Variety brings the word that Josh “W.” Brolin may take the lead in the film adaptation of Jonah Hex. Script and screen duties are being helmed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank) and there is, of course, inevitable backing from Warner Brothers.
But Brolin won’t confirm and to be honest, why bother? If you’re unfamiliar with Hex, he’s DC Comics’ scarred Western anti-hero that focused more on pulp than on costume and tights. Sold into Apache slavery by his father, Hex eventually wins over the chief and becomes an honorary member of the tribe. Spurned by this, the chief’s son betrays Jonah and he drops off for a bit. Returning a few years later, he demands the son engage him in a “sacred tomahawk battle” (according to Prof. Wikipedia) and wound up pulling his knife. Hex is then damned to have a tomahawk placed on his face. Oh, wait, searing tomahawk. Now looking like Two-Face’s Great Grandfather, Hex would become a Confederate soldier, bounty hunter and over-all Western Bad-Ass.
Heck, he’d even go into the future like some bad Mad Max parody.
But at the end of the day, the Jonah Hex character is nothing special. Sure, he takes a mix of Sergio Leone’s ultra-violent Western and douses it in the harsh realism found in other fare like The Great Silence. Ultimately, though, Hex is a lame character and even if the Crank team is behind it, so what? Brolin’s star is rising quickly after last year’s combo of No Country for Old Men and American Gangster. He’s the type of actor who chews scenes the second his foot comes into frame. As Hex, Brolin would be overshadowed by the eventual CGI effects of tearing his face in half. And before you try to defend such a feat with Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight, don’t forget we only saw Harvey “Two-Face” for the last 25 minutes. Not to mention I’d doubt Warner giving a Nolan-sized budget to two guys best known for directing Jason Statham to fuck Amy Smart in public.
Brolin is finally overcoming his early 80s stigma and becoming a name again. Comic films have proven they’re a cash cow thanks to Iron Man and The Dark Knight; they turned even turned Christian Bale and Robert Downey Jr. into A-list talent. But they’re not right for Josh Brolin. Comic films require actors who can blend into their roles, such as Downey Jr. seeming like he had been playing Tony Stark in real life since the early 90s. Brolin’s screen presence is too strong to be masked or thrown into CGI armor. Bale can turn on his throaty “Batman the Chainsmoker” voice and Downey sounds like he’s constantly enjoying themselves–but even then, those times are limited.
Jonah Hex would require a set-up, likely involving a younger Jonah who then is left for dead and nursed back to health. Would the climax of the movie be the disfigurment of his face? Would it be the middle? Could you stand to watch 45 more minutes of Brolin with a CGI gap in his mouth as he tries to growl his lines? It’d be horrendous.
Who should play Hex instead? Who cares. This sounds more like Warner trying to stir the pot after repeatedly claiming that there are new deals for their two flagship characters. Nothing more, nothing less. If Brolin was smart, he’d steer clear of this trainwreck-in-the-making and keep knocking his roles out of the park. Of course, if W. tanks…guess he’ll just have to put on a blue screen “grin” and bear it all the way back to obscurity.
