Today on TV: A science fiction blockbuster in which Daniel Craig even had to lie to get the lead role – DashFUN News

The title already reveals what “Cowboy & Aliens” by “Mandalorian” mastermind Jon Favreau is about: It’s about aliens – and about cowboys. And cowboys are traditionally expected to be incredibly good riders. So advanced skills on horseback were a requirement to get a lead role.

The rather inexperienced Daniel Craig, who is more likely to be behind the wheel than in the saddle in his “James Bond” films, had to fib to get the part. Craig simply claimed he was a good horseman when that wasn’t true.

In interviews for “Cowboy & Aliens,” Craig said that in his previous films that asked for riding experience, it was always enough to just cheat – and then somehow stay in the saddle. Usually, there was hardly any money to shoot a lot of scenes with horses.

Daniel Craig really had to learn to ride

With “Cowboys & Aliens” it fell on his feet because in the sci-fi actioner really strong skills in the saddle were required. So once Craig got the part, he really had to push hard to learn to ride – and at least he can now. He rode every day for two weeks before the start of filming, and he also regularly got into the saddle during the filming itself.

If you want to watch the sci-fi adventure independently of the TV program, you can of course also put “Cowboys & Aliens” on the shelf on Blu-ray or DVD.

“Cowboys & Aliens”: Unfortunately only mediocre

Was it worth it for Daniel Craig that he wanted the part so badly? Let’s put it this way: he could have saved himself the white lie. The $163 million mix of science fiction and western grossed just $174 million at the box office—that’s just the cost of production, and that’s not even counting marketing!

And “Cowboys & Aliens” doesn’t convince in terms of quality either, it’s mediocre at best. The story about a cattle baron (Ford) and a rapacious cowboy (Craig), who have to join forces in the Wild West to ward off an alien attack, is well-staged by Jon Favreau. But the actually promising genre mix does not really ignite and often remains strangely lacking in tension.