On The Set of Favreau’s COWBOYS & ALIENS

Director Jon Favreau tweeted this peek at the set of his new film COWBOYS & ALIENS, Dreamworks’ and Universal Pictures’ upcoming adaptation of Platinum Studios cross-genre comic. A source on the set told me it’s filled deep with a lot of extras and that shooting began on Thursday, June 10th in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Even one of the film’s stars, Olivia Wilde, tweeted “Its the coolest set ever.”

Favreau is directing Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Noah Ringer, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach, and Ana De La Reguera in a film that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way. Joined by Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Denis L. Stewart, and Dan Forcey, COWBOYS & ALIENS will be an action thriller that will take audiences into the Old West, where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror beyond our world.

The film’s synopsis:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) 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 onto its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). Its 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 (Olivia Wilde), 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.

You can follow the movie’s progress on Twitter or Facebook. From DreamworksSKG and Universal Pictures, COWBOYS & ALIENS will be in theaters next summer on July 29, 2011.