I like to see the guild awards, because the specificity allows for nominees that you won’t see on more general lists.  The Art Directors Guild is especially interesting because they separate the films into three categories: period, fantasy, and contemporary.  The 15 nominees highlight everything from Oscar favorites Hugo and The Artist, to crowd-pleasers Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Captain America, to poorly received films like Cowboys & Aliens and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  There’s a similar contrast in the TV nominees between the classy HBO programs you’d expect (Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, and Mildred Pierce) and the critical punching bags American Horror Story and The Playboy Club.  The full list of nominees is after the break.

The premise of Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is readily apparent from the title, and with a cast that includes leads Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, and genre figures like Clancy Brown, Walton Goggins and Keith Carradine it’s got the right stars for a modern western. And yet the film struggled at the box office and barely crossed the hundred million dollar mark. In the age of the super-expensive blockbuster, this was a misfire. Of course marketing can always be blamed, but after watching the film it easy to see why it struggled to make an impression. As a genre mash-up, it’s not enough of one or the other to be satisfying. Our review of Cowboys & Aliens on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Like any studio, Universal has had a tough time with movies they expected to be hits.  The Fast and Furious series is one of their killer franchises and they landed a sleeper hit with Bridesmaids, but the studio had to suck up bombs like Land of the Lost, The Wolfman, Robin Hood, Cowboys & Aliens, and even the geek-beloved Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  Ron Meyer, Universal’s President and COO for the past sixteen years, spoke about the studio’s flops at the Savannah Film Festival.  He also talked about 3D, avoiding prestige pictures, and their controversial move to try and rush Tower Heist onto VOD.

Hit the jump for When Studio Execs Speak Honestly.

As you may have noticed, we’ve been a bit flooded with content for the past week thanks in no small part to Comic-Con 2011. We’ve been posting our full-scale coverage from the convention (I’m still trying to catch up on sleep), which has included a large number of interviews. We know some of you might have missed a few of these interviews, so we’ve compiled a sort of “catch up” list of 10 that we thought you might enjoy.

Not all of the interviews are Comic-Con related, but we’ve got conversations with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, Damon Lindelof, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Marc Webb, Steve Carell, Patrick Stewart, Don Cheadle, Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays, Nicolas Winding Refn, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Don Cheadle and Kate Beckinsale. Hit the jump for some quick recaps and links to the full interviews.

With Cowboys & Aliens hitting theaters tomorrow, yesterday afternoon I sat down with screenwriters/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for an extended interview.  During our wide ranging conversation, we discussed Comic-Con, Cowboys & Aliens, balancing the western genre with Sci-Fi, Harrison Ford, Kurtzman’s directorial debut Welcome to People (which stars Chris Pine, Olivia Wilde and Elizabeth Banks), Hawaii Five-0, Fringe, the potential for TV show crossovers, the Star Trek sequel, 3D, Ender’s Game, the Star Trek video game (which takes place after the first movie), and so much more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is the equivalent of putting chocolate and peanut butter together and getting a rice cake.  Westerns can be great, sci-fi can be wonderful, and yet the attempt to bring them together has resulted in a bland, flavorless movie.  The script is a mess, all of the storylines are uninteresting, the action is flat, there’s not much room for lead actors Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford to do much beyond growl and grimace, and the usually inspired cinematography of Matthew Libatique is a grand disappointment.  Despite all of these problems, the movie does nothing outright offensive other than waste two hours of your time.

At last year’s Comic-Con, Entertainment Weekly’s “The Visionaries” panel featured Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams waxing poetic on everything nerd. This year, Guillermo del Toro and Jon Favreau were present to have an earnest conversation between two directors about filmmaking. The topics of conversation ranged from Magic Kindom and Haunted Mansion, to Cowboys & Aliens and At the Mountains of Madness. Favreau even revealed that he has a cameo as a Thark in Andrew Stanton’s John Carter, a project which he previously developed. Hit the jump for my recap of The Visionaries panel.

With director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens on the verge of hitting theaters, Universal has released the EPK (electronic press kit) which includes 4 movie clips, 2 featurettes (A Look Inside and Western Meets SciFi) and over seven minutes of behind the scenes footage from when they were making the movie (B-Roll).  If you’re trying to stay spoiler free, I’d advise you to avoid watching these videos.  However, if you want to see a lot of cool looking footage from a movie I can’t wait to see, hit the jump.

Universal has released the first two clips and a new featurette for director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, and Paul Dano, the film is set in 1873 Arizona Territory and tells the story of a man with no recollection of his past (Craig) as he helps the town he wandered into stave off an alien invasion. Within the first clips of the film, we get a look at Craig and Ford as they “discuss” their seemingly inevitable partnership. All signs seem to indicate that everyone on board is playing the tough western tone straight even amidst the sci-fi elements of the film. Combine this with the line “I don’t know what it is, but it’s bleeding,” and I think Favreau and company have a winner on their hands.

Hit the jump to check out the clips and featurette which showcases commentary from producer Ron Howard, Favreau, Craig, Ford, and Wilde amongst others. Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters on July 29th.

Director Jon Favreau continues his unconventional (and totally great) promotional campaign for Cowboys & Aliens with another interview with one of the people involved in the film. Favreau has been doing candid, intimate interviews for the past couple of weeks instead of the typical “behind-the-scenes” videos a studio puts out in anticipation of a film’s release. He began with Harrison Ford, and last week posted his interview with Steven Speilberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. If you missed either of those conversations, I highly suggest you check them out.

This week Favreau sits down with the lovely Olivia Wilde. They talk about horse-riding accidents on set, Tron: Legacy, her work in Haiti, The Change-Up, and Welcome to People. Cowboys & Aliens opens July 29th.

Director Jon Favreau is taking a slightly different approach to the marketing materials for Cowboys & Aliens. Eschewing the traditional EPK (electronic press kit) format of bland, quick cut behind-the-scenes interviews, the director sat down with the extremely talented members of the Cowboys & Aliens cast and crew for some extended, candid and wide-ranging interviews.

We brought you his interview with Harrison Ford last week, and this week Favreau sits down with C&A producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and executive producer Steven Spielberg. The conversations range from Spielberg’s Jaws, to Howard’s Far and Away, and sneaking onto studio lots as young men. Spielberg also tells a fantastic John Ford story. Hit the jump to check out the second installment of interviews. Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters July 29^th.

Jon Favreau is trying to reinvent the publicity machine.  He’s seen how it’s been done in the past and is clearly trying to come up with new ways to market his movies to fans.  With Cowboys & Aliens, it looks like he’s getting some leeway to control that publicity. At WonderCon, he pledged that only the folks in the room would get a sneak peek at the aliens and further images of the creatures wouldn’t be spoiled in the trailers, TV spots, and other press materials.  He’s also planning to hold the film’s world premiere at this year’s Comic-Con.

Now he’s foregoing the standard EPK (electronic press kit) with its boring, talking-head interviews by taking on the role of the interviewer and speaking candidly with his cast.  The result is far more entertaining as you can see from his first interview series with Harrison Ford.  The conversations are reminiscent of Favreau’s short-lived Showtime series Dinner for Five and nowadays if you can see video of Ford not acting grumpy, that video is worth your time.  Hit the jump to check out the first series of interviews.  Cowboys & Aliens opens July 29th.

A new international poster for director Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens has landed online and it suggests that UFOs run super quietly. The UK one sheet features stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde staring off at an unspecified diversion while an alien craft hovers overhead. In addition to Craig, Ford, and Wilde, Cowboys & Aliens also stars Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, and Walton Goggins. Check out the new poster after the jump. Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters on July 29th.

A new featurette for the upcoming sci-fi/western Cowboys & Aliens has been released. The video includes a number of the creatives involved with the film, including producers Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, and director Jon Favreau. If you’re trying to avoid spoilers, there’s no need to worry. The featurette doesn’t include any footage beyond what’s been shown in the trailers, and the filmmakers basically just talk about the general idea behind the film. A sci-fi property that’s not a sequel and blends genres with a Western is no easy sell, but the marketing campaign has been pretty spot-on so far.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette. Cowboys & Aliens stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, and Sam Rockwell.  The film opens (in 2D!) on July 29th.

Two new posters tonight for Warrior and Cowboys & Aliens, tailored to men as much as movie posters can be “for men.”   Four of cinema’s most masculine specimens, staring straight ahead next to or above no-nonsense titles — no smiles allowed, obviously.

Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford look cooler than I ever will as the poster boys for Cowboys & Aliens.  Other men in the Jon Favreau-directed film include Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Keith Carradine, and Walton Goggins.  There’s a woman billed in the top five (Olivia Wilde), but it’s okay because she’s superhot.  Cowboys & Aliens opens on July 29.

Meanwhile, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are busy looking ripped on the poster for Warrior.  Jennifer Morrison, Nick Nolte, and Noah Emmerich also star in the mixed martial arts drama.  Warrior opens on September 9.  Hit the jump for the posters and official synopses.