Downey to Play Cowboys & Aliens

Posted by bob in Comics, Films, News on June 16th, 2008

It appears Robert Downey Jr. is not done with the genre. Word in the trades this morning has him negotiating to star in the DreamWorks adaptation of Cowboys & Aliens. The movie, based on the high concept comic book from Platinum Studios, is intended as Universal’s big summer 2010 tent pole project.

The interesting fall out from this may be a delay in Marvel/Paramount’s plans for Iron Man 2, which they want shooting next March for a May 2010 release.  IM director, Jon Favreau, though, remains unsigned and feels Marvel is being cheap with him and by the way, there’s no way he can do a good sequel with such a short window.

Downey would play the lead, a former Union soldier turned gunslinger who must contend with the beginning of an alien invasion.  In fact, he finds himself rallying Native Americans and white settlers to band together to face a common threat.

If Downey shoots this film, to be produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, this may interfere with his prep for the IM sequel.  The movie is based on the comic book, released last year, by writers Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley and has gone through numerous big name screenwriters.  Interestingly, the most recent draft is by Iron Man scribes Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus