Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to star in Cowboys & Aliens, says The Hollywood Reporter. The film is a mix of science-fiction and Western and could serve as a 2010 tentpole release from DreamWorks and Universal.
Cowboys & Aliens is based on a graphic novel by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley from an original idea by Platinum Studios chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.
The story focuses on an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers–including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson–that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the Arizona prairie. Downey Jr. would play Jackson.
THR says 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.
Downey Jr. is being actively courted following the recent success of Iron Man. Other projects he is rumored to have an interest in include a Sherlock Holmes update directed by Guy Ritchie and Brett Ratner’s Hugh Hefner biopic.
Downey Jr. will next be seen in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, followed by the drama The Soloist.
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