IGN spoke exclusively with filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor today at Comic-Con, where the duo confirmed that they will indeed direct the big-screen version of DC Comics’ Jonah Hex in addition to scripting it.
Neveldine confirmed that they have completed a first draft and “we’re really excited about (the project).” He revealed that their take on the Western bounty hunter will be influenced by “the [Joe R. Lansdale series, definitely. The movie that we’re — we’ve pretty much wrote it — but we’re writing is going to be the introduction to Jonah Hex. So we’re incorporating a lot of stuff but we’re bringing in, of course, Quentin Turnbull. It’s almost like a double revenge story. They’re both justified in their own revenge. That’s what’s so great about Jonah Hex in this movie. And again we get to play with an anti-hero.”
Lansdale’s Jonah Hex comics, which melded the western and horror genres, were published in the 1990s by DC’s Vertigo label. The character of Quentin Turnbull, created in the 1970s, was a Virginia plantation owner who had a vendetta against Hex for causing the death of his son during the Civil War. Turnbull hired a number of villains to get Hex, including El Papagayo.
Their influences will extend beyond the character’s comic book roots. Neveldine revealed, “We’re drawing from a lot. We’re drawing from every aspect of the Jonah myth, from Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns to Sin City, in a weird way. Ken Burns’ Civil War. Really, we’re trying to draw in a lot of historical things and make it as rich of a world as we possibly can, and a dark Western world. Kind of like the real post-Civil War America, which was almost like an apocalyptic wasteland. Everybody had their arms lopped off and nobody bathed. It was an ugly place and we’re not glamorizing it and doing kind of a traditional movie Western. We want to do something completely new, but at the same time it’s funny and vulgar and bizarre and sexy and weird. It’s so fun.”
Neveldine and Taylor have cast U.K. tough guy actors in their other films (Jason Statham in Crank and Gerard Butler in the forthcoming Game, respectively). Could we expect to see a non-American actor playing the ex-Confederate Hex? Said Taylor, “This might be another one but it’s too early to say.” Neveldine added, “We don’t want to jinx it. We’ve got ideas.”
With a first draft of the script completed, could Jonah Hex be the duo’s next film after wrapping Game? “It’s hard to say. It could be,” Neveldine said. “There’s a strike situation [looming . I don’t know if you know yet. But we’ll have to figure it out.”