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Kurtzman and Orci Chat About How to Write for Harrison Ford

by Alex Billington
July 28, 2010
Source: Movieline

By now I'm pretty sure Harrison Ford is a National Treasure - he's loved by everyone. His appearance at Comic-Con last weekend was beyond exciting and if anything it has made me more excited for Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens. While at the Con, Movieline met with and interviewed the film's (most recent) writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (who you know from Transformers and Star Trek). One question they asked was what it was like to write for Ford, because he's such a huge cinematic icon. As was evident when they'd talk about Leonard Nimoy, these guys have a genuine love for the classic actors like Nimoy and Ford.

"He has very strong instincts about what he likes and what he feels the character is about, and then you just talk and rehearse stuff," said Kurtzman. The two writers are adapting from Fred Van Lente's comics and an earlier draft of the screenplay. However, they like working in a lot of what Ford comes up with as well. "The thing that we love is that sometimes he'll improvise a moment that's so perfect it will end up in the script, and that's a great thing for us." They're only four weeks into shooting so far, so there's probably a lot going on with the script's development as Jon Favreau keeps filming. Everything we saw looked fantastic already.

Kurtzman continues: "You know, it's funny for us: to just sit in the room with the guy would have been the greatest privilege on earth. To actually go through the script and talk about scenes and get inside his head and figure out how everyone would work together, I mean, that was a joy for us." Orci says they didn't write it for him "because we'd never in a million years imagined that we could get him. When he actually showed interest and was there, we wanted to sit down with him and go through it. He's been making movies since we were born." What I would give to sit down with Harrison Ford for some advice as well, what a legend.

Kurtzman and Orci agree - "It’s a little bit like talking to your childhood, is what it is. That doesn't happen very often, so we couldn't have been more thrilled." I know these guys get a lot of hate for Transformers 2 and even Star Trek, but hearing them talk about their love for even meeting someone as iconic as Indiana Jones Harrison Ford shows that they're doing their best to make these movies great, especially when it stars Harrison Ford anyway. You can read the full Movieline interview with Kurtzman and Orci, watch our video blog reactions to early Cowboys & Aliens footage, or just stick around as we'll continue to keep you updated.

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