No Voodoo in 'Jonah Hex'

In the comic books, "Jonah Hex" was primarily a real-world period action hero. The western gunslinger only faced supernatural foes in a few issues, but most reports on the movie version indicate a voodoo plot. Not so: The film's director Jimmy Hayward cleared up some of the misconceptions about his adaptation of "Jonah Hex."

Speaking at the San Diego Comic-Con, Hayward said that official trade announcements describing a voodoo storyline had got it wrong.

We had been led to believe that the former Confederate soldier in the American Civil War would battle Southern plantation owner Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) who planned to raise an army of the undead.

But Hayward told a news conference at Comic-Con: "I don't know where the voodoo practitioner raising the army of the undead came from, but that has nothing to do with the film.

"John Malkovich's character is more of a terrorist who's upset about the Civil War than he is someone who's trying to fight and re-win the Civil War."

Hayward said there were "some" supernatural elements and added: "I think Jonah Hex, he's been shot so many times, the legend is he's got one foot in the grave and one foot here on Earth, and so we approach it by everybody else's version of who Jonah Hex is.

"At the beginning of the film, we bring out the John Albano quote, 'He's a hero to some, a villain to most, but wherever he goes, they speak his name in whispers.' So at the beginning of the film, he's a scarred bounty hunter, just a horrible guy, this murderous guy. You tear the layers off, you see that there's this normal guy in there, but he's kind of in purgatory until he settles the score."

Hex's relationship with the undead may even have a simple medical explanation. "He might be mentally ill, but he definitely talks to the dead sometimes," Hayward added.

Hayward stepped in for directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who were originally attached. Their script remains the source material, said producer Andrew Lazar. Lazar credited their balance of supernatural and authentic comic-book elements with solving 15 years of development hell on Hex.

"I also want to say that Neveldine and Taylor wrote a really good script," Lazar said. "I developed several different iterations of Jonah Hex and couldn't really get the movie off the ground. Neveldine and Taylor came in with a take on Jonah and wrote a really good script that eventually roped in these talented guys."

"Jonah Hex" stars Josh Brolin as the title character and Megan Fox as a prostitute called Leila. It opens on June 18, 2010.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Sci Fi Wire, The Geek Files