Following on from the success of the Iron Man film, Robert Downey Jr. is moving on to more ‘fleshy’ roles as he has landed himself in the wild west. IGN Filmforce reports that the actor is in talks to play a gunslinger in the forthcoming Dreamworks picture Cowboys & Aliens.

The film is based off Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley’s graphic novel, which sees sci-fi and the wild west mix in a story about a spaceship landing during an old west battle between the Apache and Western settlers.

The moist recent draft of the script has been penned by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, the men behind Children of Men, with Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg producing alongside Brian Grazer, Alex Kurtsman, Roberto Orci and Scott Michael Rosenberg.

Expect to see Cowboys & Aliens hit silver screens nationwide during Summer 2010.