The Cowboys & Aliens UK Press Conference Live Blog

Getting ready for the Cowboys & Aliens UK Press Conference! Those expected to attend include Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and director Jon Favreau. Yes, we are a little excited!

Looks like we’re running a little late. Currently queuing to get in! More interesting updates should follow shortly!

Sorry to keep you all waiting. The PRs are just adding a few more chairs so they can accommodate all the journalists.

In a slightly weird turn of events, it would appear that Jason Schwartzman is working as a waiter at Claridges.

Or at least a man who looks a lot like him.

The panelists for today are:

Jon Favreau
Daniel Craig
Olivia Wilde
Harrison Ford
Roberto Orci

I won’t lie. Even I’m slightly awestruck by that lineup, and I’m usually the most glib man in the room.

Oh, and to make things easier (for me, not you – sorry) I’ll be using initials rather than names when I refer to them.

The room’s suddenly got a lot quieter. Hopefully we’ll be starting fairly soon.

On the giant poster behind where the panellists will sit is a tagline. It reads: ‘First contact. Last stand’. I’m trying to think of something terribly witty to write about that, but failing. Anyone want to come up with something? Don’t think there’ll be a prize, but you will earn my admiration and respect.

Oops. Just managed to not only not send a DM on Twitter, but to also post it to the live blog. D’oh!

Sorry to keep you all waiting by the way. The panellists are still hiding out back. We’re assured that this will start soon enough though.

It begins.

For those of you interested, they’re all wearing clothes.

Q: Which side of the movie appealed to you more: the cowboy side, or the alien side.

JF: Huge sci-fi fan, but I became aware of westerns throguh science fiction

DC: The western – ‘I always wanted to play a cowboy’

OW – The western – ‘I didn’t think there’d be a female role this strong in a western’

HF – ‘I don’t care which genre – I’m in it for the money.’

HF – ‘The character is the main draw for me’

Q: For Daniel – What did your 9 year old self think about sharing a screen with Harisson Ford?

DC – I went to the cinema on my own and saw Blade Runner, and thought to myself: ‘I want to work with that man’

Q: For Olivia – I hear you’re a trekkie, and have a burning desire to play Captain Kirk.

OW – I grew up watching Star Trek with my family. There have been great female characters in Trek over the years, but I would love to play more powerful women in science fiction. I love the genre and I’d love to do more of it.

RO – Do you mind if we paint you green?

Q: For Daniel – When a stranger arrives in a western town you immediately think of Clint Eastwood. Do you go with it, or try to fight it?

DC – You go with it. I watched loads of westrns for research, and stole everything I could.

By the way, unless the quotes are in inverted commas, they’re paraphrased. Badly.

JF – Our start gift from Steven Spielberg on this movie was an iPad filled with classic westerns. We’d watch a classic western every night.

Q: For Harrison – Your character starts out quite feared. Was it fun to play a villain?

HF – It was fun. I didn’t know where it was going in the script, but I was pleased with what I read, and it was fun to do.

Q: Favourite westerns?

JF – Seven Samurai

DC – Little Big Man. Fave Sci-fi: Alien

OW: Alien

HF – ‘I’m going to opt out of this’

Q: Harrison – I gather you weren’t too keen on the project when you first read it. What changed your mind?

HF – I didn’t know what I was reading, and was impatient a bit. Then when I spoke to Jon about what tone he was looking for in the script. I was reassured that JF wasn’t making a tongue in cheek poke at westerns.

JF – We thought long and hard about whether to keep the title ‘Cowboys and Aliens’. They had tried to make it as a comedy, but with a more ridiculous premise, you need to play it straight.

Favreau just said, ‘You have an expression around here ‘It does what it says on the tin” – Ronsil will be pleased/

JF – What I’m most proud of is that these are real characters with real stakes, and we’ve made them work together.

Q: We are seeing a number of movies that are based in comic books. Why do you think that is?

JF – It’s to do with marketing. Piracy has killed the DVD market, so the main market is in the theatre. Young people still do that, and they respond strongly to branded product

JF – The independent film market is being replaced by television with shows like Mad Men and The Wire.

JF – We hope that C&A might introduce young people to the western.

Q: For Harrison – As an actor how has working with special effects changed over the years

HF – For an actor special effects require only an active imagination, and I don’t find it that much more difficult to imagine an alien scampering in front of me than I do to ignore the grip pulling a carriage through a period drama.

We now have the ability to replace a man in an alien suit with a computer generated alien, and what I was pleased with with Jon’s creations was that they didn’t move like a man in a suit.

HF – There is a tendency with directors to replace practical effects with visual effects and loose human scale.

Q: For Olivia – Can you talk about your research into the small number of women like your character in the film.

OW – There’s a great museum in LA that had a great exhibition called ‘Women of the Old West’, and I found it interesting researching them.

In terms of characters from films, I didn’t really look at women in films, I looked at the same guys we all were. When I grew up watching westerns I wanted to be Steve McQueen, I didn’t want to be the girl.

OW – In the wide shots we were all spinning the guns, and Jon would say ‘Guys, not all of you can spin your guns.’

Robert Orci has just described the cast as ‘The finest acttors in their price range’

Obviously he didn’t stutter on the ‘t’, I just can’t type.

Q: Why do you think there are so many films this summer that feature aliens?

JF – There’s a lot of people who’s job it is to work out what films made money, and which films don’t, and Avatar made money, so it’s considered a safe genre.

It’s also because the worldwide market is driving the industry now, and alien movies tend to be less divisive than films with political themes.

HF on Air Force One 2 – Sardonically – What’s ludicrous about Air Force One? I think a sequel’s a good idea.

I’m trying to think if there’s a sequel pitched that I didn’t go for.

HF – When we did the sequels to Indiana Jones my ambition was that we would take the audiences knowledge of the character, and expand upon the character.

Final question – hope it’s a good one.

For Jon – In view of the film’s bloody opening, and the need to appeal to a younger audience, did you want to go further with the violence?

JF – We wanted to feel the bloodiness of the 80s style alien films, but I still wanted to make a film that I could show to my children.

JF – In the extended cut we’re going for a bit bloodier for the effects stuff, but we didn’t have to trim anything for the ratings.

That’s it boys and girls. Press conference over. Hope you enjoyed it.

We’ll be covering the premier this evening. If anyone said anything that you’d like some more detail about, let us know and we’ll ask them.