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Moriarty’s One Thing I Love Today! That Thomas Jane Photo Of JONAH HEX!
And here’s why.
Right now, the floodgates are open. Comic books are as big a commercial force in the film industry as they’ve ever been. This week, I’m seeing HANCOCK, HELLBOY 2, and THE DARK KNIGHT. I’ve never seen three giant-sized comic book movies at press screenings in one week before. They’ve never released them this close together before. It was one per quarter at most, but right now, both HULK and IRON MAN are still on screens everywhere, and we’ve got three more heroes hitting the screen in the next few weeks. Crazy.
And in the middle of it, Thomas Jane hears that the guys who did CRANK are going to be doing JONAH HEX, so for shits and grins, he and his friend put some make-up on him, and take some pictures of him as the character.
When I wrote to ask him if the photo was real, he replied:
“I geeked out and of course it leaked out.”
He wrote back exactly a minute later:
“Hey that rhymes.”
I love this guy. Thomas Jane is for real. He’s a guy who knows he has a certain degree of clout in the business. A very small degree, but it’s some degree. He has a track record. He’s worth something to financiers because of that record. And that is creative power, pure and simple. And so he’s out there, setting up a comic book company, working with Steve Niles, busting ass on his own ideas, and still geeking out at the stuff that’s getting made out there. Just like the rest of us. He hears about JONAH HEX, his instinct is to put on the make-up and take pictures? Dude... that’s a fanboy. He’s not attached to the film. He wasn’t offered the role. That’s nothing official. That’s just a guy who happens to be The Punisher and The Mutant Chronicles and Boogie Nights and what have you. And he loves the character so much he dressed up like him. He geeked out. And it leaked out.
I’m so jaded from seeing so many fanboy photoshops, people trying desperately to “trick you.” And from seeing the same ones two million times. So I look at things with a jaded eye sometimes. Like when I saw this particular picture. I thought it was a fanboy manip, like that damned Aaron Eckhart picture from THE BLACK DAHLIA that clearly shows William Finley in frame, but that people are sure is a Two-Face image. I didn’t think the film was far enough along for there to be any photos, so I assumed it was complete bullshit when FilmSchoolRejects published the image. No offense to them. It just didn’t sound right to me. I sent an e-mail to Thomas before going to bed. So did half the online community, evidently, since he’s always made himself completely approachable. Quite rightly, he got back to FilmSchoolRejects first to explain what happened.
Good for him. I hope they at least consider him for the film, because a guy who loves that obscure a comic character enough to accurately dress up like him like that, who would want to do it... that’s exactly who you should have playing these characters. I liked Jane’s Punisher, and I’m sure he’d play a wicked Hex. Whether he does or not, though, I’m just glad a guy like Jane loves this stuff enough to actually try to get it right, to try to pick things really worth picking.
So anyway... sorry... it's been a strange week schedule-wise for me. I'm trying to knock a few million dollars of my budget for BAT OUT OF HELL, and the summer season has pounded me with one screening after another, events all day, and meetings all the time, so there's almost no time to write about everything that's going on. I'm going to catch up tonight on some reviews before I have to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Portland to see what Henry Selick's working on right now.
Be back in a few with my reviews of WALL-E, WANTED, and HANCOCK, all before I sleep tonight.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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+ Expand All
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Yo-ho!
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what the fuck
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And yeah, Jane is fucking cool.
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have worked together in a few films... ironic that they may both be dc characters with halved faces.
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-that he was behind it? priceless.
and he's starting a comic company? kick ass! do you have the contact info on that? -
I wonder how fast my fist can be first... what does that even mean? Ah, the joys of Ketamine... Let's nuke fridges!!
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this could be cool - good comic - good actor - im still looking forward to "mutant chronicles" - did it get shelved? - i like jane's "bad planet" comics a lot - that property could make a good movie - hard sell, but could be great - jane shouldve been skycaptain - and if theres ever a "fear agent" movie, hes the right actor
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"who loves that obscure a comic character enough to accurately dress up like him like that, who would want to do it"...okay remember sean young and catwoman? at least hex is obscure.
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And that damn ending gets me every time. Considering a purchase. I'm all for fanboy actors who wanna be the roles they dream about, as Mori described above. Here's to hoping all goes together as planned for TJ. Crank was pretty decent so I've got hopes that the Hex movie will kick ass.
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One of us. One of us. One of us.
PS: Drew, you sound stressed, man. Have a bubble bath. I'm serious. -
animated by the dudes that made "monster house", rated r and just as out-there as the comics - now that would be cool - and thomas jane would be good as the voice of the goon - paul giamatti as franky
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If you haven't already seen it, be sure to get the collector's edition of The Mist, with the black and white version.
I haven't even watched the color version, and I doubt I ever will. That movie was MEANT for B&W, and it's fucking fantastic. -
freaks?
latest X-factor?
both? -
But you already know that... Instead I'll point out that you forgot Wanted.
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It gets me pissed off. Meaningless beyond being a giant F-You to the audience.
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He's got a lock on surly southerners with Sawyer in Lost.
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I fucking love Jonah Hex!!!! They better do this!
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ive been posting everyday that this site needst to pimp jane as hex...the dude wants this role...he deserves this role...if a film is to be made, he must have this role...thank you
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was that not really from the movie? I really liked that picture, but at the same time I would love it if it wasn't, because I still feel bad for caving in and looking at it before I saw the movie. :P
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in any old west genre movie, been waiting for him to do something of the sort, i guess jonah hex would be as good as any. i think Hollywood got burned out on the old west films, cause it seems a lot less of them are being made in the last couple of decades, its understandable being that most the early Hollywood stuff was about the wildwest, but nothings been steady since the time of the spaghetti westerns, there have been some hit and misses since then, hits that come to mind being stuff like unforgiven, tombstone, and recently 3:10, and misses like American outlaw, wild wild west, and wyett earp, the quick and the dead too (though i tend to like that movie just a little)...oh and young guns one and two, though i don't really remember people's general outlook of them, i personally like the first, and didn't care for the second. so it would be nice to see a wild west film again with some well place CG,not to much, but just enough to bring it to a new level, and i think thomas jane might have the grit for such a film
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that deserve to have a movie before Jonah Hex: Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman (a good, contemporary, action-packed movie). But hey, if making a movie of an obscure DC character is what it takes for WB to move forward with the big guns, so be it.
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he needs to be crowned at comic con...i worship at his feet...i lay odds that after he bangs some broad, he kicks her out so that he can watch terminator and predator back to back, then breaks open his weekly stash of comics....god, i love this guy
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Watch the color version. I've watched it in black & white, and it is really sweet, but it's also really sweet in color. They are both awesome, and both have a really different kind of feel to them - I think Darabont said it himself, the color one is kind of more 70s horrorish, and the black & white is more 50's-60's horror. It's interesting, and awesome, that it works both ways. Man, I loved that movie.
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Would be the PERFECT Captain America in the Avengers. Check out 61* and him playing Mickey Mantle if you disagree.
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does indeed rhyme with out.
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sheesh
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Jun 25, 2008 10:39:44 PM CDT
Moriarty, you an IDIOT. Superhero does not mean Comic Book.
by proman1984
Hancock is NOT a comic book movie, bonzo.
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they are married, bacci40.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: now that Eckhart's out (being Two-Face and all), Thomas Jane is the best choice out there for Captain America. But...this could rule him out, too. Damn Frank Miller for stealing Gabriel Macht. There's gonna be no perfect Cap left.
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arquette is hot, but you know jane is getting strange on the side...dont ruin my fucking fantasy
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cuz right now decaprio is up for the role...and if im gonna kill myself over bad casting, i want it to be the worst..
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he even lit the photo nicely!
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Damn You MCMLXXVI
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I'm glad Thomas Jane likes the character, but come on.
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As long as they stick to the old west Jonah Hex, and not the weird one they used later.
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Seriously...
I loved Jonah Hex, its some straight up western badassery, as well as a bunch of good horror westerns by Landsdale, cool stuff! -
He doesn't have the voice or the presence or the sense of badass danger about him that a character like Hex demands. I know Tom Jane wants to be a big screen tough guy, but as Punisher proved, he just doesn't fully convince in the role. He just can't convince doing scary or imposing, instead he comes off as rather flat and stilted. I've never yet been convinced that Tom Jane is tougher than me and could kick my ass, and whoever plays The Punisher or Jonah Hex has to be convincing in that he could kick pretty much anyones ass. He has to be a Lee Marvin hardass motherfucker. And Tom Jane is more of the Harrison Ford getting my ass handed to me but overcoming it all at the end variety. He's a different breed, he doesn't fit, and he shouldn't play Jonah Hex.On the upside, Palmiotti told me that the script to the Jonah Hex movie was pretty damn kick ass and stays true to the character, and that if they cast it right it should deliver the goods to fans, so if the movie ever happens here's hoping they get the right man to wear the scar. Tom Jane just aint it though, not in this Hex fans opinion anyhow.
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...this is essentially a non story? Or rather a story about a story on a different site but its actually just a phony story because Tom Jane just gets dolled up in make up on weekends and Moriarty felt he had to write a story about it? Mori, I like ya man, but wtf?
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What a fucking nerd
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^5 Tom Jane
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So far I'm on his side. But he shouldn't go to far with playing the geek.
What's next? Making an account at AICN and answering questions about his new movie? -
I remember the Old West Hex but I seem to recall from my younger days when I actually read some DC stuff before I became all Marvel that he was in some kinda post-apocalyptic future too lookin all like Mad Max. Anyone?
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Thomas Jane is ace. That is all.
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Wikipedia sas yes. His original series was cancelled in 1985, but a new series called 'Hex' was spun out where he was transported into a post-apocalyptic future.
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the hex that jane fell in love with is the 90s hex...that was some twisted, wicked shit
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jonah hex was introduced by dc during the 70s as a straight western anti hero, killed off in 85 and then resurected by tim truman and joe lansdale for vertigo...its the vertigo hex that jane wants to adapt
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with Thomas Jane could actually get tickets sold.
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This is getting to be aggravating.
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Or does he look an awful lot like Christopher :ambert in that pic?
"Ramirez...my old friend Ramirez.." -
Jonah Hex was never 'killed off' at DC. There was an issue that told what was billed as the final tale of Jonah Hex, ie how he finally died, but that was in an issue of DC Special (a "Jonah Hex Spectacular") back in 1978, when his own regular series was still going strong, something that it would continue to do so until it was one of the victims of the original Crisis On Infinite Earths shake up at DC in the 80's. His series had lasted more than a dozen years at that point, and had been a solid seller all that time, one of the only Western themed characters that still sold consistently, and by that time it would have been close to being the longest unbroken run by a Western themed comic character, not counting anthology titles.In '85, during the big Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries shake up (in which Jonah Hex himself played a small but crucial part) Hex found himself catapulted into a post apocalyptic future, and as cheesy an idea as this was on paper, it was actually quite a good book, still remaining very true to the Jonah Hex character and legend, largely because it was written by Michael Fleisher, who had written the vast majority of Jonah Hex stories for the past decade plus, and no one knew or wrote the character better than Fleisher. Like many of the post Crisis 'shakeup' books though it had trouble finding an audience and only lasted about a year and a half, befoe Jonah was finally returned to the old west. Unfortunately he returned without a regular series to call his own, and short of a guest spot here and there, spent most of the next few years on the shelf.In the mid 90's or so Jonah Hex was resurrected over at Vertigo, in a series of 3 seperate miniseries written by Joe R Lansdale, however these took on a more supernatural bent than many of Hex's previous encounters, and found only moderate success. Although not considered "pure" Jonah Hex by some, they were still pretty entertaining reads, and it's not like Jonah Hex didn't already have a history of weird shit happening to and around him. Still, after the third of these miniseries wrapped up in the late 90's Jonah Hex was once again to lay dormant for a good long while, outside of a very occasional guest spot here and there, such as in the the Guns of the Dragon miniseries. Fast forward all the way to 2005 and Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray once again resurrect Jonah Hex in an all new ongoing series, and they do so with style, resulting in one of the most consistently enjoyable monthly books on the market to this day. A book that recently hit issue 32 and is, while not exactly setting the sales charts alive, still doing consistently month to month, as well as doing quite well as a series of collected trade editions, and in fact it's the popularity and quality of this book that got Hollywood interested in bringing Jonah Hex to the big screen.This isn't the first time that Hex has circled Hollywood though, during the late 70's, at the pique of Jonah Hex's popularity, there were attempts to bring the character to the big screen, there was even hope that Clint Eastwood would star, and it was said that he was at one point interested. However the project never came together for whatever reasons, and as the decade was drawing to a close Westerns just weren't bringing in the box office like they had previously, and when Superman came out and hit big it seems that Jonah Hex was pretty much forgotten from that point on, as DC instead turned their attention to properties like Batman...something which itself would have a decade long rocky road to the screen. I'm a huge Jonah Hex fan, and I'd love to see him on the big screen, and done justice, and he's a character that holds a lot of cinematic potential, but I still remain unsold on Jane as the guy to do it. Although to be honest casting the character in this day and age, when real "tough guy" actors are so very few and far between, let alone ones that are still in their prime, is going to be one hell of a hard task to pull off. Maybe someone like Kiefer Sutherland, he seems to have the grizzled hard ass act down pretty damn well these days.
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since he was Todd Parker in Boogie Nights. Did anyone see The Mist? That guy couldn't deliver a single convincing line!
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Thanks for the recommendation...I think I will finally give it a shot in color now. I just loved the B&W so much, I couldn't see it being as effective in color, but I should definitely give it a watch to find out.
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Mori -- you're doing a write-up on Coraline? Sweet! Can't wait.
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that Jonah Hex would make a great movie. The recent series is consistently good from month to month. It's a great read and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the character. It doesn't have the comic code so it's able to be as gritty as it wants.
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Of all the choices out there, Jane is probably one of the better ones because at least he'll bring a passion to it. As a big Hex fan, though, I'd love to see Kurt Russell scarred up for this as an older, grizzled Hex. I'd take Clancy Brown in a heartbeat, too. But with WB hot for young twenty-something d-bags who've never done a day of work in their lives or even held a gun, I'd take Jane with a smile.
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upbeat. Yeah, you heard me. Sure, things suck pretty bad for that one guy: "Whoops. Just shot my son and I didn't have to."
But the arrival of the army gives the impression that the phenomenon will end, and that life will eventually return to normal.
The ending of the novella suggests that the Mist is here to stay, and that the world is pretty much over. Much darker and much better. -
Jun 26, 2008 9:29:22 AM CDT
Internet Explorer is still a pretty widely-used browser, you kno
by mostholy
Perhaps you could deign to make your freaking site compatible with it? Worst...designed...site...ever.
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and scared the crap out of Tim Burton
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It 'leaked' out. OK......
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which was a very nice tight action film...not an overblown -cough micheal bay cough- action film
side note, the expanded diretors cut is better than the regular version.... -
as shes fairly unstable. Hence the non-career.
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The Mist was absolutely fantastic. Thomas Jane is one of a kind. If he's good enough for Paul Thomas Anderson and Terrence Malick, he's good enough for me.
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"A History Of Violence" is a comic book movie..."Hancock" is not. It depends on the source material. And the Rambo movies are superhero movies too.
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Yeah, seriously. Especially back in the day when she was oddly kinda hot. Plus she's smart AND crazy, those chicks tend to be fucking firecrackers in the sack.
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If someone is looking to do a Western-based comic flick, why not do Preacher?
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The terms can be used interchangeably. In 2 months time when the graphic novel of Hancock comes out, then we'll be able to call it a 'comic book movie' I guess? 'Comic books' are the literary genre from which superheros came, so he has every right to refer to Hancock as a comic book film regardless of whether the story was technically committed to comic page before the movie was written.
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Who the fuck is 'Preacher'? I may have only read the odd Jonah Hex comic when scraping the absolute bottom barrel of my childhood fleamarket-bought boxes of comics, but at least Jonah Hex is an identifiable brand that non-enthusiasts can recognize.
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what you just said is like when anime nuts go 'Why are they making a Dragonball Z movie?! 'Go Go Annie Submarine Pilot' is soooo much better than Dragonball Z...
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At the part at the end where they were driving around and saw the mile-tall monster lumbering past them...at that point I felt honest dread watching that movie, it was like 'yeah, if things like that are walking around, that's pretty much it, our world is gone...then I got started thinking how fucked up it would be if the army's dimensional rip wasn't just between two dimensions, what if it ripped them all open, and not just our planet, or our universe, but the whole of existance was completely fucked forever by that one dumb move. Then the guy shot his kid, the military showed up, and everything was fine. Except for that one guy.
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I'm pretty sure anyone under the age of 30 would recognize the name Preacher before Jonah Hex. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy both characters, but Preacher is recognizable, recent, popular, and VERY highly praised. If you don't know who Preacher is, I doubt you've been around a comic book store in the last five years. Your point is well taken, Hex is definitely more recognizable than Fiester implies, but you're also kind of wrong, too.
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Molly and Thursday. Those were a long time ago, though.
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I've been checking anxiously awaiting what you thought. Saw Wanted and thought it was great fun...and am looking forward to Wall-E.
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it had to be said
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CHUD ran the picture, and discussed this shit a week ago. yawn.
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Jane ranks up there with Gary Sinese and Jack Nicholson for best actors in Stephen King adaptations. The guys in Dreamcatcher were good, but that was more an ensemble thing and it didn't rescue the movie. His performance saved The Mist, crappy CGI tentacles and all.
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I mean, you seem like a sweet girl and all, but I'm Tom Jane.
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Then again, very few people read at all anymore, so, its not the comics medium's fault. It is, instead, a direct result of de-evolution. For example of de-evolution, speak to any person between the ages of 5 and 25, and therein you will no madness; the madness of epic blandness, failure, and mediocrity. Gen X was the last generation that mattered. I weep for the children of the future.
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effective if you hadn't done the "no/know" thing... I weep for, well, everyone pretty much...
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"I have to see this big movie, and write a review for that one..." Meanwhile I sit here at work waiting for a jury to come back with a verdict in a murder trial. God, I want your problems! (Yes, I am jealous and bitter. Good luck on "Bat Out of Hell").
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so envy me. I even have every appearance of him in the 'annual' comic compliations, including the one that concludes with his death. (yeah the whole 'beam to outer space' conclusion and subsequent reboot called HEX simply never existed. I do own them, but really, they dont exist).
***SPOILERS****
Jonah Hex winds up stuffed when he dies and put on display to prove he was killed. Decades pass and he changes hands, winds up in part of a Buffalo Bill carnival tour. When Buffalo Bill dies and his tour is disbursed, he passes hands within regional travelling carnivals in the 1920s and 1930s. As those carnivals come and go and are bought and sold, he winds up a prop outside of a shop in an amusment park called YesterdayLand but is clearly meant to be Disney. When YesterdayLand is given a facelist during an off-season, Hex's stuffed body is put into a back-lot storage shed. The final pane is his stone hardened face with the popping eye visibly only by a thin crack of light through the slightly ajar door of the storage shed.
the end.
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