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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Movie/Television Rumor  /  Cowboys & Aliens
Posted by: MacDuff, November 17th, 2010, 4:33pm
Directed by John Favreau
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg
Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell

Looks awesome!!

Posted by: Murphy (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 5:35pm; Reply: 1
Stars the hot chick from House you mean!

It actually looks like it might be pretty decent, cheers for digging it out.
Posted by: stevie, November 17th, 2010, 5:53pm; Reply: 2
Pretty cool premise - why the hell didn't one of us think of it!!???

Not sure about the title - makes it sound like a kiddie film.
Posted by: bert, November 17th, 2010, 6:09pm; Reply: 3

Quoted from stevie
Pretty cool premise - why the hell didn't one of us think of it!!???


Well (*ahem*), back in 2005 a member of the boards started a little series called "Starbuck Starr"....a cowboys vs. aliens kind of thing...

I learned of this film a few years back, and it is one of the reasons my enthusiasm for that little endeavor kind of fizzled...
Posted by: Grandma Bear, November 17th, 2010, 6:14pm; Reply: 4
That's too bad Bert. Starbuck Starr was great!
Posted by: Murphy (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 6:25pm; Reply: 5
What are people's guesses here, how long is this Hyrbid genre thing going to last? Is this gonna be a fad for next year only and thus we have already missed the boat.

It seems there is going to a few of these films coming out next year, The Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter script sold for a huge amount. There is a Cowboys and Zombies one out their somewhere too, a few more I think.
Posted by: stevie, November 17th, 2010, 6:32pm; Reply: 6

Quoted from bert


Well (*ahem*), back in 2005 a member of the boards started a little series called "Starbuck Starr"....a cowboys vs. aliens kind of thing...

I learned of this film a few years back, and it is one of the reasons my enthusiasm for that little endeavor kind of fizzled...


Yeah, that was a cool series, bert.  Weren't we left with him hanging off a train or cliff?

BRING BACK THE STARR!!  BRING BACK THE STARR!!!!

My mind starting ticking over when I saw this trailer, about mixing the genres.

How about a pirate who lands in a WW2 sea battle?  Or a nuclear sub skipper who finds himself in the Caribbean?

Posted by: Baltis. (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 6:37pm; Reply: 7
"There is a Cowboys and Zombies one out their somewhere too, a few more I think"

There is only 1 truly great Zombie/Western... And I'm Currently gearing up for my final rewrite in April.  10 years in the making --
Posted by: stevie, November 17th, 2010, 6:42pm; Reply: 8

Quoted from Baltis.
"There is a Cowboys and Zombies one out their somewhere too, a few more I think"

There is only 1 truly great Zombie/Western... And I'm Currently gearing up for my final rewrite in April.  10 years in the making --


Was thinking of CC as I read murph's post, Balt!
Posted by: Murphy (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 6:42pm; Reply: 9

Quoted from Baltis.
"There is a Cowboys and Zombies one out their somewhere too, a few more I think"

There is only 1 truly great Zombie/Western... And I'm Currently gearing up for my final rewrite in April.  10 years in the making --


I believe you.

Though, you might want to get it out there now. There seems to be a market for it right now, come April you might find that the standard response you get is "Another Cowboy/Zombie movie, really???" You might struggle to get a single read, despite how good it might be.

Seriously Baltis, get it out there now.

I am pretty sure John August has a Cowboys & Zombies spec out there somewhere, he has talked about something like it anyway.
Posted by: Baltis. (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 6:53pm; Reply: 10

Quoted from stevie


Was thinking of CC as I read murph's post, Balt!


There was a time in 2007, after Stephine Rogers did a professional critique of it, where I could have sold it to a company.  And if not I was pretty damn close with it, that I do know.  I then got really absorbed in my band and bought a crazy amount of equipment and made a monetary contentment to those guys at the same time.  I would write 3 drafts of Coffin Canyon a year... That dropped off around the time she critiqued it to 1.

I've never stood behind anything I've done in my life, not even my bands music, like I do this script.  I've always retained the web domain for it and even filed a failed trademark for the name sake -- Which fell through because, unbeknownst to me, there was a Coffin Canyon monument park in California.  Go figure.  Can't trademark a landmark??  My script has nothing to do with it, though.  

I don't make a living being a writer... I make it in bars playing guitar and teaching it at home. (Thankfully my wife is as supportive as she is) All of this aside, when it's complete -- It will sell... I know it will.  It's just that good and it was that good back in 2007.  It's just gotten better with time.
Posted by: Scar Tissue Films, November 17th, 2010, 9:02pm; Reply: 11
I agree with Murphy, Balt.

The best isn't as important as being the first. Ultimately if inferior films get released first, they'll still have the marketing hook and audiences will still see what comes later as being derivative of the earlier film.

You'll be running round the internet screaming at everyone that you came up with the idea a decade ago, but no-one will care.

Forget April, do it now, or you may live to regret it.
Posted by: Baltis. (Guest), November 17th, 2010, 9:22pm; Reply: 12

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films
I agree with Murphy, Balt.

The best isn't as important as being the first. Ultimately if inferior films get released first, they'll still have the marketing hook and audiences will still see what comes later as being derivative of the earlier film.

You'll be running round the internet screaming at everyone that you came up with the idea a decade ago, but no-one will care.

Forget April, do it now, or you may live to regret it.


I always set out to write it over the span of 10 years... There have been zombies in western settings.  That doesn't concern me.  My movie is so good it doesn't matter... My movie is more than just another zombie movie.  It's special.  When you read it you know why.  It's the characters and the story and the believability of it all.  This is the one movie where you sit back and say, hey... It could actually happen.  The zombies are handled very differently than they are in other films.  They're not typical in the least... And they have a shelf life.  And not because they're rotting or dying, either.  There is something else there.  Another element.

It is a horror film at its core, but it's not the selling point of the script.  Kenny Mc'fadden, whom critiqued my 7th and 8th drafts, said it was such a good western I didn't even need the zombies.  He said the characters were that good and with a little work I could retool it into a "Damn fine Western".  And that's what really makes C.C. shine, it's the characters.  They are memorable.  All of them.  Too many times you read a story where there's one standout guy/gal.... The rest are just filler.  That isn't the case with this one.  When you read one page you want to know more.  You want to know what's going to happen next.  I've got 16 characters, main ones... And I'm not saying it was easy to write for them or that I did it all on my own.  That is why I've had it critiqued so many times... I'm only passionate about a handful of my 120+ screenplays I've written.  Coffin Canyon, Khold Stare and the Gruff trilogy are those scripts.  The rest might be good, might not be... I've not sat back down and read through them recently.  But I know those scripts are sold gold.

C.C. has been through many drafts and has taken many shapes to get to where it is.  I've never rushed it and I've always let the drafts come as they come.  I'm not in a spot right now where I really have the desire to pursue screenwriting, though.  It takes a lot of work to sell a script, believe me, and even more to keep tabs on contacts and who's accepting and who's not.  It's tough.  It can be, if you let it, a full time job in itself.  I'm more interested in writing and making music.  I just don't want to let this one script go without a good shot.  Without the attention I know it deserves.

The history of C.C. is a long one, but it won't be for nothing.  I truly believe that.
Posted by: mattman2900, January 11th, 2011, 2:45am; Reply: 13
I haven't got the opportunity to read Starbuck Starr, but as I'm writing a straight western, the first thing that comes to big with Bert's SS is a silly pun: A cowboy that walks into or works at Starbuck :)

At least that's what I picture in my head of ever spinning ideas. Which is fine as long my head of ever-spinning ideas does not morph into ideas of my ever-spinning head - though I'm sure someone would pay to see a real human or otherwise head turn 360 degrees.

I went to see True Grit and saw the trailer for Cowboys and Aliens and as Daniel Craig sat in the dessert alone and they got the tight shot of his contraption on his arm the person in the row in front of me yelled out "another James Bond film yay!" Then the trailer ended  and they were confused, but I think a little intrigued.

Yeah the title does seem a bit kid-film like, but at least you know or expect to get Cowboys and Aliens, not James Bond and Barney the purple dinosaur. :)
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