wound on his stomach. He has a strange bracelet that doesn’t fit the rest of his wardrobe. Later, Craig’s character is put in jail by the local sheriff. The sheriff and his crew lead him out to a stagecoach to be taken away for trial.
Harrison Ford’s character rode into the scene to free his son, who was also a prisoner, and to barter for Craig’s character. He claims Craig stole from him and he’s no good “hanging at the end of a rope.” Like I said, it’s all a very traditional western style. Then, the footage took a sharp turn into sci-fi.
In the distance, the townspeople observe a cluster of lights in the sky. They get closer and closer, drawing everyone into the street, when suddenly they appear right above the town. A group of spaceships begin blowing up the town in a massive attack. Craig’s character escapes from the stage coach and begins to fight back against the aliens.
The unusual bracelet we saw earlier is actually an alien weapon. He primes it and takes a blast at one of the ships, knocking it to the ground. When Harrison Ford steps up to investigate the wreckage, Craig gives him a mysterious nod. It was a great moment to end the footage on, and set up a lot of anticipation for the film.It’s amazing that Favreau cut the footage together after only four weeks of filming. The special effects looked great and the action felt very real. Of all the big time film directors, I feel like nobody is in tune with the fan community quite like Favreau. He knows what the fans want and he delivered big time today. Cowboys & Aliens looks like it could be a pretty stellar action movie. It will be interesting to see more footage at next year’s Con.
What do you think of the first image and footage description from Cowboys & Aliens?