According to The Hollywood Reporter Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations with Dreamworks to star in another comic book-based film, Cowboys & Aliens.  Based on the Platinum Studios graphic novel by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley (from a concept by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg), Cowboys & Aliens is a science fiction/western mash-up that transfers H.G. Wells’ anti-imperialist War of the Worlds theme to the old West.  The deal to star as Cowboys & Aliens’ protagonist Zeke Jackson would be Downey’s first since he scored a major success with Iron Man and became on the hottest stars in the Hollywood firmament.

The Cowboys & Aliens project has been in development for nearly 10 years but the latest screenplay by Iron Man writers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus (see “Iron Man Scribes Tackle Cowboys & Aliens”) has Dreamworks and Universal planning on making Cowboys & Aliens a summer 2010 tentpole.  With the Iron Man sequel also set for summer 2010, it looks like it might be a very Robert Downey summer movie season as long as schedules can be arranged to allow for the production of both films.