Jon Favreau Talks About The Alien's Look In Cowboys & Aliens

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It's a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

"We definitely want you to go to the scarier version of the alien. You only saw a little bit of him and he's in shadow, but they're big, they're scary, they're dangerous -- even without their tech -- and we definitely want to show the audience that it's not sort of that willowy smooth skin, pale almond-eyed benevolent alien that might occasionally probe you, but otherwise isn't that dangerous," explained Favreau, "We want it be more like the Alien/Predator '80s old school [alien]... the one that will rip your throat out."

"What's fun about a Western is you can build to a crescendo and we want to change the nature, much like they did in the pre-CG Alien film days where at first it's mysterious, it's a bit of a thriller, there's a lot of tension, almost horror, and then as you slowly get introduced to the creature you see them in different aspects, then finally for the finale you get to see all hell break loose and that's part of the fun," said Favreau.