It's official: Harrison Ford is going to star in Jon Favreau's 'Cowboys & Aliens' (with video)

"Cowboys & Aliens" will be Harrison Ford's next movie for director Jon Favreau

Harrison Ford has been trying to get back into the Hollywood big-time for the last couple years, but he's picked a few projects that just haven't translated into box office gold. His last big hit, "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull" was the biggest of the bunch, yet fans of the franchise weren't happy with the film enough to make it a bigger film than, say, "Transformers 2". Despite the critical backlash and silly-ass alien plotline, Ford has just picked a new project that sounds vaguely similar to "Indy 4". Will it do "Indy" money, or will it do "Extraordinary Measures" money? Let's look at the details below, my gentle Examiner readers...

Look, I really like Harrison Ford. Growing up, the "Indiana Jones" films were it for me. A bunch of people my age will go on and on about "Star Wars", but for me it was always "Indiana Jones". So, you can imagine how I felt seeing "Kingdom of The Crystal Skull". What, you don't remember it? Here, see if this jogs your memory:

Betcha remember now. The fourth "Indiana Jones" was centered around a plotline involving aliens, Area 51, and-- as we just saw-- groundhogs. The sci-fi angle was a new direction for the series, and though critics weren't thrilled with the outcome, the flick did huge numbers at the worldwide box office. Harrison Ford's other recent movies? Not so much. Remember "Extraordinary Measures"? Yeah, me neither.

So, perhaps Ford is looking to duplicate a little bit of the success he found with "Indy 4" by signing on to appear in director Jon Favreau's upcoming sci-fi/comedy/adventure "Cowboys & Aliens", based on the comic series of the same name. Favreau, of course, is the director of "Zathura" and the wildly popular "Iron Man" (and the soon-to-be hugely popular "Iron Man 2"), and this new flick sounds like it combines all the things the director loves into one project:

The graphic novel mixes Western and science fiction genres. Set in 1800s Arizona, a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders.

Having not read the "Cowboys & Aliens" comics, I can't really comment on their quality or storyline. Other sites-- where the writers are a little more familiar with the comic-- are reporting that the series doesn't have a role that would obviously go to Ford, though some are speculating that he might be in line to play the town's mayor or that he could be playing a part written especially for the movie. Right now, no one's saying. The news arrived this morning following several says of rumormongering on various film geek websites. Director Jon Favreau dropped the news himself on his Twitter feed, saying:

Please stop asking if Harrison Ford is in Cowboys & Aliens. Okay? He is. Please don’t tell anybody.”

Consider it done. "Cowboys & Aliens" is looking to start shooting by the end of the year, with a July 29, 2011 date already picked out for the flick to hit theaters. In all likelihood, this one's going to be in 3D, following the current mandate in Hollywood that anything involving even the smallest amount of special effects will be turned into a three-dimensional extravaganza. All snarkery aside, this project actually sounds like it'd be decent in 3D. What do you guys think?

Sound off in the comments section below if you've got something worth saying about "Cowboys VS. Aliens", Harrison Ford, or the art of nuking a fridge. After you've done that, feel free to hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get all the Comedy Examiner's articles delivered straight to your email, free of charge, the moment they're published. What more could ya want? How about some other recent Comedy Examiner articles:

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