Harrison Ford to play a gunslinger in Cowboys vs. Aliens!

UPDATE – Jon Favreau just confirmed the news on Twitter saying, “Please stop asking if Harrison Ford is in Cowboys & Aliens. Okay? He is. Please don’t tell anybody.” Remember SHHH, it’s just between us.

Pretending KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL never happened (and trust me, I pretend that a lot), Harrison Ford hasn’t done much in the way of big summer action blockbusters lately. You’d have to go all the way back to 1997’s AIR FORCE ONE for his last action-type movie. What’s weird is that he’s not even in a dramatic Oscar-bait kinda mode either. He’s just making middling crap like FIREWALL, CROSSING OVER and HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE. But could Ford be coming back to the genre that made him a superstar?

Latino Review has been hearing rumors that Ford has signed on to co-star in COWBOYS VS. ALIENS, the sci-fi / action flick that Jon Favreau is directing for Universal. That seems to match up with a tweet from Favreau last night that said, “Some very cool Cowboys & Aliens casting news coming soon.” This would certainly qualify as “very cool” if we could get Ford to team up with Daniel Craig to play cowboys fighting against aliens.

If true, it’d be the best move Ford has made in years and years. And if you told me 15 years ago, the smartest move Harrison Ford would make in the future would be to star in a movie called COWBOYS VS. ALIENS, I’d have laughed my ass off. But that’s how badly the dude’s career has been managed. He should be coasting on the occasional high-profile prestige pic (think the Jack Nicholson model) but he’s gone for the cash grabs instead. Let’s hope this is the start of a new era…