Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor Ditch Jonah Hex

Rodney 17 Comments

Jonah Hex 1Good gracious! It appears the rowdy team of Mark “the hammer” Neveldine and Brian “meat train” Taylor have decided to up and leave Jonah Hex. We get the heads up from our friends at comingsoon:

Variety is reporting that filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who wrote and directed the Jason Statham action flick Crank and its upcoming sequel, have decided to leave Jonah Hex, the DC Comics Western character that was expected to star Josh Brolin in the title role as the disfigured gunslinger and bounty hunter.

Their departure from the project has been attributed to “creative differences” and Warner Bros. is moving quickly to find a new director to keep Brolin on board for a spring start.

This is a downer for Douglas. Not only did I want to see a Jonah Hex film, but I was very excited to see him in the hands of Neveldine/Taylor. The dudes were pumped about the project and shared some of their plans with me while I was in L.A. - and they were bitchin’ This news is certainly surprising to me this morning and my excitement for the project just popped like the only balloon at a birthday party.

Hopefully Campea will be able to get a hold of them and see what the deal is. We will follow this story to see who ends up filling their shoes; but for now, I’m quite disappointed.

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  • Michael

    bull shit…. they do only almonst Naziist and racist works….. More than Davils

  • Gutpunch

    I couldn’t see them pull this off really. This one needs to be down and dirty and so far those two have pretty much done very loud films with a nice sheen to them.

  • Ric Ocasek

    Here’s part of interview with Josh Brolin from MTV:
    MTV: You’re talking about “Jonah Hex”?

    Brolin: I love it.

    MTV: What’s intriguing about that project?

    Brolin: The absurdity of it. It almost allows you to create a new genre. I love going back into the spaghetti-Western idea and completely turning it around.

    MTV: When are you going to decide whether you’ll do it?

    Brolin: Soon. In the last couple months, I’ve been going back and forth about it. I went back to my gut: “Is it a sellout? What is it I like about this movie?” When I first read it, I thought, “Oh my God, it’s awful!” And then I had a moment a week later, and I thought, “Why is it awful?” Maybe the thing to do is to do the most awful movie I can find.

    MTV: What’s so awful about it?

    Brolin: It’s so tongue-in-cheek. It’s so ridiculous. But once I started putting people in my mind and saying, “What if I put [John] Malkovich in this role? Then what does this movie become? Now let’s put this producer and director on it and think about how it plays out.” Then it becomes fun. Now I love that movie. If you have a great filmmaker come in, then suddenly, these gags and characters become interesting.

    MTV: Are the filmmakers behind “Crank” still directing it?

    Brolin: I don’t know. It’s all up in the air.

    My guess is he didn’t think the boys were up to the challenge of pulling this type of material off.

  • Darek-T

    i guess this Could possilby be a good movie, it just depends on who they replace them with

  • http://www.myspace.com/cruelmessenger Darren J Seeley

    I’m rather split on this.

    I wasn’t the biggest Crank fan, but given the quick shoot and low budget, it was good on that level. The potential for the duo was through the roof. This would have been a major studio gig with a bigger budget and it would have been interesting. HOWEVER

    On the other hand, I am a fan of the character and I strongly opposed the recent ‘supernatural’ elements connected to Jonah Hex. I don’t might a hint of Indian mysticism, but I was dismayed that Neveldine and Taylor strongly used or were considering to use the supernatural side of Hex. My speculation is that this is where the break up started. It has to- it appears to be on the story side of things. Also, what if Brolin signed on-but hoped more for the Western genre instead of a leaning towards a supernatural one? What if DC and/or Warners wanted more Western than supernatural?

    If that is the case, wonderful. I’m not sad to see to see them go. I am sad that Hex is only delayed. I don’t think it’ll be tough finding a director. I could think of a few off the top of my head who would be perfect, give or take schedules.

    In short, any director who is influenced by the greats like Sam Fuller or Sam Peckinpah would be stellar.

  • The Dude

    It’s too late I don’t even want a Quantum of Solace review. When it’s posted I’m not even going to read it…

  • Darek-T

    Crap! i’ld never even heard of this character untill now but i’m still disapointed. For their sake i hope they can get Mark and Brain back because i think this movie might suffer for them not being there. And plus alot of the people who would be into this type of movie would probably be people who would actualy know that Mark and Brian are hooked onto the project, and be disapointed that they ditched.

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