Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci On Harrison Ford's Role In Cowboys And Aliens!

"No it didn’t meet expectations because you expect the worst. So when you actually meet the man and he’s cooler than Han Solo and Indiana Jones put together, it’s kind of shocking. It’s like stepping into one of your dreams, really. I dreamed I met Harrison Ford and I made a movie with him. That’s how it feels. And you know, that’s really Harrison you see riding full tilt on that horse. Just to see him live in genuine action is really priceless."

"He really understood the tone. He really understood how to play his character and the emotional arc — when to be gruff and when to let the light in. He was amazing. We spent a month and a half with him and Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde just sitting in a room and talking over scenes again and again and again. That was right before we started shooting. That was like a dream experience on every possible level. Everyone understood the movie we needed to make. Harrison and Daniel were both protective of their characters in the right way but extremely generous about saying, “What does the movie need?” And that allowed us to find the best version of the movie. I hope."

"That was a topic of much discussion early on. Spielberg had quite a lot to say about it. We were all very cautious about it because, obviously, we were putting Harrison Ford in a hat, which is only one of the most iconic images of the past 30 years. We needed to make sure that — no pun intended — we tipped a hat to iconography of Harrison Ford and also presented the audience with a very different version. We spent a lot of time thinking about that hat. You would be surprised."