Star Trek Writer Bob Orci Tackles Cowboys & Aliens

You know, when you say the title Cowboys & Aliens to the general public, they might kind of snicker.  The title puts it all out there.

Bob Orci:  You know, we tend to treat these things like a campaign.  And you don't want to be the frontrunner up front.  So having a title that people snicker at is actually not a terrible thing, because when they find out what it really is, it actually compels them to discuss it and to say, "It's not what you think."  As opposed to - you don't want to be Hillary Clinton a year out, you know. You want to be Obama a year out!

We've been through it with Transformers, where they thought it was - whatever you think of the movie - is it a cartoon, is it the Power Rangers?  And then you see a trailer for it and you realize it's got a different scale and a different theme to it.  And it's the same thing with this.  I think Iron Man went through a similar thing.  "Oh, it's a B-grade, superhero."  And then when you see it...we like coming from behind, and having the title change in your perception.

There have been films that have attempted to blend these two genres and not been that successful (Wild Wild West comes to mind). Was there ever a fear or did you look to those movies to learn something?

Bob Orci:  I mean, absolutely.  That's why we're playing it very straight.  That's why the twist is that there's aliens.  There's not another twist on top of that.  Being funny about it or making sort of ironic casting choices or something would have been what they call a hat on a hat.  And seeing what those movies did, without condemning them in any way, we knew we wanted to do something a little bit different and make sure that it really is - we bring you this - "We interrupt this movie to bring you this movie."  Literally, this movie could keep going as a Western, and it would be a compelling story and everyone would be happy.  Harrison, I think, sometimes would prefer that there were no aliens in the movie. 

When you're writing this, do you find yourself having to rein in and go, "We can't write this because it's too big?"

Bob Orci:  Not at first, not at first draft.  But then once you get into it and you start to make compromises, a little bit.  Normally, across the board, any limitations that you find are actually good for story.  Whenever you can do whatever you want, is when you really get in trouble.  Whenever you're, you know - and Spielberg teaches us this - when he says, "The only reason I had that great scene in Jaws at the pier is because a shark didn't work.  So all I could show was the pier.  So instead of using a shark, we showed the pier going all over the place."  And it's great.  If you have that mindset, you actually find that you improve the story whenever you come up against the walls.

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