Jonah Hex: Comic Book Gunslinger Comes to the Screen

20 June 2010

From "Superman" and "Spider Man" to "Josie and the Pussycats," Hollywood has a long history of drawing film ideas from the pages of comic books. The latest is a scar-faced gunslinger from the wild West starring Oscar-nominee Josh Brolin and action movie siren Megan Fox.

"Jonah Hex" is a tortured soul. A veteran of the Civil War between the states, he's seen more than his share of killing; but it is also something he does really well and that skill is in demand on the lawless frontier of the late 1800's.

© 2010- Warner Bros.- All Rights ReservedJosh Brolin in Warner Bros. Pictures' Jonah Hex

One side of his face is hideously scarred - the result of a run-in with a Civil War veteran from the other side, the truly bad Quentin Turnbull. When Hex gets offered the chance to clear his own name by stopping Turnbull from using terror to launch a new civil war, it is an offer the bounty hunter can not turn down.

Josh Brolin, a co-star of the 2007 Academy Award winner "No Country For Old Men" and Oscar-nominated for his role in the 2008 drama "Milk," plays the title character in "Jonah Hex." Brolin says it took three hours in the make-up chair every day to give the character his disfigured look. "To be honest with you, I think that it lent to the kind of curmudgeon-like feel of the character itself," he says.

Like the comic book on which it is based, "Jonah Hex" explodes with violent outbursts; but Brolin says it is appropriate to the story and the genre. "This movie, when you watch it …at least when I do …you expect it to be gratuitous and it is not. I think that is much more interesting," he says.