From a guy in a high-tech suit to a wacky white actor playing a black guy in a movie, to … cowboys and aliens? Sure, why the hell not. Trade guys The Hollywood Reporter says that Robert Downey Jr. is currently in negotiations to star in Dreamworks’ wacky sci-fi/Western, “Cowboys and Aliens”, described as “a pulpy mix of the sci-fi and Western genres that could serve as a potential 2010 tentpole.” Yeah, I have no idea what that last part means, either.

THR has more, because you want more, don’t you?

“Cowboys & Aliens” derives from a graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley from an original idea by Rosenberg. The story centers on an Old West battle between the Apache and Western settlers, including a former Union Army gunslinger named Zeke Jackson (Downey), that is interrupted by a spaceship crashing into the prairie near Silver City, Ariz.

The story draws a parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the “savage” Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens’ assault on Earthlings, who must join together to survive the invaders’ attack.

I’m guessing this thing is going to be tongue-in-cheek, especially if the list of writers that have taken a stab at it is any indication: they’ve gone from David Hayter (”X-Men 2″) and Jeffrey Boam (”Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”) to Steve Oedekerk (”Kung Pow”). You don’t bring in Oedekerk to do a serious movie about the “parallel between the American imperialist drive to conquer the “savage” Indians with its advanced technology and the aliens’ assault on Earthlings”. Oedekerk writes movies that involves fart jokes and talking through one’s buttocks. Then again, it’s been proven that if there’s one thing aliens have no defense against, it’s our ability to talk out of our ass.

The latest scribes to take a whack at “Cowboys & Aliens” are Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who also had a piece of “Iron Man” and “Children of Men”. Basically, any movie with the word “Man”, or a variation, in it, belongs to Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus. Well not really, but it would be cool if that was true, am I right?