Jon Favreau came out over a blare of loud rock music, thanked the Iron Man franchise for bringing him here again, and announced that since 3D requires shooting on digital video, and Cowboys & Aliens is technically a western, he wanted to shoot on film, so… the film will not be in 3D.

Favreau introduced the panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, which included Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, and screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Last, but not least, he introduced Harrison Ford, who made his Comic-Con debut appearance. Understandably the crowd went absolutely nuts and gave him a long and rousing ovation. He came out in handcuffs, led by two security guards, a callback to a bit of unpleasantness earlier in Hall H where one attendee allegedly stabbed another over a seating arrangement.

There was an EXTREMELY brief Q&A session in which Ford was asked if when he was growing up, he ever envisioned a Comic-Con reception like this. No, he said, he just wanted to be a working actor. Craig was asked about the future of the Bond franchise, to which he replied that he has no information about it, but he wants it to get going as soon as possible.

Favreau announced that he’d only been shooting Cowboys & Aliens for 4 weeks, but insisted to Dreamworks that they get something amazing prepared for Comic-Con. Then he rolled the footage, which, from a technical standpoint, looked beautiful. Check out the footage description here below.

Footage Description

Western setting. Daniel Craig’s character Zeke Johnson riding into a town on a horse, bloodied and bruised, his dog riding alongside him. He looks through a dirty windowpane into a building. He tells dog to stay there on the porch as he goes in. He walks inside, uses a wash basin and rag with soap to clean his face and rinse it; he hears something behind him. He unbuttons his vest, we see blood on his white shirt; he grabs a bottle, sniffs it and drinks it, puts the cork back. He looks back down at the blood and tears open his shirt; we see the wound, he grabs a rag to wash it, and he winces with pain. Behind him someone cocks a rifle to his head (Clancy Brown as Meacham).

“Easy now,” Zeke says to him.

Meacham grabs Zeke’s gun and says “Turn around nice and slow.” He does. “Only too kinds of men get shot, criminals and victims. Well… which one are you?” Meacham asks.

“I don’t know,” Zeke answers.

NEXT SCENE:

It’s nighttime, Zeke is sleeping on a cot in prison. Another inmate in the adjacent cell is spitting on him. It’s Paul Dano (character name unknown). He says, “My father’s coming for me, he learned how to kill someone in the war, I’m going to watch you suffer for a long, long, long time.” Zeke then reaches through the bars, grabs him, and smashes him into the bars, knocking him out.

NEXT SCENE:

The sheriff comes into prison, goes over to Zeke’s cell and tells him, “I’m turning you over to the Federal Marshalls.”

Zeke says, “You gonna tell me what I’m charged for?”

“Murder,” the sheriff answers.

They handcuff him in the cell and take him out into the street, all of them pointing rifles at him.

Zeke gets put onto a paddy wagon with Dano’s character.

“Oh, shit. Sheriff, this is going too far,” Dano says as they handcuff him to Zeke in the wagon. “You two lovers have a nice ride,” says the Sheriff, closing the wagon door.

We see men on horses with torches coming in the distance, the townspeople seem worried. It’s a posse led by Harrison Ford, who’s Paul Dano’s character’s father Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde.

“Pa,” Dano calls, “I knew you’d come for me, Pa.”

Dolarhyde replies: “Shut up, I’ll deal with you later.”

Dolarhyde says Zeke stole from him. He wants him or he’s gonna take him.

“What about me, Pa?” Dano says.

“I said shut boy!” Dolarhyde replies.

Suddenly, a hush falls over the townspeople as they look out at a row of eerie orange lights coming up in the distance (we see Sam Rockwell briefly; also Nacho Libre‘s Ana de la Reguera and Tron Legacy‘s Olivia Wilde).

The lights disappear, then reappear in a blaze of scifi laser spotlights and explosions; Dolarhyde tries to shoot at the lights, which we see are now is a spaceship. The spaceship continue to blow up the town. A laser blast knocks the paddy wagon over.

Zeke escapes the wagon; he’s got something glowing and mechanical on his arm; he points it at a spaceship and fires; the ship flies over head and crash lands.

It’s quiet now. we see the crashed ship, everyone starts to come out of hiding to look at it; they walk over to it very slowly.

The mechanism on Zeke’s arm closes up.

Cut to black.

Panel Photos

Andrew Sorcini is a film editor and social networking enthusiast who produces and hosts the technology podcast The Drill Down.