Someone over at Universal’s marketing department needs to be fired, or at least given a stern talking to. With the studio taking “The Thing” off its calendar for next year and experiencing trouble with their Hasbro-related franchises, they could definitely use a hit. So too bad then their highly anticipated “Cowboys & Aliens” has been given a one sheet that resembles the poster for that other cowboy comic adaptation, the colossal Warner Bros. dud, “Jonah Hex.” That is not an association they will want audiences to be making.
Anyway, we’ll chalk it up to graphic design laziness as the film, about a group of Apache Indians and Western settlers in Arizona who must lay their differences aside when an alien spaceship crash lands in their city, still does have us hoping for a rollicking good time. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Daniel Craig, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde, Noah Ringer, Walton Goggins, Keith Carradine, Ana de la Reguera and more. That said, there is currently a battle over writing credits on the film which has us slightly worried by the number of hands that have been in the mix on the script.
The trailer for the film will arrive on Wednesday, while the picture will saddle up on July 29, 2011. Full synopsis after the jump:
1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde. It’s a town that lives in fear.
But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.
Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he¿s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella, he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents – townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors – all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.
