Bringing the Comic Book Legend to the Screen

In the action-packed adventure thriller “Jonah Hex,” Josh Brolin brings the tough Civil War veteran and bounty hunter to life with a bad-ass attitude and wry humor. A man who has gone to hell and back and has the scars to prove it, Jonah Hex is not your typical hero. In his quest for revenge, he will take down any villain with a price on his head to rid the Earth of all the evil he has witnessed. “He’s an absolute complete loner from every point of view,” says Josh Brolin, the acclaimed actor playing the title role. "He's tortured. He's full of rage and guilt. His journey in this movie is personal—he wants revenge."

Megan Fox plays Lilah, the beautiful yet tough courtesan at a New Orleans brothel who becomes his partner in crime. Together, in a sprawling adventure that takes them to the heart of the deep South, Lilah joins forces with Jonah to bring down Quentin Turnbull, played by John Malkovich, a former colonel in the Confederate army. Jonah lost his family to Turnbull’s murderous vengeance and will stop at nothing to see him dead, but Turnbull has his own score to settle with the gunslinger. When Jonah and Lilah come face to face with Turnbull’s mad schemes, Jonah has to draw on all his powers—both of this world and beyond—to stop him.

"'Jonah Hex' is a classic revenge tale with the future of the union hanging in the balance," says producer Akiva Goldsman. "Jonah Hex has access to the netherworld. He can talk to the dead and is unstoppable, possibly even unkillable, though Turnbull will try. Jonah is a unique hero."

"There is a spiritual element that follows Jonah everywhere he travels," Brolin adds, "and no one really knows how he got that way. What is the truth? What's not the truth? Half of his whole background is lore."

The roots of DC Comics' popular and long-running Jonah Hex comic book series trace back to the 1970s. Originated as a purely Western tough, the character has crossed boundaries and genres that steeped him in elements of the supernatural.

The film's screenplay, by the team of Neveldine & Taylor, emerges from the look and tone of the graphic novels but creates an all new adventure for the gunslinger. "People who read the comic came out loving the character," Neveldine says.

Taylor adds, "We were drawn to the character of Jonah Hex... he's a haunted soul driven by revenge, a man of violence; but he's got a sense of humor too. He's vulgar, he's sarcastic…the flawed human being behind the campfire legend."

Producer Andrew Lazar, who has wanted to bring Jonah Hex to the screen for almost 15 years, observes, "Jonah Hex is a guy who has his own version of what justice is. He's the kind of guy that would prefer to save an animal than a human, especially if that human is morally corrupt, and is not afraid to kill somebody if he needs to. He has taken many bullets and not died—a guy who's got one foot in the grave, one foot out of the grave. So, between that lore and the scar on his face, he has become this kind of mythological figure in the West."

"This is a tortured, mutilated man that is tough as nails, can take on anybody and can virtually hear bullets coming at him," director Jimmy Hayward offers. "He's a hero to some, a villain to most. Wherever he goes, people speak his name in whispers. As Turnbull says, 'Hex doesn't know how to die.' But as you tear off the layers of Jonah Hex, you realize he's a guy who paid for his role in the Civil War and has redeemed himself, and then had everything taken away from him in a time and place where life is cheap and good men die like dogs. And he wants his revenge."

The key component in realizing Hayward’s vision was the man playing the title role. "When Josh Brolin is playing Jonah Hex, he carries that complete bad-ass attitude," says Hayward. "He carries the scar as if it's been with him all his life, and all you've got to do is look in his eyes to see everything you need to know about Jonah Hex."

"Josh is a world class actor," producer Akiva Goldsman adds. "He's a great anchor and speaks to the emotions of the movie and of the narrative. In his work, he's a lot like Jonah Hex—he does what it takes to get it done. He brings a real depth of emotion to the character."

Producer Andrew Lazar, director Jimmy Hayward and producer Akiva Goldsman attends the "Jonah Hex" Los Angeles premiere held at ArcLight Cinemas Cinerama Dome on June 17, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

The disfiguring scar that mars Jonah's face and in many ways defines him is barely noticed by Lilah, one of Jonah's last remaining connections to humanity and possibly his only weakness. Megan Fox feels her character's own journey in life mirrors Hex's in many ways, and was drawn to the star-crossed nature of their relationship. "Jonah Hex is very jaded from his past," she says. "He's so afraid of loving someone because he can't ever be vulnerable. And then you have Lilah, who is in love with him, and this struggle exists between the two of them, with her trying to get him to open up and accept her and love her fully."

Unlike Jonah, Lilah carries her scars on the inside. "Megan did an amazing job bringing both toughness and sensuality to this role," Goldsman says."“Megan easily moved back and forth between being 'the girl' to being somebody who's going to do some ass-kicking on her own. And she makes the connection Lilah shares with Jonah palpable and real. She wants to be his partner in crime."

But Jonah resists being close with anyone, much less Lilah. "He's a hardened bounty hunter and thinks that if anyone gets close to him, they're going to die," Brolin notes. "That created an interesting balancing act for us between telling that kind of anti-love story and having them be intimate with one another. Ultimately, they can't be together because they both have unfinished business."

For Jonah Hex, the unfinished business is Quentin Turnbull, the man who murdered his family in an act of revenge against Jonah for killing his own son, who was Jonah's best friend and fellow soldier. "Quentin is a guy who had his heart ripped out in the Civil War," Hayward notes. "He has a shared history with Jonah Hex: they both brought brutal tragedies to each other's lives. When Jonah learns Turnbull is alive, nothing on this earth—or the next—can stop him from finding the man who took away his family."

John Malkovich notes that Turnbull’s quest for revenge is a broad, wide-ranging assault, "Turnbull holds Jonah Hex responsible for the death of his son, who was in the same unit as him. But I think, in a bigger sense, his problem is the fact that he holds the North responsible for a kind of annihilation of a way of life. He still has immensely hard feelings and a sense of grievance unleashed by those terrible years."

Working in the shadows with stolen munitions and cutting-edge military devices, Turnbull has set his sights on nothing less than destroying the Union that emerged from the war and ended what Turnbull perceived as the South's primacy. "Most people who do bad or even questionable acts are described as villains, but I don't think they see themselves particularly as villains," the actor states.

Malkovich made the character a worthy adversary for Brolin's embodiment of Hex. Lazar states, "There's nobody better than Josh Brolin as Jonah Hex, and as good as your hero is, you want to weigh the movie with a villain that has just as much power."

Brolin says, "It was very easy to act against what John created, which was something that was far and beyond what any of us foresaw. John brought so much to the movie in the role, and in his demeanor and generosity as an actor. He can carry unpredictable rage like no one else. You don't know when it's coming, but when it does it comes straight at you. He's such an incredible inspiration."

"It's pretty fun to see John and Josh go toe to toe at one another," says Lazar. "You couldn't get two finer actors. 'Jonah Hex' is based on this really iconic comic book, then you've got a center, Josh Brolin, whose body of work is completely unique and credible. And then you have John Malkovich. So, you’ve got this amazing comic book and heightened western experience, and at its center are these two phenomenal actors."

At the top of Turnbull's ruthless pack of outlaws is Burke, a tattooed, maniacal Irishman, played by Michael Fassbender. "He's a pretty shifty character," Fassbender relates. "I don't think he's got much of a conscience, really. He does what he pleases. He's a survivor essentially, kind of like a rat, but he's smart. He'll adapt and improvise to whatever circumstances he's in. But he'll always keep an eye on his own back."

Goldsman points out that having to take on both Turnbull and Burke stacks the deck against Jonah Hex, "Between the deviousness and madness that Michael brings to Burke and the quiet rage of John's Turnbull, together they combine to be a formidable force for darkness."

"In his travels, Jonah has made friends and enemies both," Brolin says. "Lucky for him, Smith is a friend, and helps him obtain the resources he needs to face down his enemies."