Scrying the JONAH HEX screenplay

Stax issues a decree on an old movie screenplay

By Patrick Sauriol     May 19, 2004
Source: FilmForce

FilmForce's resident screenplay reviewer, the enigmatic journalist known only as Stax, has cast his judgement upon a 1997 draft of JONAH HEX. Based on the DC Comics character that mixes the western genre with horror, the 1997 William Farmer script of HEX was never made. That's too bad, claims Stax, because he liked what he found in Farmer's tales of a Confederate soldier and the supernatural.

With the majority of the screenplay's action taking place in 1869, Jonah Hex is earning a living as an unusual bounty hunter, a man that specializes in tracking down creatures and monsterous beings in the old west. After apprehending his latest fugitive (a werewolf, no less), Hex is approached to bring down a dark magician named Guillermo by a Civil War veteran named Forrest. Hex takes the job, and it turns out to be not as simple as he thought. By the time Hex has figured out how high the stakes are, the life of the President of the United States hangs in the balance and the stage is set for a second Civil War to begin.

"I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed JONAH HEX, a strange figure I'd always been intrigued by as a young reader of DC Comics," said Stax of Farmer's take on the gunslinger. "This character could have easily been poked fun at and the entire story could have devolved into gimmickry. This Jonah was a cool, creepy yet sympathetic protagonist."

You can read Stax's full review of the unused JONAH HEX screenplay at the FilmForce website.


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