Platinum Studios (PDOS)

[Raggedy Man]

Scott Rosenberg, Creator of Cowboys & Aliens, talks interactive and box office

Scott Rosenberg is the CEO of Platinum Studios and creator of Cowboys & Aliens franchise. The movie, which opened this summer starred Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, started off as a comic book that was made popular a few years ago but had a long history before that. “I was about 13. My imagination was a little crazy. There were cowboy guns but Indian stuff and sci-fi stuff barely existed.”

Rosenberg is no stranger to comic books. At age 15, he started his own mail order company. “I realized I had addiction to comic books. The only way to keep buying them is to sell them and if I sell them, why not mark them up? So, I started taking up booths at comic conventions.”

Although Rosenberg doesn’t hold any writing credits to the movie, he still stands by the project. To date, Cowboys & Aliens has grossed $100 million domestically, and $171 million worldwide on a reported $163 million budget. Rosenberg shrugged off reports that Cowboys & Aliens was a box office disaster. “It hasn’t opened in all countries yet and $160 million is a horrible bomb” he says sarcastically, “and that doesn’t even include TV, DVD, and merchandising.”

Cowboys & Aliens is, of course, now a franchise. “There’s playing cards, interactive games and educational app. The app is called Cowboys & Aliens: The Kids. There was a massive deadline. Everyone told me we couldn’t make that deadline. So, I ended up writing my first children’s book ever. Finding an artist was hard because I wanted key characters that you can see their personality in their face, even though they were younger. So, there is a Cowboy kid and an Indian kid.” With the app, you can insert your own picture, share it on Facebook, and benefits the Starlight Foundation.

“You can take the colors out and color it, and save it with your painting. You can take pictures of the face and they fit pretty well into the characters. The kids can do their own narration too.” Cowboys & Aliens: The Kids app (as seen above) is available at the iTunes store.

Cowboys & Aliens hits store shelves on DVD & Blu-Ray on December 6th, 2011.

http://www.starsentertainment.com/news/item/6119-scott-rosenberg-creator-of-cowboys--aliens-talks-interactive-and-box-office.html