SAN DIEGO — With Cowboys & Aliens, director Jon Favreau puts movie genres in a blender for a modern take on the Western. Rather than cowboys and Indians, the inhabitants of a small dusty town must battle aliens from outer space.

“You deal with the classic archetypes, you deal with the classic storylines,” says Favreau in the video interview above. “And you twist it, and you use the movie stars of your era to retell the stories that have been told decade after decade.”

It may sound like a strange mix, but if anyone can pull it off it’s Favreau. His reinvention of Iron Man took a previously minor Marvel Comics character and reinvented Tony Stark as an endearing, Charles Bukowski-like superhero. The fact that Cowboys & Aliens stars Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig adds gravity to what could be a campy story.

Wired.com spoke to Favreau in the Wired Cafe about the challenges of making aliens look realistic in daylight, the reinvention of the Western genre for modern times and the film’s influences. Cowboys & Aliens makes its world premiere Saturday night in San Diego during Comic-Con International.

Wired.com video crew: Annaliza Savage, producer; Fernando Cardoso, Michael Lennon and Simon Lutrin, editors; Greg Stidham, camera.