The transition to the XXI century brought under the arm a revolution for comic book adaptations and, more specifically, superhero movies. Titles like ‘Blade’, ‘Spider-Man’ or ‘X-Men’ opened up new horizons for this type of production which, in 2008, was embraced by Marvel and its ‘Iron Man’, paving the way for a golden age for capes. , masks and superpowers on the big screen.
But, as is logical, not all were joys, there are almost unmentionable similar feature films that continue to raise the hairs of locals and strangers when remembering them. Among them is that disaster entitled ‘Jonah Hex’, in which Jimmy Hayward covered the work of John Albano and Tony Dezuniga with results as poor in the strictly cinematographic as in the monetary.
The disaster formula
Josh Brolin, star of the show and main engine of the project, has opened up during an interview with Variety about the experience of filming ‘Jonah Hex’ and the big factors that made it such a smash hit that only managed to gross $11 million worldwide under a budget of almost 50. Be careful, because the actor has not skimped on toughness.
“He wasn’t successful creatively or financially. Everyone knows how I feel about Jonah Hex. But the biggest problem with Jonah Hex was rushing to hire someone. I remember Jeff Robinov, who I still have a good relationship with and who I was in charge of Warner Bros. at the time, who said to me, ‘Look, you have to have a director in the next two weeks, or we’re going to have to cancel it.’ Then you meet someone who knows a lot, [el director] Jimmy Hayward, and I remember it didn’t feel good. I loved that he was excited, but he just wasn’t experienced enough and didn’t treat it like I imagined he would, coming home at the end of each day to look for pitch inspirations and watch Scorsese movies or something else. Instead, he would party.”
After this slap, Brolin defended the good intentions that went into the film, underlining the achievement to assemble a truly amazing cast. However, the interpreter still feels indebted to his co-stars after the failed experience.
“Not that I had a lot of power back then, but I managed to sign Megan [Fox], which I thought was perfect for that role. She might not be the best actress at the moment, but for that kind of parody… Her? At that time? You couldn’t get any better than that. And Fassbender? One of our best actors, who had done Shame and Hunger? Are you kidding? Malkovich, who had just been fleeced by Bernie Madoff and we asked him to do it for a third of his cache. He said yes. Hell, I’m still in their debt. Michael Shannon was in the movie and they cut him out. The intention was there, we just made a big mistake with the director. I don’t fully blame him, because that was my choice. It was my bad decision.”
Regardless of the lack of professionalism of Jimmy Hayward, who has not directed again since ‘Free Birds’ premiered in 2013, Josh Brolin does not hesitate to point to Warner Bros. as part of the dire equation; criticizing the usual practice of taking creative control of different projects to mold them to suit the executives and comparing the case with what he experienced in the remake of ‘Old Boy’.
“Then the studio took over, and every time that’s happened, in my experience, it’s only made things worse. They did it with Old Boy and Spike Lee. I thought Spike’s setup was much better than the studio’s, but they took over her and I thought she was badly staged and ended up having the opposite effect. That’s what happens when you start riding to please the crowd and how the evidence can end up turning against you. You don’t know what she’s going to want the audience. At Jonah Hex they took the movie, said, “How can we make this more accessible? And they ended up making the least accessible movie possible.”
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