Platinum Studios (PDOS)

[Raggedy Man]

Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr. making 'Cowboys and Aliens'
By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit
September 01, 2009

Director Jon Favreau and actor Robert Downey Jr. are bringing their iron-clad collaboration to another comic-book property: "Cowboys and Aliens."

Downey has been attached to the DreamWorks project since last summer, when "Iron Man" co-screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby were working on the adaptation of the Platinum Comics graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley.

Last fall, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are executive producers on the project, took over scripting with "Lost" exec producer Damon Lindelof.

And now Favreau, who is riding a killer wave as an actor, writer and director, has come on to make it his next gig.

True to its title, the sci-fi Western explores what would happen if traditional Old West enemies, cowboys and American Indians, found the prairie attacked by aliens in mid-1800s Arizona. Long in development, the "Aliens" project was originally set up at Columbia with "Sahara" writers Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly writing.

The Favreau-Downey-Kurtzman-Orci-Lindelof nexus represents the current nucleus of genre geek pop culture. Kurtzman and Orci recently delivered the sci-fi mega-hits "Star Trek" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Lindelof maintains his control over the "Lost" mindscrew, and Favreau and Downey are about to serve up another highly anticipated "Iron Man" saga.

For DreamWorks, the property represents an essential tentpole to help elevate its newly independent status now that the studio's first round of financing is complete. DreamWorks obviously felt bullish on the "Cowboys and Aliens" project when it decided to include it among the 17 projects it bought from Paramount upon leaving last fall.

DreamWorks declined comment.

As part of that exit arrangement, Paramount has an option to co-distribute the film, an opportunity it presumably will engage given Favreau's $572 million success on the Paramount-distributed Iron Man property.

Imagine Entertainment principals Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, who was once a possibility to direct, are producing along with Platinum topper Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. Universal, where Imagine is housed, co-developed and is co-financing the project.

As it ramps up production for the next few years' slates, DreamWorks would likely anchor its 2011 summer to "Cowboys." DreamWorks and Kurtzman and Orci are also developing the Platinum Comics property "Atlantis Rising," another big-budget sci-fi hybrid, with director Len Wiseman and writer Joby Harold.

The CAA-repped Favreau is in post-production on Paramount/Marvel's "Iron Man 2," which is slated for a May release. As a writer and actor, he will next appear in the Universal comedy "Couples Retreat," hitting theaters Oct. 9. He is also providing a voice to the MGM comedy "The Zookeeper."

http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2009/09/jon-favreau-making-cowboys-and-aliens.html