The Man in the Hat is back in, potentially, a different hat when he plays a cowboy - most probably - in
Iron Man director
Jon Favreau's imminent comic book adaptation
Cowboys & Aliens. Ford, who hasn't made a truly great film since
The Fugitive in 1993 or a pretty good film since
What Lies Beneath in 2000, was announced - as per many a rumour - by Favreau via a
tweet that, with wry resignation, confirmed;
'Please stop asking if Harrison Ford is in Cowboys & Aliens. Okay? He is. Please don't tell anybody.'
The comic book by
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, producer of
Men In Black and chairman of
Platinum Studios, had been aiming to adapt the graphic novel series for a while. It tells the high concept tale of aliens (surprise!) landing in the Wild West, and finding their plans to conquer the world messed up by cowboys.
Robert Downey Jr. was set to take on the leading role of Zeke Jackson but dropped out to do
Guy Ritchie's forthcoming
Sherlock Holmes sequel, it seems that
Daniel Craig has stepped into his stetsons with
Tron Legacy and
House M.D. actress
Olivia Wilde in a supporting role. The adaptation is in the hands of a gaggle of screenwriters including;
Alex Kurtzman and
Roberto Orci (who brought us
Star Trek - yay! - and
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - boo!);
Hawk Ostby and
Mark Fergus (who helped pen
Iron Man,
Children of Men and the impending live-action
Akira); and
Lost veteran
Damon Lindelof. Assisting in the
Dreamworks/Paramount/Imagine production corner are
Spielberg,
Ron Howard and
Brian Grazer. Hopefully Favreau can bring the same sense of playful fun and big budget spectacle that he brought to the equally genre-spliced (and vastly under-rated) sci-fi adventure
Zathura. Also, hopefully, he'll manage to coax more than a snooze from the grizzled and grumpy chops of Ford who has Roger Michell's intriguing comedy
Morning Glory also on his upcoming slate and hasn't cropped up in a Western since 1979's
Gene Wilder comedy
The Frisco Kid. For the curious the first issue of the graphic novel can be read online here:
http://www.drunkduck.com/CowboysAndAliens/