Just got around to reading a weird interview with Josh Brolin in the July issue of Wizard. This was the issue I picked up for free at Comic Con Philly. I don't know if Brolin is always this candid in his interviews, but now that I've read a few with him about hex, it seems clear that he was really concerned about this picture.
When Wizard asks "how do you see this character," Brolin says "I'm not sure what my take is on him. It changes all the time."
That's, like, the first part of the printed interview. Sets an odd tone.
Wizard asks him how he feels about the film's forced switch to a PG-13 rating... which I guess was early enough in production that they had to do it for real, and not just by editing out the gory bits. IE: the gory bits were never even shot, so there's little hope for adding them all back in for a massive R-rated home video release. Do people still say "home video"?
Anyway, Brolin admits "I was really angry, very angry." But then he straightens up to the company line that it's "a way better decision," because they have to be more creative with how they mask the violence. Sort of Hitchcockian, I presume. Although I'm sure any film class would string me up for mentioning Alfred Hitchcock in a riff about Jonah Hex.
Here's the biggie:
"I do think there is a possibility the movie could be bad, but now I feel like there is a greater possibility the movie could be original. I didn't even say good. I said it could be original."
To date, Jonah Hex has scraped up barely $10 million in sales, which will surely flag it as one of the year's biggest bombs.
That's about a million more than MacGruber. But one-seventh of The Last Airbender.
I still plan on getting the Hex blu-ray.
