Harrison Ford is continuing with his western movie phase as he finishes Cowboys and Aliens and moves on to Black Hats.  Black Hats is more of a straightforward western without the sci-fi pieces splashed in like Cowboys and Aliens.

Instead of Aliens, the antagonists will be Al Capone’s Chicago posse during Prohibition.  Harrison Ford will play the famous cowboy Wyatt Earp, the gambling, boxing refereeing, film consultant, sheriff, and famous gunslinger of the old west.

The script is based off the novel Black Hats: A Novel of Wyatt Earp and Al Capone written by Max Allan Collins under the pen name Patrick Culhane.  Collins is mostly known for his mystery stories as well as his graphic novel Road To Perdition that was adapted for the screen in 2002 with Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Jude Law.

The plot of movie follows an aging Wyatt Earp, a former old west sheriff, and private eye in Los Angeles.  His old buddy Doc Holliday has died but revealed that he has a secret son in Chicago.

The son falls into trouble with Al Capone’s gang and Wyatt decides to save the young man.  Recruiting his old deputy and famous sports writer Bat Masterson, the two set out to save Holliday’s son.

Kurt Johnstad who helped write the script for 300 and has written the script for the upcoming movie The Last Photograph, began to write the script.  However, even with it in its first draft and Harrison Ford playing Wyatt Earp there is still no director to take the reigns of the project.  On a side note, Basil Iwanyk and Jason Netter are both producing the movie.

The history of Wyatt Earp is stretched just a bit in the movie by combining fact with fiction.  Wyatt considered Doc Holliday to be his best friend and Bat Masterson was his deputy in real life.  Wyatt Earp was at first a gambler but had moseyed his way into a life of law by becoming a Marshall or a Deputy in various western towns like Tombstone, Arizona, and Wichita, Kansas.

Earp became famous because of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral where he engaged in a gunfight that lead to three outlaw cowboy’s deaths.  He was known to be the deadliest gunman of his day.  Of course, Wyatt never saved his best friend’s son from the clutches of deadly mobsters.

Harrison Ford playing Wyatt Earp seems like a match made in heaven.  With Ford’s famous scowl, his no-nonsense “badass” attitude, and his charisma it would not be surprising if Ford was Earp incarnate.

Another exciting piece of the story is that it will take place during Al Capone’s golden years.  Empire Magazine said that the movie is “a battle of Tommy guns versus six-shooters” which is an action fans dream.

With the script still being written, the movie directorless, and the only big name associated with the cast is Harrison Ford, the tone and style of the movie could go in a hundred different directions.  Even still, Harrison Ford returning to the six-shooter?  It’s a no brainer.

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February’s Super Bowl featured the first sneak-peak into director Jon Favreau’s upcoming fantasy embarkment Cowboys and Aliens – an eclectic mix of conventional western and uhm… extra terrestrials?

Admittedly, when I first read that Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig were strapping on their hats and boots to fight an alien invasion on horseback – even I shook my head in disbelief. Had Hollywood really hit rock-bottom of ideas this time? Were there no remakes left to soak their creative dry-spell?

Of course, that was before I learned that ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ was in fact a successful graphic novel from Platinum Studios, controllers of the largest independent license library of comic book characters, created by the Studio’s founder Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and published in 2006. The unconventional genre-clash gained so much attention that Universal Studios and DreamWorks soon got their hands on it and next month, movie audiences will get to explore the result. It is considered the dark horse this season – “the true wild card among the summer 2011 popcorn films – a gritty cowboy tale that just happens to be interrupted by an alien invasion flick,” writes herocomplex.latimes.com.

Blockbuster filmmaker Jon Favreau has purposely put together, along with producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and executive producer Steven Spielberg (there he is again!), this hybrid cowboy tale in such way to avoid the obvious entrapment of comedy or camp – all considering the ‘on-the-nose’ title. According to herocomplex.latimes.com, much effort was put into the screenplay so to make the story a western first, a sci-fi second. Speaking about the universe of the movie; “The audience knows what [the aliens] are after years of Spielberg movies but the guys on the horses in the movie have no words for what they’re seeing,” explains Roberto Orci, one of the writers and producers.

The cross-franchise action has Daniel Craig starring as the stranger who stumbles into the town of Absolution with no memory of his past but with a mysterious shackle on his wrist.  Little does he know that the city is held in an iron fist by Harrison Ford’s Colonel Dolarhyde who’s cruel reign leaves no room for strangers. However, the tale of dust and true grit is abruptly interrupted when scarcely comprehensible objects attack the desolate city from the sky and abduct the stunned and helpless. Soon the hard-eyed stranger is the small town’s only hope for salvation.

Also starring is Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano and the charismatic Sam Rockwell. But it’s Ford’s turn as Absolution’s menacing Colonel which is drawing most attention in the cast, and according to an interview with the icon himself: “Ford seemed as surprised as anyone by the fact that he hadn’t starred in a cowboy movie since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.”

“For years, I’ve thought the western – as a genre – needed this guy,” said Ron Howard. “Harrison has this persona that fits the western. In a way he was a cowboy in ‘[American] Grafitti’ and ‘Star Wars’ and when you see him on screen in this setting it just feels right.”

With expectations heightening each week for phenomenal visual effects and competent acting, the ultimate clash of universes is bound to keep cine-fanatics on their toes. And think about it – is the idea that far-fetched after all? Plenty of time to make up your mind before July 29.

Image provided by cowboysandaliensmovie.com

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