Putting clear water between its release date and that of the other big hitters of the summer may prove to be Cowboys and Aliens’ master stroke.
As Thor, Fast & Furious 5, X-Men, Green Lantern, Transformers and even Harry Potter eventually fade, C&A will have the cinemas to itself. Of course, this could utterly backfire, with audiences gorged and bloated on sci-fi and action spectacle and deciding to stay at home to watch repeats of Lark Rise to Candleford.
What is certain for the time being is that Jon Favreau and the marketing team at Universal/Dreamworks are doing a sterling job of teasing out the publicity material and not giving us too much too soon. It’s refreshing, though I will no doubt eat my words when, to my dismay, in a few days time we get one of those “see the first five minutes of C&A!” clips.
For the moment, it is all proceeding with admirable subtlety, the trailers showing is alien ships but (seemingly) no big spoilers or alien reveals. The same can be said for the clip that arrived today from Yahoo! The nature and silhouette for the aliens is hinted at, but little is really given away and Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford get to growl at each other, with Bond and Indiana Jones exchanging blows for the first time outside of the Celebrity Deathmatches of my teenage imagination.
Or to put it another way, Han Solo really does shoot first.
