Buried in Kim Masters’ The Daily Beast piece about how 3D is going to become a bigger factor in Hollywood thanks to the billion-dollar success of “Avatar,” she casually mentions that Jon Favreau is set to direct “Cowboys & Aliens” next July.
Um, what? Back in September we reported that Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. were circling the pulpy sci-fi western, but this is the first we’ve heard that it’s actually getting made.
A lot can change in a few months (see “Spiderman 4”) but if it happens, it means Favreau/RDJ are pretty much the Harrison Ford/George Lucas of our generation. The producer/writers are Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the writers behind “Star Trek” and “Transformers 1 & 2”) and let’s hope it’s more J.J. Abrams than Michael Bay for everyone’s sake.
This sounded like the project that Favreau was dumping the “Avengers” for at the time, but since that won’t be shooting for at least another two years, it’s safe to say “Cowboys & Aliens” is not the project he left Marvel for.