If you saw Jonah Hex (unlike most people), you know it wasn't even an admirable failure, but almost a complete disaster of a movie. Hex star Josh Brolin told MTV that he knew it too.
Brolin said, "We had an original intention and that got away from us a little bit," he explained. "Everybody did do their best to try and create the best movie with what we had, but I think it got so derailed at a certain point that the assemblage of what we could use was so disconnected to what our original intention was that it just got mixed up."
"That's what I told the marketing people at Warner Bros. I said, 'I can't lie about this, so I have to look for a truism that I can go with. I do think that if you go in there kind of like with 'Piranha 3-D' — when you go to see that movie you go, 'This is ridiculous and this is fun' — so if you went into 'Jonah Hex' with that, I think you had a good time."
The movie grossed $10 million and cost $47 million. That's not very good. There was a directorial change right from the start, and the movie just wasn't… anything. I saw Pirahna 3-D, and it was spectacular, but part of that is that from the get go, they had a vision of what movie they were going to make, and Jonah Hex couldn't have been that, because there was clearly no singular direction. Also, they decided to stick with a PG-13 rating and you've got this awful violent character, and not a drop of blood in the movie. That is an intellectual disconnect.
This morning, Jonah Hex comic book co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti tweeted: My pitch: JONAH HEX as a showtime or HBO weekly hour show. just use the comics as your episodes, but work them in order. Tom Jane as hex.
I immediately thought 2 things. 1. Of course that's what you want. But, no way that's happening any time soon. The brand is quite heavily tainted now, and HBO couldn't sustain the wonder that was Deadwood, so they're not jumping back into the western pool for a while. And 2, I thought, "You're goddamned right Tom Jane should have been Jonah Hex!"
It's interesting how no one reacted like the end times were upon comic book movies when Jonah Hex took a dump at the box office. I guess we were prepared for it from the moment we first saw the trailer, or even when we heard about the directors being replaced. With the guy from Horton Hears a Who. OK, that was a low blow. But he didn't prove me wrong, did he?
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You mean Deadwood, Not DeadPool right? Lol.
That threw me for a second.
Glad I decided not to see this in theaters.
It seems as if Brolin is saying that this is a case of too many cooks. That would not be the first time that this was a problem in Hollywood unfortunately.
The original article also said that Brolin was responsible for having the original Crank directors taken off the picture. So there’s that.
@Josh: Seriously? Boo to Mr. Big Shoulders then!
If those guys were allowed to do the entire films by themselves then I bet it would be a better film……Maybe not by much, I love Crank but it anit no Oscar winner, but it would at least be more entertaining.
Its interesting because Brolin just filmed another western with the Cohen Brothers. Perhaps a little damage control to make this other role seem better, but he seems to be walking that line of throwing people under the bus to save face.
@josh–HBO was gonna do a Deadpool series???
Heh. Deadwood.
@josh-HA. morning coffee has not worked yet….Deadwood and Pool in the same sentence scrambled my brain.
Pirahna 3d was awesome, Jonah Hex not so much. No comparison
I just decided this week that I wasn’t going to see the Jonah Hex film (it only just came out here in the UK and I’ve been struggling with the choice) and this article, along with the earlier iFanboy review podcast, makes me feel justified.
Mr. Palmiotti speaks the truth.
I’ll watch it on dvd just to see the train wreck that it is.
Loved Deadwood, would love JH series on HBO… one can dream right?
At this point, I figure the only way I’ll see a good Jonah Hex movie is by watching one of Clint Eastwood’s westerns from the 70s and telling myself he’s playing Jonah Hex.
Hmm, I kinda remember a story about Brolin hinting that the movie was a stinker LAST YEAR, in response to questions about why the completed movie was delayed so long before release. Pretty sure I read an article about that somewhere.
I guess I should just go back and delete this then.
@beatdisciple: The Outlaw Josey Wales is the best film for that.
@josh lol. what a grouch
What about Jonah Hex Cartoon like the 10 minute feature! I wouldn’t mind that.
@RapidEyeMovement: Yes it is. I think A Fistful of Dollars works well, too.
Deadpool would be a sitcom on Fox.
I want a Jonah Hex series on HBO and a Y the Last Man series on SyFy. I still haven’t seen the Jonah Hex movie becasue I’m such a big fan of the comic I’m afraid I’ll just be pissed during the entire movie. I tried to get my brother to watch this with me and he thought it looked stupid. We ended up watching Get Him to the Greek and it was a funny movie.
I don’t agree that "Jonah Hex" is a complete disaster of a movie. The last couple of Will Ferral movies have been complete disasters, "Jonah Hex" is not in that league. "Jonah Hex" is a professionally executed, reasonably entertaining movie. True, it is nothing profound. I think it’s lack of box office success is more a result of audiences who were unfamiliar with the concept dismissing it as just another Western.
Just another Western would have made money.
Strip the special effects, all the big name actors (but one), get rid of the weird fantasy and sci-fi crap. Set it in one town, make it about a bad ass ex-confederate bounty hunter hired to kill all the men in the town because they did something bad and have him use a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun and a tomahawk.
My Uncle loves Westerns the second he saw a Gatling gun horse, he declared the movie stupid and still hasn’t seen it. They should have been pulling from his audience that would see a Western.
Guys just do what I do when you want to watch Jonah Hex movie , put the Unforgiven in your dvd player and pretend they are calling the lead charecter Jonah Hex instead of William Money .It works for me .
I’m seriously in the mood for a Clint Eastwood western now.
Western movies don’t make money anymore, Hex or not.
I’m still trying to get a cheap copy of the Batman animated film Red Hood so I can watch the Jonah short.
People not knowing this character really did hurt this movie. The movie however, was just plain bad!