WonderCon 2011: ‘Cowboys And Aliens’ Panel Recap

If Warner Bros.’ “Green Lantern” had the biggest hype at WonderCon in 2011, Jon Favreau’s “Cowboy & Aliens” stole the show. Although no actors showed for the panel, Favreau did make an appearance to present some new footage for the audience. According to Favreau, this is the last time the movie will have its chance to connect with the audience so he wanted to bring his best but also not give too much away. The end result was nine glorious minutes of footage and a sneak peak reveal of the alien which was a WonderCon only exclusive.

The footage begins very much the same as the bloody Daniel Craig clip that was shown at SDCC 2010. He rides into town and breaks into a house hoping to examine and clean his wounds. Before he can do so he is greeted with a rifle pointed to the back of his head. The gunman wants to know if he is a criminal or a gunshot victim, but Craig says he doesn’t know. He then asks for his name, but he doesn’t know that either.

The next cut is new, and we get to see Harrison Ford’s character interrogating a man with his arms and legs bound by rope tied to two horses facing the opposite direction. Ford wants to know who blew up and killed his cattle for fun. The man has no answer other than what he did see, which was a mysterious explosion caused by aliens. Ford doesn’t believe him, but orders one of his goons to free him from one end tied to a horse and then slaps the rear of the other horse which sends him being slowly dragging through the dessert.

The scene cuts to Craig being hauled away in a carriage, but alien ships invade. This is an extended cut of what fans saw at SDCC 2010 and we’re able to see the conclusion of what happens after Craig shoots down an alien ship. We also see Sam Rockwell’s character as a townsman whose wife was abducted. He repeatedly asks if his wife was in the downed alien craft. As they stare at the downed ship, a scream could be heard off camera and we see shadows of an alien attacking a man in his home. We see a flash from his gun, the shadow of the tentacle alien and then a blood splatter. They see large alien footprints on the ground and decide to track them. Ford tells Craig that he’s coming with them to help track whether he likes it or not because of the alien gun attached to his wrist, which seems to be the only thing that seems to hurt them.

The clips end and we see a lot of trailer quick cut montage. Most of them with them riding in the dessert as alien ships soar above them. We see more of Olivia Wilde’s character, destruction, ducking from alien ships and then one final amazing footage of the alien. It’s hard to describe but it’s dark and as much as I hate to say this, it kind of reminded me of Parallax from the “Green Lantern” movie. It’s large, has tentacles, a face with a mouth.