<P> Orci also said, "The comic has the themes of enemies uniting to fight a common enemy and has the setting of that specific time period, so we kept the inspiration from all of that . In terms of the specifics of the story and who these characters are, we wanted the audience to be surprised and to not feel like they've already seen everything if they were fans of the comic . So, while the themes and the setting and many of the elements are a great inspiration, the story is completely adapted and translated for live action ." The aliens were loosely based on the Anunnaki gods of Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation of the Babylonian religion, who have a distinct interest in gold . </P> <P> Cowboys & Aliens was not originally planned to be shown in 3 - D. When approached with the idea by DreamWorks, Favreau was not interested, stating that Westerns should be shot only on film (as opposed to being shot digitally, which is required for modern 3D technology), and didn't want it to be converted after filming . "That would be like filming in black and white and colorizing it," he reasoned . Director of photography Matthew Libatique shot Cowboys & Aliens in the anamorphic format on 35 mm film to further a "classic movie feel". </P> <P> On a budget of $163 million, principal photography for Cowboys & Aliens began at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico on June 30, 2010 . One of the filming locations was Plaza Blanca, "The White Place", where Western films like The Missing, 3: 10 to Yuma, City Slickers, Young Guns, and The Legend of the Lone Ranger had been filmed . Sound stage work took place in Los Angeles, with additional location shooting at Randsburg, California . Filming finished on September 30 . </P> <P> A scene in which Craig's character rides a horse alongside a ravine and jumps down it onto a spacecraft emulated many scenes in American Western films where cowboys rode along a moving train and jumped on it . Favreau said the scene referenced the one in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones chases a truck and noted that a similar scene existed in the 1939 film Stagecoach, saying "We're constantly referencing back to our roots ." Cowboys & Aliens also make multiple references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, such as the introduction to the aliens through the bright lights on their aircraft and an upturned paddle steamer in the middle of the desert . The film also "tease (s)" monster movies, and the scenes in the paddle steamer were a deliberate homage to Alien . </P>

Where was the movie cowboys and aliens filmed