A high concept movie from the director of "Iron Man," starring James Bond and Indiana Jones, what could go wrong? Well, as audiences and critics found out with "Cowboys & Aliens," quite a lot. The 2011 summer blockbuster flop with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, with Jon Favreau behind the camera, was considered a risk then, and viewed as folly now. And producer Brian Grazer admits he regrets taking this movie on, attracted by the package, but having no clue what the material was all about.
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday, Grazer was candid that he had many "mulligans" in life, this film being one of them. "I agreed to be part of a movie called Cowboys & Aliens,” he explained. “I don’t like cowboys, or aliens! But there were a lot of superstars involved with it — Ron Howard; Steven Spielberg; the director of ‘Iron Man,’ Jon Favreau. I remember having this one meeting, an early meeting, and they’re talking about the title, ‘Cowboys and Aliens.’ I said, ‘We aren’t really calling it that, are we?’ [The others said] ‘Yeah, of course we are!’ I was going, ‘I don’t get this at all.’"
READ MORE: Review: ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Brings The Bad-Ass, But Falls Short On The Mash-Up
However, Grazer did come away with a life lesson. “Every once in a while I rationalize quality,” he said. “There are so many decision you make, and you’re trying to do excellence. We know what excellence is. We know what better food is versus not good food. But there’s a rationalizing process — that’s good enough. Anytime the light bulb goes, that’s good enough, it’s shitty!"
No argument there. But how has "Cowboys & Aliens" aged for you? Let us know in the comments section below. [The Atlantic]
Wonder how Favreau feels about this.
I have to completely agree with Christian. Snakes on a Plane could have been a hit or miss. The reason, I believe, it was such a hit, was not the quality of the movie, or its actors. It was simply that they made it outrageous, ridiculous, unbelievable, and most of all, FUN!! They didn\’t shy away from making fools of themselves. They took a gamble and in my opinion, it worked.
Hollywood takes itself way too seriously and in doing so, takes a lot of fun out of the entire experience. I\’m not say all of it, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a brilliant movie. They just need to take a risk occasionally and not be so afraid of failing. Let\’s face it, what have they to lose, they already are?!
As they say in Face/Off… Fresh Tactics!
They should have gone a Snakes On A Plane route and just made fun of themselves for 2 hours.
Yeah, way to learn the wrong lesson with this film. The whole premise and the title were awesome, it just had no sense of humor or fun. I think this was the post-Dark Knight era of blockbuster filmmakers trying their hand at being Nolan-serious and failing at it.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it just wasn\’t any fun at all. It took itself way too seriously.
I liked this idea of a mash-up on paper. The title didn\’t even bother me \’cuz I always thought it was kinda tongue-in-cheek. The final product, however, was awful.
I always liked the premise and the title. The movie wasn\’t very good, but that scene of barely visible UFOs attacking the Old west town is pretty great.