Malkovich Cast as the Villain in ‘Jonah Hex’

Published by Jeff Leins on: February 12th, 2009

John Malkovich has joined the cast of the comic book adaptation Jonah Hex and will face off against Josh Brolin, the scarred anti-hero.

Malkovich will play Quentin Turnbull, a wealthy Southern plantation owner whose son, Jeb, is killed by Union soldiers during the Civil War.  Jonah Hex (Brolin) was Jeb’s best friend during the war before becoming a bounty hunter and a gunslinger.  Hex is framed for Jeb’s murder and Turnbull swears he will have his vengeance.

Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!) is set to direct after the departure of the film’s screenwriters, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank).

It looks like Josh Brolin is a calling a lot of the shots here for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures.  In November, Brolin told MTV: “What is it I like about this movie? … 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 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.”

This was right before Hayward was picked and then immediately praised by the Oscar-nominated Brolin and now Malkovich.  In my opinion, he couldn’t have picked a better actor.  Maybe Brolin will continue to pick an awesome cast, and this will go from a third tier comic book movie to something people might be interested in.

If only Brolin had this much pull with the failed Goonies 2…  Come on, you know you want to see a sequel.

Meanwhile, Brolin has signed along with Anthony Hopkins for the next Woody Allen movie.  Of course, typical Allen we don’t know story details or a title yet.