When Harrison Ford is the guest of honor, you can expect a lot of big names to follow in his presence. At The Empire Gives Back charity screening of The Empire Strikes Back (read our recap of the event here), Ford spoke about his Star Wars experiences.  Jon Favreau, who will be directing Ford in the sci-fi western Cowboys and Aliens, came by just to see the show, but he was also willing to chat for a few minutes about that film after the theater cleared out.

During the Q&A, Ford complimented Favreau as one of the new great directors, so Favreau basked in the glory of Han Solo/Indiana Jones/Rick Deckard singing his praises.  For those who don't know, the film—which co-stars Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, and Sam Rockwell—is about humans fighting off aliens in the Old West.  Favreau had some big news about the picture he released on Twitter two days ago, and what we can expect from Ford in the film.

Will it be tough to get people to see Daniel Craig as a cowboy and not as James Bond?

Favreau: I know, if you look at him, we just did our camera tests. That’s him.

On the Twitter pic?

Favreau: That’s him. We couldn’t really show too much because he didn’t want to reveal any images on Twitter but I wanted to kind of get a sense of the feel of it. He’s also somebody who plays an iconic figure that has a long tradition. So to have him playing a cowboy, I feel very good now having shot him and worked with him and hearing his thoughts. And the whole cast is great. With each person we add, the enthusiasm grows, with Rockwell and [Paul] Dano, of course Harrison. So far it’s great. The only thing that’s scary is we’re going to be shooting soon.

How did it change when the character switched from Downey to Craig?

Favreau: Well, I wasn’t involved when Downey was involved. Once Downey had set up shooting a sequel of Sherlock 2, he was no longer involved with this one. So when I came on board this one, it was already an open project but they had a new script based on Kurtzman and Orci and Lindelof.

What can you add about the kind of icon Harrison Ford will be playing in your film?

Favreau: He’s like our John Wayne. He’s our generation’s John Wayne. How do you separate him from the roles that he’s played? He’s defined the whole genre so you have to take that into consideration.