Sam Rockwell to be a cowboy; battle aliens

Sam Rockwell has joined the cast of Jon Favreau‘s upcoming comic book adaptation Cowboys and Aliens. He will star alongside Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and Harrison Ford.

Rockwell starred in Favreau’s Iron Man 2 as villainous arms manufacturer Justin Hammer. According to HeatVision Blog, in Cowboys and Aliens he will play a barkeeper named Doc who joins in on the cowboys battle against invading aliens.

The script for Cowboys and Aliens was first written by Iron Man screenwriters Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus. It has since been rewritten by the fellows behind Star Trek, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, as well as Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will produce.

Cowboys and Aliens will hit cinemas July 29th, 2011.

Discuss: Rockwell makes everything better, so this is only good news. Saying that, his elusive (but inevitable) Oscar nomination is now at least one film further away.