The translator of Thanos returns to one of the biggest failures of his career

It’s been almost 40 years since Josh Brolin walked his silhouette across our screens, since his unforgettable debut in The Goonies. An inevitably checkered career highlighted by famous films such as No Country for Old Men or Sicario. To the younger generation, he is best known for his incarnations of Thanos in Marvel or Cable in Deadpool 2.

And, on the side, very forgettable films, not to mention great artistic and commercial failures, such as Jonah Hex, an adaptation of the (non)adventures of the character created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga, owned by DC Comics.

Released in 2010, the film was one of the biggest box office failures of the year. After a disastrous start in the United States, where it grossed just over $5 million on 2,825 screens, it eventually grossed just $11 million at the worldwide box office, on a production budget of an ultimately modest $47 million.

Such was the indifference surrounding the film that in France it was not even released in cinemas, but instead straight to DVD and Blu-ray.

Shooting in hell

In 2016, St A podcast from The NerdistJosh Brolin confided his bitter experience: “Oh, Jonah Hex, I hated it. I hated it! It would have been a much better movie to show us the experience of filming than what we did, which was turning 66 pages of a script in 12 days. So. I understand that at some point investors are trying to save money. “

Thanks to the festival, where a few days ago he was supposed to receive an honorary award for his entire career, the actor once again had the opportunity to talk to Jonah Hex on the microphone. varietyIn hardly more measured terms. But the clinical conclusion of the company’s failure remains unchallenged.

For an actor so invested in the project, his biggest mistake was calling on an inexperienced director, Jimmy Hayward. “Everybody knows what I think about Jonah Hex. One of the biggest problems was rushing the director. I remember Jeff Robinov, who I’m still close to, who was running Warner Bros. at the time, and he said, ‘Look, you’ve got to find a director in the next two weeks, vs. In that case, we will have to cancel the film.”

And then you meet someone who has a lot of knowledge, Jimmy Hayward, and I remember that it wasn’t right. I loved his enthusiasm, but he just didn’t have the experience and he wasn’t involved in the way I thought a director would be, like those directors who go home at the end of the day and look for inspiration by watching Scorsese movies. or something like that. Instead, he was partying.” We will appreciate the ass kicking…

A struggling actor

Brolin also laments that the actors he helped assemble didn’t get a film worth their efforts. “At that time, not that I was overweight, but I brought it in.” Megan Who I thought was perfect for this role” He comments. “You may not have been the best actress at the time, but you couldn’t do better than this kind of parody.

and Fassbender ? One of our best actors who performed hunger and Shame on you. John Malkovich, who recently dropped Bernard Maddow, who we asked to take on the role for a third of his usual fee. He said yes…

I mean, I still owe a lot to those people… So the intention was, I just think we made a big mistake with the director. It’s not entirely my fault because it was my choice, my bad choice. “

Brolin puts the final banner on the studio’s decision to butcher the film, which logically didn’t help. “The studio was making a movie, and every time that happened, it just got worse. The thing is, you don’t know what the audience wants. They were like, ‘How are we going to make the movie affordable. What is possible?” And in the end, they made the least accessible film ever.”

Admittedly, on the assembly side, this is an absolute chore. So much so that the duration of the film is 1 hour 20 7 minutes including the credits… in short, a complete artistic and commercial shipwreck.