John Malkovich has joined the cast of Jonah Hex, the Warner Bros adaptation of the DC Comics property. Malkovich will star alongside of Josh Brolin.
Being a “non-superhero”, Jonah did not have a “Rogues gallery” comparable to Superman or The Flash, though he had a few adversaries who returned from time to time. The first and most notable of these to date was Quentin Turnbull, known at first as simply the man with the eagle-topped cane.
Turnbull was the father of Hex’s best friend, Jeb Turnbull. During the American Civil War, Jonah actually surrendered himself to the Union forces after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, but refused to betray where his fellow soldiers were camped. A Union soldier was able to determine the location of that camp by examining the dirt in the hooves of Jonah’s horse. The Union soldiers captured all of Jonah’s fellow soldiers and then later massacred most of them, framing Jonah as a turncoat. Turnbull’s son was one of those slaughtered and Turnbull vowed his vengeance upon Jonah.
Turnbull hired an unnamed stage actor to impersonate Hex and help “destroy Hex”. This actor, naming himself “The Chameleon”, was eventually hideously scarred in a fire started by Hex, and vowed vengeance upon Hex.
El Papagayo was a Mexican bandit running guns. Hex was hired by the United States Secret Service (actually a man hired by Turnbull to pose as an agent) to infiltrate El Papagayo’s band and bring him to justice. Hex was unsuccessful and he and Papagayo met several more times over the years.
The film is being helmed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears A Who) and is written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The production starts in April.
