"I agreed to be part of a movie called Cowboys & Aliens," said Grazer, who was a producer on the project. "I don't like cowboys — or aliens! But there were a lot of superstars involved with it — [producer] Ron Howard; [executive producer] Steven Spielberg; the director of Iron Man, Jon Favreau."

Grazer recalled a meeting early on in the film's development when the team was discussing the title. "I said, 'We aren't really calling it [Cowboys & Aliens], are we?' [The others said,] 'Yeah, of course we are!' I was going, 'I don't get this at all.' "

The producer admitted that he occasionally allows himself to be involved with subpar material. "We know what excellence is," Grazer explained. "We know what better food is versus not good food. But there's a rationalizing process — 'That's good enough.' Anytime the lightbulb goes, 'That's good enough,' it's shitty!"

The film, which starred Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde, grossed $174.8 million worldwide on a $163 million budget. It currently has a 44 percent approval rating on review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Email: Ryan.Gajewski@THR.com

Twitter: @_RyanGajewski