Once Upon a Time Matthew Libatique, ASC blazes a creative trail for the sci-fi Western Cowboys & Aliens. intheWest T of the desert. Broken glass and debris litter what used to be the ceiling of the boat’s grand interior, and rain pours through the splintered hull overhead. The night sky alights with lightning, sending shadows dancing across the boat’s interior. There’s an unsettling sense that the searchers are not alone, and their dog’s sudden barking seems to make the inkling a By Jon D. Witmer certainty. From out of the darkness, director Jon Favreau calls •|• “Cut!” The rain stops and work lights come up inside Stage 27 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Cinematographer he year is 1870. A band of frontiersmen has set out from Matthew Libatique, ASC joins Favreau at video village, the town of Absolution in search of family and friends where the two discuss whether to go again or move on to the who were abducted by an unknown enemy in an explonext setup in Cowboys & Aliens. As the title suggests, the sive show of force. The men’s search has brought them to project is a genre mash-up that pits cowboys in the American an inexplicable site: an upside-down riverboat in the middle West against an alien invasion force. August 2011 American Cinematographer 58