'Cowboys & Aliens'
From variety.com
Cowboys and?um?Aliens? Dream Works and Universal Pictures are joining forces to create a new live action feature called Cowboys & Aliens. Once a graphic novel, the film is set in 1800s Arizona where a brawl between the Apaches and cowboys is quickly interrupted by the crash landing of an alien space craft. The Natives and cowboys soon join forces to fight against the alien invaders.
According to variety.com, Imagine partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce along with Platinum Studios chairman-CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Ervin Rustemagic and Rich Marincic co-produce.
Script will be written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.
The graphic novel mixes Western and science fiction genres. Set in 1800s Arizona, a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders.
Rosenberg, who ran Malibu Comics when Men in Black transferred from graphic novel to hit film, created the concept for Cowboys & Aliens and published the graphic novel in 2006.
Several studios have been intrigued by the concept, but the deal was finally pulled together by DreamWorks production president Adam Goodman and U production prexy Donna Langley. The studios have teamed successfully in the past on such pics as Gladiator and the Imagine-produced A Beautiful Mind.
Kurtzman and Orci scripted the upcoming DreamWorks/Paramount summer film Transformers.
Fergus and Hawk Ostby's recent credits include Children of Men and Iron Man.
