Escape Artists and comic book powerhouse Platinum Studios are teaming up for some sci-fi escapism with the high-concept tentpole "Cowboys and Aliens" for Columbia Pictures.

"Sahara" writers Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Donnelly have come on board to adapt the project, which is set within Platinum's comic book "macroverse" of more than 1,000 characters.

Escape Artists' Jason Blumenthal, Todd Black, Steve Tisch and David Alper will produce in association with Platinum's Scott Rosenberg, Ervin Rustemagic and Gregor Noveck. Amy Baer will oversee for the studio.

Created by Platinum Studios founder and chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, "Cowboys and Aliens" is set in the Old West, where cowboys and Indians must put aside their differences to battle an alien invasion.

"This type of material is why the word 'tentpole' was invented," said Blumenthal, who tracked the project for the three years it was at DreamWorks before bringing it into Sony-based Escape Artists about 18 months ago. "Once it was available, I jumped at it. Then Sony recently re-optioned it for us."

Oppenheimer and Donnelly also penned "Dead of Night," a second project set in the Platinum macroverse of characters, produced with Dimension Films. Another project, "Unique," also set in the Platinum macroverse, recently was set up at Touchstone Pictures, with David Goyer directing, Michael Cooney writing and Rosenberg and David Heyman producing.

Thompson Evans was involved in a previous draft of the project, with Chris Hauty also doing a rewrite in 2002. Oppenheimer and Donnelly are repped by Joe Gatta at the Gersh Agency.