Robert Downey Jr. chews on ‘Cowboys & Aliens’

DreamWorks and Universal Pictures are in talks with Robert Downey, Jr. to star in the coming genre-mixing Cowboys & Aliens. The film would be an adaptation from the graphic novel by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce, alongside several other studio regulars including Spielberg. The current version of the screenplay is written by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man and Children of Men.

[The story centers on an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey), that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz. The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the “savage” Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens’ assault on Earthlings, who must join together to survive the invaders’ attack.] — The Hollywood Reporter