Those of you out there readying yourselves for the three days of madness that will be Comic-Con 2011 are in for a bit of a treat; Iron Man director Jon Favreau has announced that the world premiere for his new genre-blending comic book adaptation, Cowboys & Aliens, will take place at this year’s convention in San Diego.
This announcement was made at this past weekend’s Hero Complex Film Festival 2011, where footage shown from Favreau’s western-meets-sci-fi project was well-received (as were his and Robert Downey Jr.’s comments about Iron Man 3).
Premiering his new film at Comic-Con seems a fitting move for Favreau, who has a strong following on Twitter and is known for being a fan-friendly filmmaker in the comic book movie community. The 2010 Comic-Con Cowboys & Aliens panel was well received (especially the amusing surprise appearance of Harrison Ford) and the footage previewed at the event helped to spread word of mouth that the film isn’t aiming to be the geeky campfest implied by its title.
Cowboys & Aliens will hit theaters a week after its Comic-Con showing. Although the film’s reception at this year’s convention could help or hinder its opening weekend results to a degree, the positive or negative effect isn’t likely to be too significant at that point in the game, so to speak.
As it were, Favreau seems genuinely more interested in just showing the Comic-Con crowd his thanks by premiering Cowboys & Aliens there. To quote him (via Hero Complex):
“… I feel like [the Comic-Con crowd has] come out for me, they’ve supported me… That’s where it all started, and I want to give back. They should have the opportunity to see [‘Cowboys & Aliens’] first.”
Recent trailers and TV spots for Cowboys and Aliens paint it as being both a gritty adventure set in the Old West and a straight-faced sci-fi flick about mysterious creatures that invade out planet. That’s arguably a much more imaginative route to go with the subject matter at hand – as opposed to just making it a silly genre mashup. Even so (judging by a number of reader comments alone) the serious tone and thrilling nature of the Cowboys footage teased so far hasn’t been sufficient to convince everyone that this will be anything but a overly goofy popcorn flick.
Interest from mainstream moviegoers will really determine the success of Cowboys & Aliens at the box office this summer. So regardless of how well it plays with the Comic-Con crowd, the film will ultimately have to make the crossover and appeal to those who are still struggling just to get past the title.
For more on Cowboys & Aliens, be sure to check out the following:
- Cowboys & Aliens Set Visit Report
- Cowboys & Aliens: Alien Designs, Motives, & Technology
- Cowboys & Aliens Edit Bay Visit With Jon Favreau
- WonderCon interview with Jon Favreau and Cowboys & Aliens co-screenwriter/producer Roberto Orci
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Cowboys & Aliens will arrive in U.S. theaters on July 29th, 2011.
