Source: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Official Website: Jonah-Hex.com After a disappointing opening weekend box office take of $5.4 million, the Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures` comic book adaptation JONAH HEX plummeted 70% this past weekend to $1.6 million in ticket sales. The film is already being labeled one of the biggest failures of 2010 and has further cemented actress Megan Fox`s growing reputation as box office poison. The one bright spot so far has been lead actor Josh Brolin, whose performance as the DC Comics western hero has drawn positive notices. Warner Bros. recently sent us photos and detailed production notes for JONAH HEX so we thought we`d show the film a little love and share the material with any SciFi Japan readers who have seen JONAH HEX and/or enjoyed the comic book series... SPOILER WARNING: This article contains plot details for a new movie.

JONAH HEX

JONAH HEX (JOSH BROLIN) is a scarred drifter and bounty hunter of last resort, a stoic, battle-hardened gunslinger who can track down anyone…and anything. Having survived death, Jonah’s violent history is steeped in myth and legend, and has left him with one foot in the natural world and one on the “other side.” A man fated to wander alone, his sole human connection is with Lilah (MEGAN FOX), whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. Jonah’s past is about to catch up with him when the U.S. military makes him an offer he can’t refuse: in exchange for freedom from the warrants on his head, he must track down and stop the sinister terrorist Quentin Turnbull (JOHN MALKOVICH), the man who killed Hex’s family and mutilated his face with a branding iron. Turnbull, who is gathering an army and preparing to unleash Hell, is also Jonah’s oldest enemy and will stop at nothing until Jonah is dead. Based on the legendary character from the comic book series from DC Comics, JONAH HEX is an epic action adventure about one man’s personal quest for redemption against the canvas of the battle between good and evil. The film stars Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “No Country For Old Men”), two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich (“In the Line of Fire,” “Places in the Heart”), Megan Fox (“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), Michael Fassbender (“Inglourious Basterds”), Will Arnett (“Blades of Glory”) and Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”). Jimmy Hayward directed the film, marking his live-action directorial debut. The screenplay is by William Neveldine & Bryan Taylor from a story by William Farmer and Neveldine & Taylor, based on comic books written by John Albano, illustrated by Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. The film is produced by Academy Award winner Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) and Andrew Lazar (“Get Smart”). Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, William Fay, Matt LeBlanc, John Goldstone and Ravi Mehta served as executive producers, with Richard Middleton, Miri Yoon and Margot Lulick co-producing. The behind-the-scenes team is led by director of photography Mitchell Amundsen (“Transformers”), production designer Tom Meyer (“Orphan”), editors Fernando Villena (“Gamer”) and Tom Lewis (“Old Dogs”) and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (“Watchmen”). The music is by two-time Oscar® nominated composer Marco Beltrami (“The Hurt Locker,” “3:10 to Yuma”) with rock artists Mastodon. JONAH HEX will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual content.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

DEAD OR ALIVE: Bringing the Comic Book Legend to the Screen

In the action-packed adventure thriller JONAH HEX, Josh Brolin brings the tough Civil War veteran and bounty hunter to life with a bad-ass attitude and wry humor. A man who has gone to hell and back and has the scars to prove it, Jonah Hex is not your typical hero. In his quest for revenge, he will take down any villain with a price on his head to rid the Earth of all the evil he has witnessed. “He’s an absolute complete loner from every point of view,” says Josh Brolin, the acclaimed actor playing the title role. “He’s tortured. He’s full of rage and guilt. His journey in this movie is personal—he wants revenge.” Megan Fox plays Lilah, the beautiful yet tough courtesan at a New Orleans brothel who becomes his partner in crime. Together, in a sprawling adventure that takes them to the heart of the Deep South, Lilah joins forces with Jonah to bring down Quentin Turnbull, played by John Malkovich, a former colonel in the Confederate army. Jonah lost his family to Turnbull’s murderous vengeance and will stop at nothing to see him dead, but Turnbull has his own score to settle with the gunslinger. When Jonah and Lilah come face to face with Turnbull’s mad schemes, Jonah has to draw on all his powers—both of this world and beyond—to stop him. “JONAH HEX is a classic revenge tale with the future of the union hanging in the balance,” says producer Akiva Goldsman. “Jonah Hex has access to the netherworld. He can talk to the dead and is unstoppable, possibly even unkillable, though Turnbull will try. Jonah is a unique hero.” “There is a spiritual element that follows Jonah everywhere he travels,” Brolin adds, “and no one really knows how he got that way. What is the truth? What’s not the truth? Half of his whole background is lore.” The roots of DC Comics’ popular and long-running Jonah Hex comic book series trace back to the 1970s. Originated as a purely Western tough, the character has crossed boundaries and genres that steeped him in the elements of the supernatural.

The film’s screenplay, by the team of Neveldine & Taylor, emerges from the look and tone of the graphic novels but creates an all-new adventure for the gunslinger. “People who read the comic came out loving the character,” Neveldine says. Taylor adds, “We were drawn to the character of Jonah Hex…he’s a haunted soul driven by revenge, a man of violence; but he’s got a sense of humor too. He’s vulgar, he’s sarcastic…the flawed human being behind the campfire legend.” Producer Andrew Lazar, who has wanted to bring Jonah Hex to the screen for almost 15 years, observes, “Jonah Hex is a guy who has his own version of what justice is. He’s the kind of guy that would prefer to save an animal than a human, especially if that human is morally corrupt, and is not afraid to kill somebody if he needs to. He has taken many bullets and not died—a guy who’s got one foot in the grave, one foot out of the grave. So, between that lore and the scar on his face, he has become this kind of mythological figure in the West.” “This is a tortured, mutilated man that is tough as nails, can take on anybody and can virtually hear bullets coming at him,” director Jimmy Hayward offers. “He’s a hero to some, a villain to most. Wherever he goes, people speak his name in whispers. As Turnbull says, ‘Hex doesn’t know how to die.’ But as you tear off the layers of Jonah Hex, you realize he’s a guy who paid for his role in the Civil War and has redeemed himself, and then had everything taken away from him in a time and place where life is cheap and good men die like dogs. And he wants his revenge.” The key component in realizing Hayward’s vision was the man playing the title role. “When Josh Brolin is playing Jonah Hex, he carries that complete bad-ass attitude,” says Hayward. “He carries the scar as if it’s been with him all his life, and all you’ve got to do is look in his eyes to see everything you need to know about Jonah Hex.” “Josh is a world class actor,” producer Akiva Goldsman adds. “He’s a great anchor and speaks to the emotions of the movie and of the narrative. In his work, he’s a lot like Jonah Hex —he does what it takes to get it done. He brings a real depth of emotion to the character.”

The disfiguring scar that mars Jonah’s face and in many ways defines him is barely noticed by Lilah, one of Jonah’s last remaining connections to humanity and possibly his only weakness. Megan Fox feels her character’s own journey in life mirrors Hex’s in many ways, and was drawn to the star-crossed nature of their relationship. “Jonah Hex is very jaded from his past,” she says. “He’s so afraid of loving someone because he can’t ever be vulnerable. And then you have Lilah, who is in love with him, and this struggle exists between the two of them, with her trying to get him to open up and accept her and love her fully.” Unlike Jonah, Lilah carries her scars on the inside. “Megan did an amazing job bringing both toughness and sensuality to this role,” Goldsman says. “Megan easily moved back and forth between being ‘the girl’ to being somebody who’s going to do some ass-kicking on her own. And she makes the connection Lilah shares with Jonah palpable and real. She wants to be his partner in crime.” But Jonah resists being close with anyone, much less Lilah. “He’s a hardened bounty hunter and thinks that if anyone gets close to him, they’re going to die,” Brolin notes. “That created an interesting balancing act for us between telling that kind of anti-love story and having them be intimate with one another. Ultimately, they can’t be together because they both have unfinished business.” For Jonah Hex, the unfinished business is Quentin Turnbull, the man who murdered his family in an act of revenge against Jonah for killing his own son, who was Jonah’s best friend and fellow soldier. “Quentin is a guy who had his heart ripped out in the Civil War,” Hayward notes. “He has a shared history with Jonah Hex: they both brought brutal tragedies to each other’s lives. When Jonah learns Turnbull is alive, nothing on this earth—or the next—can stop him from finding the man who took away his family.” John Malkovich notes that Turnbull’s quest for revenge is a broad, wide-ranging assault, “Turnbull holds Jonah Hex responsible for the death of his son, who was in the same unit as him. But I think, in a bigger sense, his problem is the fact that he holds the North responsible for a kind of annihilation of a way of life. He still has immensely hard feelings and a sense of grievance unleashed by those terrible years.” Working in the shadows with stolen munitions and cutting-edge military devices, Turnbull has set his sights on nothing less than destroying the Union that emerged from the war and ended what Turnbull perceived as the South’s primacy. “Most people who do bad or even questionable acts are described as villains, but I don’t think they see themselves particularly as villains,” the actor states.

Malkovich made the character a worthy adversary for Brolin’s embodiment of Hex. Lazar states, “There’s nobody better than Josh Brolin as Jonah Hex, and as good as your hero is, you want to weigh the movie with a villain that has just as much power.” Brolin says, “It was very easy to act against what John created, which was something that was far and beyond what any of us foresaw. John brought so much to the movie in the role, and in his demeanor and generosity as an actor. He can carry unpredictable rage like no one else. You don’t know when it’s coming, but when it does it comes straight at you. He’s such an incredible inspiration.” “It’s pretty fun to see John and Josh go toe to toe at one another,” says Lazar. “You couldn’t get two finer actors. JONAH HEX is based on this really iconic comic book, and then you’ve got a center, Josh Brolin, whose body of work is completely unique and credible. And then you have John Malkovich. So, you’ve got this amazing comic book and heightened western experience, and at its center are these two phenomenal actors.” After Turnbull and his crew hijack a Union train and rob from it dangerous munitions, President Grant, played by Aidan Quinn, starts to see the warning signs of Turnbull’s violent plot to execute a catastrophic terrorist attack on the Union. “Turnbull is leading a gang of marauders in hopes of organizing them to overthrow the United States government in Washington,” Malkovich comments.

Grant himself sets Jonah back onto Turnbull’s trail, sending Lieutenant Grass, played by Will Arnett, along with his younger counterpart, Lieutenant Evan, played by John Gallagher, Jr., to enlist Hex in the hunt for Turnbull. Though Arnett is better known for his career in comedy, this is a serious role. The actor observes, “Grass is a representative of the Union army, which has just won the Civil War, and he’s kind of pompous about that. His attitude is, ‘We put down this revolt. We’re in charge now, and this is how the world is going to work. We’re going to use information; we’re going to use technology; we’re going to use communication systems that haven’t existed prior to this. And you’re all going to get in line.’” Lieutenant Evan, by contrast, is less admiring of the U.S. government and more taken with the myth surrounding Jonah Hex. “He really admires Hex and has a bit of hero worship for him, but is himself a rather meek and mild Union soldier who is just following orders from Grass,” Gallagher says. “But you get the sense that Evan would rather be galloping off with Jonah Hex, taking orders from him.” At the top of Turnbull’s ruthless pack of outlaws is Burke, a tattooed, maniacal Irishman, played by Michael Fassbender. “He’s a pretty shifty character,” Fassbender relates. “I don’t think he’s got much of a conscience, really. He does what he pleases. He’s a survivor essentially, kind of like a rat, but he’s smart. He’ll adapt and improvise to whatever circumstances he’s in. But he’ll always keep an eye on his own back.”

Goldsman points out that having to take on both Turnbull and Burke stacks the deck against Jonah Hex, “Between the deviousness and madness that Michael brings to Burke and the quiet rage of John’s Turnbull, together they combine to be a formidable force for darkness.” Also aiding in Turnbull’s plan is Adelman Lusk, a wealthy plantation owner who doesn’t grasp the full scope of the former Colonel’s madness. Lusk, played by Wes Bentley, simply believes the South will rise again and is in league with Turnbull for profit, while Turnbull becomes less and less rational each day. “I imagined someone who would do this as being an extremely weaselly guy,” Bentley says. “He’s a bit of a mole or a traitor. He has enough involvement with the government to provide the information for the traitorous acts that Turnbull wants to inflict on the country.” Despite being outnumbered, Jonah has resources of his own, including the wily Lilah, who comes to Jonah’s aid when he needs her most. His path to finding Turnbull is informed by the dead—whose secrets only Jonah can hear—as well as strange and brutal survivors of the war living out in the margins of society. To locate a former Colonel in the Confederate army, played by Tom Wopat, Jonah ventures into the carnival sideshow of Doc Cross Williams, played by Michael Shannon. “On the evening that Jonah Hex finds his way to Doc Cross’s carnival, he’s presenting these brutal contests, like the wolf versus the mongrel,” Shannon describes. “We wind it up with a very special presentation of Doc’s unique beast, which is a creature possibly from the netherworld, or maybe just a disfigured human. It’s hard to tell when you see him. But Jonah finds a special use for this abomination, and I won’t say how that turns out except that it’s the last night of Doc’s carnival for now,” the actor grins. He also pays a visit to his old friend, Smith, a former slave and a weapons expert, played by Lance Reddick. “In his travels, Jonah has made friends and enemies both,” Brolin says. “Lucky for him, Smith is a friend, and helps him obtain the resources he needs to face down his enemies.”

HEIGHTENED REALITY: Creating the world of JONAH HEX To bring the Jonah Hex graphic novels to life, Hayward and the producers collaborated with the key department heads to craft an original, visceral world that would reinvent the iconic Western aesthetic and reflect the story’s comic book origins. “Whether it was the cinematography, production design, makeup or the costume design, we wanted it all to be a little heightened,” Lazar explains. “We asked ourselves, ‘How far can you take it while staying authentic? How do we keep one foot in reality but also pay tribute to the fact that Jonah Hex has been this amazing comic book?’ Essentially, we were able to take reality and stylize it just enough to make it seem totally unique.” The character’s trademark, of course, is the disfiguring scar that takes up half his face. It is the result of Quentin Turnbull’s branding iron and a lifelong reminder of the lust for revenge Jonah carries in his heart.

“Jonah Hex was my favorite comic book character growing up, and the scar is so much a part of who he is,” says Hayward. “To me, the most striking part of Jonah Hex was that rope of skin that stretches over his mouth. If I look at all the different versions of Jonah Hex that have been drawn over the years, the one unifying idea is this scar. To create a lifelike prosthetic that would reflect the production’s vision for the character’s look while nodding at the tradition of the comic, Brolin and the filmmakers worked with makeup effects artist Christien Tinsley and his effects company, Tinsley Studio. “We went through all these different variations of what it should be and what it shouldn’t be,” Brolin recalls, “and Christien came up with this ingenious contraption to make it real. Doing something practically gives you a lot of freedom to be creative.” Tinsley began by attaching a silk tab to the right side of Brolin’s face to make the skin taut and allow for a thinner look. Next, he applied the first layer prosthetic and placed dentures that housed a high gauge dental wire to draw back the lips and push the cheek inward to create the negative space that is the Jonah Hex trademark. Finally, Tinsley applied a silicone prosthetic, painted the pieces to blend into Brolin’s skin and added facial hair stubble to complete the look. The complexity of creating a realistic version of a comic book character through makeup and without the aid of VFX enhancement was a challenge the makeup artist reveled in. “From the beginning, I knew we could not match exactly the comic book’s exaggerated look nor did we want to,” he comments. “We were balancing an emotionally complicated character that audiences needed to connect with while offering the flavor of the comic book drawings. In order to achieve the look, we knew that it would be an uncomfortable process for the actor. However, Josh was always very encouraging and didn’t want to detract from the look simply because of the discomfort. He wanted reality…and he was willing to go through the process in order to achieve that.” The notion of heightened reality infused the entire production, particularly the costumes created by costume designer Michael Wilkinson and his team. For JONAH HEX, Wilkinson offers, “I like the ambiguous quality that Jonah has in that he seems to be unkillable. People have taken shots at him over the years and he keeps going. He’s a true anti-hero, not just a two-dimensional ‘good guy.” With his costume, I wanted to explore how he walks the line between a gritty, sweaty realism and the stylized world of the graphic novel.”

Wilkinson started with the Confederate wool grays that are right out of the graphic novels, and topped it with a linen duster jacket that would help tell Jonah’s tale. “You have the litany of his past in his duster jacket,” Wilkinson says. “There are many gunshots through it as well as bloodstains, rips, tears, dried mud and dirt. He has been wandering the Southern states since the Civil War ended, and he presumably hasn’t changed clothes in that time. They’re all aged beautifully—scraped, sandpapered, sprayed and splattered. And the filmmakers really liked the vision of him riding through the ranges with his cape flowing behind him almost with a kind of quasi-superhero kind of feel.” Jonah comes equipped with impressive weaponry. In addition to his tomahawk, his 1873 Colt in one holster, and a Remington conversion in the other, Jonah has rigged twin Gatling guns affixed to his horse, which he puts to good use in bringing in his bounty. He also obtains from Smith a crossbow rigged to shoot sticks of dynamite instead of arrows. Property master Keith Walters wanted to stay within the realm of believability for the era but also invent new types of weapons for the story. “The Gatling guns on Jonah’s saddle and the dynamite crossbow are complete inventions,” he notes. “We had both of these fabricated to look like the real thing but lighter. Jonah also uses a flame thrower in his final fight with Turnbull’s men; those weren’t used in the Civil War, though they did exist. But the Gatling guns Turnbull has armed his ship with are the real things.”

Lilah’s weapons of choice are a push-dagger and a single shot Derringer that are both easily concealable within her garter belts and corsets. In crafting costumes for Megan Fox’s Lilah, Wilkinson says he wanted them to be as character-driven as Jonah’s. “Megan has an amazing physique and we wanted to show her like she’s never been seen before. So, we corseted her right down to her twenty-inch waist, which is kind of unbelievable. But we wanted to beat up her costumes to show that her clothes weren’t just a fashion statement. She looks beautiful, but her character has a back story. She’s very worn around the edges; she has limited resources, and there’s an element of desperation to her. So, we put a lot of work into aging all of her costumes so it felt like she’d been wearing the same pieces for awhile, in different combinations. All of her clothes have a sense of history to them.” “Michael is a brilliant man, and the costumes he created for Lilah were amazing,” raves Fox. “I had never worn a corset before, so I had to get used to it, but it definitely helped with the character. It changed the way I held myself, the way I walked, the way I breathed, which even changed the way I speak. It really helped me get into Lilah’s skin and experience, moment-by-moment, the kind of restrictions she’s used to living with.” As with the other characters, Wilkinson layered Turnbull’s history into Malkovich’s wardrobe. “For John’s costumes, there’s a sense of Turnbull’s past and what he has given up,” Wilkinson describes. “Prior to the Civil War, he had a beautiful plantation down South. He gave all that up. He escaped into the woods and formed his own army and went totally underground. So, I liked the sense that you could get a feel of the richness of the clothes that he used to wear—the lustrous wool, the beautiful silk vest, the velvet frock coat. But he had maybe worn these clothes year in, year out, slept in them, eaten in them, ridden horses in them. The top layer is a long suede duster jacket with gritty fur. There’s an element of a wild man superimposed over a rich plantation owner, and I liked the clashing of those two worlds.” Completing the look is Turnbull’s cane, which Keith Walters fabricated at Hayward’s direction. Using a local tailor and a wealth of research, Wilkinson and his team put together the entire film’s wardrobe from scratch—from mining town desperados to brothel workers to U.S. soldiers—to ensure the authenticity of the clothes. “I like the sense when you’re looking at a tableau on the screen that nothing feels cheated, it is complete, and finely detailed,” he states.

For production designer Tom Meyer, the challenge was to create a rich, detailed, believable world that would inform Jonah’s tumultuous journey. “As he meanders across the West, through the Southwest, and eventually into the deep South into Louisiana, you are getting closer and closer to his past and deeper into his true character and history,” Meyer explains. “The deep South itself is a great visual metaphor for the ghosts that he’s either running from or trying to conquer and put to rest. So, we start off in the West—in the hot, dry desert sand—and as we move South, things get wetter and deeper and a little more complicated.” Remarkably, the production managed to find all of these different vistas in and around New Orleans, Louisiana. “We shot in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans, but we also shot in every direction outside the city,” Meyer comments. “One of the things that we wanted to do throughout the film was to shoot as much in-camera as possible and not augment the sets with too much CGI. The idea was to layer the supernatural elements over a real, very dirty post-Civil War America. This isn’t the future where you can get away with things that are imagined. People have a sense of history and especially Americana and the West and the Southwest. And so if we could build something real in three dimensions, it would give us the kind of depth and realism we wanted.” One of the company’s largest builds was the silver mining town Stunk Crick, where Jonah delivers his bounty of four corpses to the sheriff and engages in an explosive shoot-out with the town’s toughs. Stunk Crick was built from the ground up, 14 buildings including a five story mining building and a road nearly two miles long that extended into the backwoods of a private property in St. Francisville, Louisiana.

“It’s from comic books, so it needed to be surreal to some degree,” Meyer observes. “I saw these photos of sand dunes in Louisiana, and having looked at daguerreotypes and tintypes of the period of silver mining towns, these sand dunes just clicked for me. It was literally a giant sandbox that we could push around with bull dozers and sculpt into a desert valley. So, we built the Stunk Crick set at this location, with the kind of wide-open streets and flat façades that were common for the era. I wanted it to be a believable, three-dimensional space so the camera would be able to move around in it. We had lumber milled specially for the town so it would appear period, and you could see the fibers of the wood.” “We built this small Nevada mining town in a sand spit in Louisiana,” Hayward recounts. “When you look at the storyboards, it’s amazing how close Tom got the location to what we dreamed up because Louisiana doesn’t look anything like this.” The New Orleans area offered the production a wealth of divergent settings, beginning with the historic French Quarter, which only required a layering of dirt over the street, signage, horse drawn carriages and set dressing to look as it might have in the 1800s; the historic Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville; City Park, a former golf course that became overgrown post-Hurricane Katrina, which became a town called Cactus Hole, complete with the narrow alleys of low slung adobe buildings and a fully built Catholic mission church with four-story bell tower co-opted into Lilah’s brothel lording over the town; and Crown Point, on the edge of the Jean Lafitte Preserve. Another key location was historic Fort Pike, which is one of the only standing forts left from the early 19th century. Relatively unscathed from the war (though it did not escape Hurricane Katrina), it became Fort Resurrection, where Turnbull prepares his onslaught.

For the sequence in which Turnbull and his men hijack and destroy a train, the company set up tracks in Raceland, southwest of New Orleans. This was one of the most challenging sequences, involving horses, a moving train and live explosives, and to accomplish it all practically, the production required a real working train. “We built 500 feet of full-scale running train cars at Raceland,” Meyer recalls. “We looked at a lot of locomotives all across the country and ended up using one that was based out of New Orleans, The Spirit of St. Louis. Its scale was much bigger than anything of the period of the 1860s or ‘70s, so I had to make everything else over-scale—we added the big diamond smokestack, cow catcher and a giant lantern. We built two flat cars for armament transport, an open air troop transport car, a fully built first class car, and an agriculture cart for sugarcane that literally rains down fire following the explosion. The idea was to take the reality and turn it on its head a little bit. I still wanted it to look like something of the period but tweaked to match the aesthetic of the movie.” To complete some of the interiors for the film, production set up soundstages in Harahan, where Meyer and his crew created sets such as the brothel where Lilah has a room; the Union officers’ tent; the interior cannon deck of Turnbull’s ship; a Native American sweat tent; and Doc Cross’s elaborate fight carnival theatre tent. But perhaps the largest set piece of the film was Turnbull’s technological creation—an armed battleship from which he plans to launch his attack on the United States. A full-size 150-foot ship based on the period Merrimack was constructed in Bayou Gauche, a scenic marshland criss-crossed with interlocking canals, about 36 miles southwest of New Orleans. Here, Meyer, supervising art director Seth Reed, art director Jonah Markowitz and construction coordinator Chuck Stringer and their teams constructed the ship as it stood in dry dock, waiting to set sail and take on the new Union navy. “We based the ship on the Merrimack and other ironsides of the period,” says Meyer. “This is the vessel that Turnbull is resuscitating to make his big charge up the Potomac and attack D.C. We also built a 90-foot boat modeled after the Monitor in a boatyard and then barged it up from the shipyards to our set, through several drawbridges and around Lake Ponchartrain. Building these huge 19th-century battleships was pretty exciting. The sculpting and plaster department made a full gun deck of 14-foot cannons that SFX rigged to fire and recoil for the final battle.” Additional shooting was completed in and around Los Angeles, including exteriors at Disney Ranch and at Melody Ranch, both in Newhall; interiors at L.A. Center Studios; and City Hall, which stood in for the Federal Reserve. A tank in Long Beach was used for a water sequence with Jonah and Lilah.

THE SOUTH RISES: The Action of JONAH HEX

Of all the battles seen in the film, the most complex and elaborate took place on Turnbull’s ship, where production utilized the largest number of extras in the production. Many of them were Civil War reenactors, who came with their own period-specific costumes and weapons for the fight between Turnbull’s boat and a Yankee cutter. “We used a lot stunt people to perform the falls and high risk stunts, but the reenactors did a lot of shooting because they came with their own period guns and know the drill,” says stunt coordinator and second unit director Steve Ritzi. “With so much mayhem, this scene required really careful choreography and a lot of collaboration with Tom Meyer’s crew to ensure maximum safety.” In addition to the sequences shot on location in Louisiana, some of the tight hallways and other spaces within the belly of the ship were shot at the USS Lane Victory, a ship docked in San Pedro. This is where Lilah engages in a cat and mouse stand-off with Turnbull’s thugs. “Megan is accustomed to action through her work in the ‘Transformers’ movies, so she was ready to take out five guys in a gunfight,” stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara offers. “On the ship, the hallways are really tight and we worked with her on how to move through them. She picked it up quickly and is very convincing in this tense stand-off between Lilah and Turnbull’s men.” O’Hara also worked with Brolin and Malkovich to bring bone-crunching realism to the stand-off between the two longtime enemies, Hex and Turnbull. “We tested this sequence with a team of stuntmen to make sure it could be done safely, considering how intense the fight is, and John and Josh came in and did it flawlessly. Having such intense actors as Brolin and Malkovich delivering lines as they’re beating the hell out of each other was definitely the highlight of the experience.” Doc Cross’s carnival tent was another site of a major action sequence. Built like a Western-style gladiator arena with a pit and raised bleachers above for the audience, the ring is the site of dog fights as well as fights between men. Although real dogs performed in the sequence, animatronic puppets were also used to ensure the animals weren’t harmed.

This sequence features an arena fight with an incredibly nimble man who looks more like a creature than a human being. To fill this role, the filmmakers enlisted free runner, stuntman and extreme skateboarder William Spencer, whom Christien Tinsley made over as a feral subhuman killing machine. “William was able to do all these crazy moves wearing prosthetics,” describes Ritzi. “He did an amazing job playing this character where he was running across walls and flipping over Jonah. It helped make it a really visceral fight.” “In the graphic novels, the whole Western mythology is a jumping off point that takes Jonah into deeper, stranger realms,” Hayward says. “Visually, we wanted the movie to take the audience on the same kind of journey.” “We have full-tilt action sequences in this movie, but we also have quiet moments where you see Jonah with Lilah and get a window into his soul,” says Lazar. “I think that in non-sentimental ways, in the midst of this cocktail of action and revenge, this movie really brings out the heart of Jonah Hex. It may be dark and blackened, but it shows why this character has endured for so long and gained a fanbase. So, whether you’re a fan of Westerns or even supernatural Westerns, we made a real conscious decision to try to bring a sense of excitement and a new world to JONAH HEX.” Goldsman adds, “This story, this tone, and these characters are plumbed from comics across the lifetime of the character. ‘JONAH HEX’ is the embodiment of western myths, but twisted together in fun, bizarre and totally fresh ways.”

ABOUT THE CAST

JOSH BROLIN (Jonah Hex) is an award winning actor/producer/director, with a career spanning film, stage and television. In 2008, he garnered nominations for an Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and received awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review for his memorable portrayal of Dan White in Gus Van Sant`s acclaimed film “Milk.” Brolin also received rave reviews for his portrayal of George W. Bush in Oliver Stone`s controversial biopic “W.” In 2007, he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of an ensemble for his work in Joel and Ethan Coen`s “No Country for Old Men,” which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Brolin also starred in Ridley Scott`s 2007 blockbuster “American Gangster,” alongside Denzel Washington. The film received a Golden Globe nomination for best picture and Brolin was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble. Brolin has several diverse upcoming films slated for release this year. He re-teamed with Oliver Stone for the highly anticipated “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” opposite Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas, in theatres September 24th. Also set to release in September is Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” in which Brolin stars alongside Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts. Additionally, Brolin co-stars as a ruthless killer opposite Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon in the Coen brothers’ remake of the classic film “True Grit,” in theatres on Christmas Day. Brolin made his feature film debut starring in Richard Donner’s classic action-comedy “Goonies,” produced by Steven Spielberg. It was his portrayal of a bisexual federal agent in director David O. Russell’s 1996 film ”Flirting with Disaster,” which gained recognition from critics and cemented his successful transition to mature roles. His other films include Guillermo Del Toro’s “Mimic;” “Best Laid Plans,” produced by Mike Newell; Ole Bornedal’s “Nightwatch”; Scott Silver’s “Mod Squad”; Jim Stern’s controversial film “All the Rage,” which premiered at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival; “Coastline,” directed by Victor Nunez, which debuted at the 2002 Sundance Film festival; Paul Verhoeven’s blockbuster “Hollow Man”; “Into the Blue,” Paul Haggis’ “In the Valley of Elah”; and “Planet Terror,” part of the critically acclaimed Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature “Grindhouse.”

On stage, Brolin starred opposite Elias Koteas in the acclaimed Broadway production of Sam Shepard`s “True West.” In 2004, Brolin starred in the award-winning Off-Broadway play “The Exonerated,” based on the true stories of former death row inmates. His additional stage credits include “Skin of the Teeth,” “The Crucible” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Kennedy Memorial Theatre; “A Midsummer Night`s Dream” at the Lebrero Theatre; and “Dark of the Moon” at the Ann Capa Ensemble Theatre. He also spent five years with Anthony Zerbe at the Reflections Festival at the GeVa Theatre in Rochester, New York, performing in and directing several of the festival`s plays, including “Pitz and Joe,” “Life in the Trees,” “Forgiving Typhoid Mary,” “Oh, The Innocents,” “Peep Hole,” “Ellen Universe Joins the Band,” “Lincoln Park Zoo” and “Hard Hearts.” In early 2008, Brolin made his film directing debut with a short entitled “X,” which he also wrote and produced. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival before screening at such festivals as South by Southwest and the AFI Dallas Film Festival. He also directed the behind-the-scenes documentary for the “No Country for Old Men” DVD. In 2009, Brolin served as executive producer, along with Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn, on the documentary which aired on the History Channel entitled “The People Speak,” based on Howard Zinn’s influential 1980 book A People’s History of the United States. Depicting America’s struggles with war, class, race and women’s rights, the film features readings by Viggo Mortensen, Sean Penn, and David Strathairn, among others. Brolin made his mark early in television, starring in several series including ABC’s popular “The Young Riders”; the acclaimed political drama “Mr. Sterling,” and “Private Eye” for NBC; and CBS’ “Winnetka Road.” Brolin received critical praise for his performance in TNT`s epic miniseries “Into the West,” opposite Beau Bridges, Gary Busey and Jessica Capshaw; co-starred opposite Mary Steenburgen, Gretchen Mol and Bonnie Bedelia in the adaptation of William Inge`s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Picnic,” and “Prison of Children” for CBS; and the Showtime original film “Gang in Blue.” 18

JOHN MALKOVICH (Quentin Turnbull) is an actor/director/producer with an impressive body of work over 25 years spanning film, stage and television. He’ll next be seen in “Secretariat,” reuniting with director Randall Wallace, and Robert Schwecke’s “Red,” with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman, both to be released this fall, as well as Michael Bay’s “Transformers 3” releasing next year. Malkovich has appeared on the big screen in over 70 feature films, including the Coen brothers’ comedy “Burn After Reading”; “Changeling,” for director Clint Eastwood; Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf”; Spike Jonzes’ “Being John Malkovich,” which earned Malkovich the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor; John Dahl’s “Rounders”; “The Man In the Iron Mask” for director Randall Wallace; Simon West’s “Con Air”; “The Portrait of a Lady” for director Jane Campion; Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire;” which garnered Malkovich a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination; Gary Sinise’s “Of Mice and Men”; Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Sheltering Sky”; “Dangerous Liaisons” for director Stephen Frears; Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun”; Paul Newman’s “The Glass Menagerie”; “The Killing Fields” for director Roland Joffé; and Robert Benton’s “Places in the Heart,” for which Malkovich received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as well as Best Supporting Actor Awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. Currently, Malkovich is producing the feature film “Jeff Who Lives at Home,” starring Susan Sarandon, through his banner Mr. Mudd, which most recently produced the highly acclaimed independent film “Juno,” nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Actress and Best Director.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Malkovich first produced “Ghost World,” directed by Terry Zwigoff, through the company, followed by his own feature directorial debut, “The Dancer Upstairs,” starring Academy Award winner Javier Bardem. Other films produced through Mr. Mudd include “The Libertine,” starring Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton and “Art School Confidential,” also directed by Zwigoff and written by screenwriter/cartoonist Dan Clowes. Malkovich also served as Executive Producer on the documentary “How to Draw a Bunny,” a portrait of artist Ray Johnson, which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and the Prix de Public at the famed Recontre Film Festival in Paris. The film was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best documentary in 2003. Malkovich’s work on stage began in 1976, when he became a charter member of the groundbreaking Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. He moved to New York City in 1982 to appear in a Steppenwolf production of the Sam Shepard play “True West,” for which he won an Obie Award. Malkovich then directed a Steppenwolf co-production, the 1984 revival of Lanford Wilson`s “Balm in Gilead,” for which he received a second Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award. His Broadway debut was that year as Biff in “Death of a Salesman,” alongside Dustin Hoffman as Willy. In late 2008, Malkovich directed Zach Helm’s play “The Good Canary,” starring Diego Luna and produced by Mr. Mudd and Mexico’s Canana. Enjoying a 15-week sold-out run touring through several major Mexican cities, its critical acclaim and financial success set a new precedent in Mexican theater. Malkovich’s mark in television includes his Emmy Award-winning performance in the telefilm “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Volker Schlöndorff and reuniting him with Dustin Hoffman, reprising their stage roles. Other notable credits include the miniseries “Les Meserables,” as well as “Napoleon” and the acclaimed HBO telefilm “RKO 281,” the latter two garnering Emmy Award nominations for Malkovich. He recently served as executive producer on “Which Way Home,” a documentary by Sundance award winner Rebecca Cammisa for HBO and Mr. Mudd.

MEGAN FOX (Lilah) will be seen next in the independent drama “Passion Play,” opposite Mickey Rourke and Bill Murray. Additionally, Fox is serving as producer on the live-action feature film adaptation of “Fathom,” in which she will also star. Her other film credits include the dark comedic/horror thriller “Jennifer’s Body,” opposite Amanda Seyfried; “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,” alongside Simon Pegg; and her break-out starring role of Mikaela, opposite Shia LaBeouf, in the blockbuster “Transformers,” and its sequel “Transformers 2.” Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Fox began taking dance lessons at the age of five and continued her training when the family moved to Florida. At age 15, she moved to Los Angeles and began working in feature films and television. MICHAEL FASSBENDER (Burke) most recently co-starred with Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed World War II revenge thriller “Inglourious Basterds” as one of the title characters, Fassbender shared in both a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast Performance and a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble. He was previously honored for his portrayal of Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s controversial biopic “Hunger.” Fassbender’s performance as the jailed Irish Republican Army member, who is elected to the British Parliament even as he leads a prison hunger strike, brought him a British Independent Film Award and a London Film Critics Circle Award, as well as Best Actor Awards at the 2008 Chicago and Stockholm Film Festival Awards. The following year, he won a Best Supporting Actor Award at the Chicago Film Festival for his role in the independent British drama “Fish Tank.”

He also has a number of films upcoming, including Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble actioner “Knockout,” with Ewan McGregor and Antonio Banderas; playing the role of Edward Rochester opposite Mia Wasikowksa and Judi Dench in “Jane Eyre,” directed by Cary Fukunaga; and David Cronenberg’s drama “A Dangerous Method,” with Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen. Born in Germany and raised in Ireland, Fassbender is a graduate of London’s prestigious Drama Centre. His breakthrough role came in HBO’s award-winning World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers,” executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Fassbender made his feature film debut in Zack Snyder’s 2006 blockbuster “300.” His additional credits include the independent films “Angel,” directed by Francois Ozon; Joel Schumacher’s “Blood Creek” and “Eden Lake.” WILL ARNETT (Lieutenant Grass) voices a character in this summer’s anticipated animated film “Despicable Me,” alongside Steve Carell and Julie Andrews. He was most recently seen starring in the romantic comedy “When in Rome,” opposite Kristen Bell and Anjelica Huston, in which he played a suitor trying to win the heart of a young girl after she steals coins from a fountain of love. In 2009, Arnett starred opposite Penelope Cruz, Nicolas Cage, Steve Buscemi, Zach Galifianakis and Bill Nighy in “G-Force,” a combination live-action/CG film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The same year, he voiced a character in the hugely successful 3-D animated adventure film “Monsters vs. Aliens,” alongside Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen, which opened number one at the box office. In 2008, he lent his voice to the hugely successful animated comedy “Horton Hears a Who,” with Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. He also re-teamed with Will Ferrell in the basketball comedy “Semi Pro” after his successful turn with Ferrell in the 2007 figure skating comedy “Blades of Glory,” in which Arnett’s wife, Amy Poehler, also starred. In 2007, Arnett also co-starred opposite Will Forte in “The Brothers Solomon.” Among his other feature credits are “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,” “R.V.,” “Monster-In-Law, “”The Waiting Game,” “The Broken Giant,” “Southie” and “Ed’s Next Move.” In 2008, Arnett garnered an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the recurring role of Devon Banks on NBC’s “30 Rock.” Arnett also earned an Outstanding Supporting Actor Emmy nomination in 2006 for his performance as series regular Gob Bluth on Fox’s critically-acclaimed sitcom “Arrested Development.” In 2009, Arnett sealed a development deal with Fox network and re-teamed with “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz to create “Wilde Kingdom,” a comedy project which he would top line. His additional television credits include a role as a regular on the NBC comedy series “The Mike O’Malley Show,” and guest-starring roles on various series including “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos,” “Boston Public,” “Third Watch” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Arnett also appeared on NBC’s “Will & Grace” in the memorable role of Jack’s dance nemesis auditioning to become a backup dancer for Janet Jackson. Arnett can also be heard in a variety of commercials, most notably as the voice of GMC Trucks. MICHAEL SHANNON (Doc Cross Williams) received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role performance in Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” based on the novel by Richard Yates, adapted by Justin Haythe, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates. He was most recently seen in Floria Sigismondi`s “The Runaways,” opposite Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. He’ll next be seen in Gela Babluani`s “13,” with Mickey Rourke. Shannon has been in over 30 films, including Werner Herzog`s “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done” and “Bad Lieutenant”; Sydney Lumet`s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”; Oliver Stone`s “World Trade Center”; “Bug” for director William Friedkin; Curtis Hanson`s “Lucky You” and “8 Mile”; Michael Bay`s “Bad Boys II” and “Pearl Harbor”; “Kangaroo Jack” for director David McNally; Cameron Crowe`s “Vanilla Sky”; “Cecil B. DeMented” for director John Waters; Noah Buschel`s “The Missing Person”; and Shana Feste`s “The Greatest.” He is also currently on stage off-broadway in David Cromer`s acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder`s “Our Town” at the Barrow Street Theatre. His other stage credits include “Lady,” at the Rattelstick Theatre; “The Metal Children” at the Vineyard Theater; “The Little Flower of East Orange” at the Public Theater; Steppenwolf Theatre’s “The Pillowman” and “Man From Nebraska”; “Bug,” at the Barrow Street, Red Orchid and Gate Theatre; “Mr. Kolpert” at the Red Orchid Theatre; “Killer Joe” at the Soho Playhouse, Next Lab and Vaudeville Theatre; “The Idiot” at the Looking Glass Theatre; “Killer” at the Red Orchid Theatre; and “Woyzeck” at the Gate Theatre. This fall, Shannon will be seen playing opposite Steve Buscemi in Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated HBO series, “Boardwalk Empire,” set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition. He grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and began his professional stage career in Chicago.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JIMMY HAYWARD (Director) is widely renowned for his work in feature film animation. His studio directorial debut, Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who!” starring Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, was a huge success, earning nearly $300 million worldwide. JONAH HEX marks his live-action feature directorial debut. Hayward gained early directorial prominence as a commercial director before venturing into television in the nascent years of CGI as one of the original animators of ABC’s pioneering computer-animated series “Reboot.” He was quickly recruited by Pixar Animation to work as animator on the groundbreaking film “Toy Story,” followed by “Toy Story 2,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Monster’s Inc.” and “Finding Nemo.” After a decade at Pixar, Hayward joined Blue Sky Studios as a writer and sequence director on the animated feature hit “Robots.” AKIVA GOLDSMAN (Producer) is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, as well as a successful producer. His production company, Weed Road Pictures, has produced a wide range of films and also has a number of projects upcoming, including “Fair Game,” starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts under the direction of Doug Liman. Under the Weed Road banner, Goldsman recently produced two mega-hit Will Smith starrers: Peter Berg’s “Hancock,” which earned approximately $625 million worldwide; and Francis Lawrence’s “I Am Legend,” for which Goldsman also co-wrote the screenplay and which took in more than $585 million globally. His additional producing credits with Weed Road include the smash hit actioner “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt under the direction of Doug Liman; Francis Lawrence’s thriller “Constantine”; and Todd Phillips’ action comedy “Starsky & Hutch.” Goldsman won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for his screenplay for the 2001 drama “A Beautiful Mind,” directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer and starring Russell Crowe. Chronicling the tribulations and triumphs of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, who suffered from schizophrenia, the film won numerous honors, including the Oscar for Best Picture. Goldsman reunited with Howard, Grazer and Crowe as the screenwriter on the 2005 biopic “Cinderella Man,” for which Goldsman earned BAFTA Award and WGA Award nominations. He has since re-teamed with Howard and Grazer as the screenwriter on the worldwide blockbusters “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” both starring Tom Hanks and based on the best-selling novels by Dan Brown. His earlier screenwriting credits include “I, Robot,” starring Will Smith; “Practical Magic,” starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman; and the Joel Schumacher-directed films “A Time to Kill,” “Batman Forever” and “The Client.” Goldsman, who grew up in Brooklyn Heights, graduated from Wesleyan University and attended the graduate program in creative writing at New York University. ANDREW LAZAR (Producer) formed the Warner Bros. Studios-based production company Mad Chance in 1995 with a mandate to focus on intriguing material in every genre and budget range, debuting with the Shakespeare-influenced teen comedy “10 Things I Hate About You,” starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. The past few years have been wide-ranging and productive for Lazar. His recent production, “I Love You Phillip Morris,” financed by Luc Besson’s Europa Corp, and the directorial debut of writers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, is a unique, comedic love story starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor and Leslie Mann, and set for release in 2010. Also set for release this summer is “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” the long awaited follow up to the live action/CGI box office hit “Cats & Dogs.” Lazar also has many highly-anticipated projects in development, including “Akira,” a live action remake of the revered anime; madcap art-heist comedy “The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery”; a film version of the ‘70s hit TV show “Welcome Back, Kotter”; “Fleming,” based on the life of James Bond creator Ian Fleming; and “Namath,” a retelling of acclaimed football legend Joe Namath’s story. The Summer of 2008 saw the release of action comedy “Get Smart,” starring Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and Alan Arkin, and directed by Pete Segal. His previous feature releases include the critically acclaimed “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” starring Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts and George Clooney; the pre-teen caper “Catch That Kid”; Danny DeVito’s black comedy “Death to Smoochy,” starring Edward Norton, Robin Williams, and Catherine Keener; Clint Eastwood’s “Space Cowboys,” starring Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones; and Nora Ephron`s lottery comedy “Lucky Numbers,” starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. He also produced the independent dramedy “Panic,” starring William H. Macy and Neve Campbell, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; the Wachowski brothers’ directorial debut, “Bound,” a noir thriller starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly; “The Astronaut’s Wife,” starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron; and Richard Donner’s “Assassins,” starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas. Born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, Lazar discovered his passion for film while attending New York University. After making several student films, he got his first break working for Academy Award-winning producer Richard Zanuck. He joined Dino De Laurentiis Communications as a file clerk and ascended the ranks to become Executive Vice President of Production. Lazar earned his first major film credit serving as executive producer on John Dahl`s provocative “Unforgettable,” starring Ray Liotta. NEVELDINE & TAYLOR (Screenwriters) possess feature credits which include writing and directing “Crank” and its sequel “Crank: High Voltage,” both starring Jason Statham, Amy Smart and Dwight Yoakam, as well as “Gamer,” starring Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall. WILLIAM FARMER (Story) has an extensive background in advertising and has written and produced countless television and radio ads for a variety of national clients. On the big screen, Farmer’s writing credits include independent features “Bullethead,” and “First You Live, Then You Die.” He currently has other projects in development. Farmer also provides effects and sound for film and stage. His film effects work includes director Jim VanBebber’s cult masterpiece “The Manson Family.” For the stage, he has designed and implemented special effects for several Broadway hits including “Cats,” “Starlight Express,” and “Phantom of the Opera.” THOMAS TULL (Executive Producer) has combined his entrepreneurial acumen, deep understanding of film finance and true passion for movies, comic books, video games and fantasy fare to achieve great success in the co-production and co-financing of event movies with Warner Bros. Pictures. Since its inception in 2004, Legendary Pictures has teamed with the studio on hits such as “Superman Returns,” “Batman Begins,” “Watchmen,” the blockbuster “300” and the record-breaking, award-winning film phenomenon “The Dark Knight,” which earned in excess of $1 billion worldwide. More recently, this highly successful partnership produced the blockbuster “Clash of the Titans,” runaway hit comedy “The Hangover” and Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” considered by many an instant classic. Upcoming releases for 2010 include “The Town” and “Due Date.” On deck for 2011 are Bryan Singer’s “Jack the Giant Killer,” Todd Phillips’ “The Hangover” sequel and Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch.” Tull’s company is also developing a number of promising film projects in-house, including “Warcraft,” Warren Ellis’ “Gravel,” “Paradise Lost,” “Hendrix” and a sequel to “300.” Prior to forming Legendary, Tull was President of The Convex Group, a media and entertainment holding company headquartered in Atlanta, on whose Board of Directors he also served. Tull conceived and is a producer of the renowned music documentary “It Might Get Loud,” featuring guitarists The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Jack White (The White Stripes). Directed by Oscar® winner Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”), the film made its world premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Tull is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute (AFI) and the Board of Directors of Hamilton College, his alma mater. He also serves on the boards of the Fulfillment Fund and the San Diego Zoo and is a minority partner in the six-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. JON JASHNI (Executive Producer) oversees the development and production of Legendary film projects including “Warcraft,” “Akira” and “Paradise Lost.” He recently served as executive producer on Louis Leterrier’s boxoffice smash “Clash of the Titans,” ”Todd Phillips’ blockbuster comedy “The Hangover” and Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” Prior to joining Legendary, Jashni was President of Hyde Park Entertainment, a production and financing company with overall deals at 20th Century Fox, Disney and MGM. While there, he oversaw the development and production of “Shopgirl,” “Dreamer,” “Walking Tall” and “Premonition.” Before joining Hyde Park, Jashni was a producer on director Andy Tennant’s romantic comedy smash “Sweet Home Alabama,” which grossed over $175 million worldwide. Jashni’s collaboration with Tennant began with the $90 million-grossing fairytale “Ever After,” for which Jashni oversaw development and production as a senior production executive at 20th Century Fox. Jashni also co-produced two films which received a total of three Academy Award® nominations: the critically acclaimed drama “The Hurricane,” which garnered a Best Actor nod for star Denzel Washington; and a non-musical reinterpretation of “Anna and the King,” which starred Jodie Foster, earned two Oscar® nominations and grossed $110 million worldwide. Jashni was earlier partnered with industry powerbroker Irving Azoff at the Warner Bros.-based Giant Pictures. Together they produced “The Hurricane,” “Jack Frost” and “The Inkwell.” Jashni joined Azoff after a stint as a production executive at Columbia Pictures, where he was involved in the development and production of such films as “Groundhog Day,” “Bram Stoker`s Dracula” and “Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers.” Jashni began his career at Daniel Melnick’s The IndieProd Company, where he was involved in the production of “Air America,” “Mountains of the Moon,” “Roxanne” and “Punchline.” Jashni is a member of the American Film Institute and the Producers Guild of America. He holds a BS from the University of Southern California and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. WILLIAM FAY (Executive Producer) has been a successful producer and executive producer for over 20 years. He is currently president of production at Legendary Pictures which, since its inception in 2005, has joined with Warner Bros. to make such successful films as “Batman Begins,” “Superman Returns,” “300,” “Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight,” which grossed over $1 billion at the box office, was nominated for eight Academy Awards® and won two. Fay also served as executive producer on the box-office hit “Clash of the Titans,” and Todd Phillips’ smash comedy “The Hangover,” which earned $469 million worldwide and quickly became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. Prior to his work at Legendary, Fay was president of Centropolis Entertainment, one of the most successful production companies in Hollywood. During his tenure, Centropolis produced films that totaled nearly $1.5 billion in worldwide box office, including “The Patriot,” starring Mel Gibson, and the blockbuster “Independence Day,” which, at the time of its release, was the second-highest-grossing motion picture of all time, taking in more than $800 million worldwide. Under his leadership, the company also successfully developed digital entertainment ventures such as Centropolis Effects, a top-tier visual effects house, and mothership.com, a leading sci-fi online vertical sold to USA Networks in June 2000. MATT LEBLANC (Executive Producer) is best known for his role as Joey on the iconic NBC series “Friends.” The show aired for a decade and garnered LeBlanc accolades including three consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series from 2002-2004 ; two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a series from 2003-2004; a 1996 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, and nominations for Outstanding Ensemble six consecutive years in a row, from 1999-2004; a nomination by the Television Critics Association for Individual Achievement in Comedy in 2002; four consecutive nominations as Choice Actor for the Teen Choice Awards from 2002-2205, with a win in 2002 ; and a nomination for the Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Actor in 2002. He reprised the beloved role from “Friends” in NBC’s spinoff “Joey,” which garnered a Golden Globe nomination for best actor, as well as a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Male Television star in 2005. LeBlanc’s feature film credits include “Grey Knight”; “Ed”; “Lookin’ Italian”; “Lost in Space,” produced by Irwin Allen; “Charlie’s Angels,” and its sequel, “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu, directed by McG; and “All the Queen’s Men.” LeBlanc also produced the 2006 pilot, “The Prince” and currently has feature projects in development. Born in Massachusetts, LeBlanc moved to New York where he started with commercial work followed by guest roles on various television shows. JOHN GOLDSTONE (Executive Producer) was born and raised in New York City, attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard with honors in 1991. In 2008, Goldstone formed Goldstone Pictures, Inc., which has several projects in development, including Ernest Hemingway`s “A Moveable Feast.” He served as a co-producer on “Get Carter,” starring Sylvestor Stallone, and an executive producer, along with Matt LeBlanc, on the 2006 pilot “The Prince,” with Christopher Egan, Mariel Hemingway and Channing Tatum. Goldstone is also the co-owner of Hayward Luxury, Inc., a luxury accessories brand inspired by the life and lifestyle of legendary agent-turned-producer Leland Hayward. RAVI MEHTA (Executive Producer) has served as Senior Vice President of Physical Production for Warner Bros. Pictures since 2008. Mehta’s entertainment career began at Paramount Pictures as a Feature Budget Analyst. After three years, Mehta moved to Warner Bros. Pictures as Director of Theatrical Estimating and as a Feature Production Accountant, working on such films as “Torque,” “Training Day,” “Rock Star” and “Romeo Must Die.” In 2003, Mehta was promoted to Vice President of Physical Production, overseeing theatrical production budgets for both Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Independent Pictures films including “The Astronaut Farmer,” “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Everything is Illuminated,” “North Country,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “Lady In The Water” and “The Dukes of Hazard.” In 2006, he served as Executive Producer on the film “Mama’s Boy,” starring Diane Keaton, Jon Header and Jeff Daniels. MITCHELL AMUNDSEN (Director of Photography) was named one of Variety’s Ten Cinematographers to watch in 2008, in recognition of his distinctive and exciting visual style. His recent work includes cinematography on “Red Dawn,” directed by Dan Bradley, to be released this winter. Prior to these projects, Amundsen’s signature style can be seen in such boxoffice successes as “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” directed by Stephen Sommers, and Timur Bekmambetov’s “Wanted,” starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. His other feature cinematography credits include “Transporter 2”; “The Country Bears”; the feature-length concert films “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” in 3D and “The Jonas Brothers: the 3D Concert Experience”; John Stahlberg’s independent comedy “High School,” starring Adrien Brody, which premiered at this year’s Sundance film festival; and “Transformers,” which re-teamed him with Michael Bay, having previously served as second unit director of photography on other Bay blockbusters including “Pearl Harbor,” “The Island” and “Bad Boys II.” Amundsen’s other second unit photography feature credits include the Bruckheimer-produced “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” Paul Greengrass’ “The Bourne Supremacy,” John Turleltaub’s “National Treasure,” and J.J. Abrams’ “Mission Impossible III.” TOM MEYER (Production Designer) is currently in production on Shawn Levy’s “Real Steel,” for producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis and most recently designed “Orphan” for producers Joel Silver and Leonardo DiCaprio. Meyer’s feature films include “Valkyrie,” “We Are Marshall,” “Alpha Dog,” “A Lot Like Love,” “Blue Crush,” “Catch That Kid” and the short film “Whatever We Do,” a 2003 Sundance Film Festival entry produced by Tobey Maguire. His credits as an art director include John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful”; Christopher McQuarrie’s directorial debut, “The Way of the Gun”; “The Crow: Salvation”; and “No Vacancy.” Meyer made his debut as a designer on the 2002 comedy crime caper “Welcome to Collinwood,” directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, and produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. In 2006, he reunited with Clooney and Soderbergh, who executive produced the telefilm “Pu-239” along with Peter Berg. Meyer won an Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for his work. His other television work includes art director credits on a variety of commercials, music videos and series pilots. He began his career as a 13-year-old intern at the famed Actors Studio of Louisville, one of the country’s most honored regional theaters. With a dozen years in the theatre world, Meyer was a resident design associate at the Seattle Repertory from 1993-96, where he designed such stage production premieres as Arthur Laurents’ “Jolson Sings Again”; Jon Robin Baitz’s “A Fair Country”; and Wendy Wasserstein’s “An American Daughter,” all directed by award-winner Daniel Sullivan; as well as “Bill Irwin’s Experiments,” “Pretty Fire” and “SubUrbia.” FERNANDO VILLENA (Editor) most recently served as editor on “Gamer,” and “Crank: High Voltage,” both written and directed by Neveldine & Taylor. His other feature film credits include “Battle in Seattle,” “Bella,” “The Gospel” and “Derailed.” Villena’s roots are in the music documentary world, editing “War Zone,” about famed band Jane’s Addiction, which won the 1999 New York Independent Film Festival’s Best Documentary Award as well as garnering a nomination for Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival the same year; “Beautiful Losers”; “Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love”; and “Every Little Step,” which won the 2009 Satellite Award for best Motion Picture Documentary. He also edited music video “Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals: Live at the Hollywood Bowl.” His other documentaries include “East of Havana” and “Three Days.” TOM LEWIS (Editor) most recently served as editor on the family comedy “Old Dogs,” for director Walk Becker. His other recent editing projects include Ryan Shiraki’s comedy “Spring Breakdown,” the romantic comedy “Employee of the Month” and David Zucker’s horror spoof, “Scary Movie 4.” After graduating from NYU Film School, Lewis began his career by working with many of the largest advertising agencies in New York, including Chiat Day, where he edited spots for such clients as Reebok, American Express and MTV. Segueing into films, he edited director Frank Coraci’s debut feature, the independent thriller, “Murdered Innocence,” beginning a successful collaboration with Coraci that went on to include the hit comedies “The Wedding Singer” and “The Water Boy,” and the comedic action adventure “Around the World in 80 Days.” Lewis’ earlier film editing credits include the independent feature “Show & Tell,” “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Rat Race.” MARCO BELTRAMI (Composer) scored director Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed “Hurt Locker,” which won six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director, as well as garnering Beltrami an Academy Award nomination for Best Score. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his score to Jim Mangold’s “3:10 to Yuma.” Beltrami most recently reunited with Guillermo del Toro to compose music for "Don`t Be Afraid of the Dark" and with Wes Craven on “My Soul to Take.” His many other feature credits include Len Wiseman’s “Live Free or Die Hard”; “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” for director Tommy Lee Jones; “I Robot,” for director Alex Proyas; Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy”; and Jonathan Mostow’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” A protege of acclaimed composer Jerry Goldsmith, Beltrami got his big break scoring Wes Craven`s “Scream.” Beltrami threw away conventional horror music clichés, calling upon the influences of his idol, Ennio Morricone, and likening the film to a western. MASTODON (Composer) is an American heavy metal band, currently comprised of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist/vocalist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor. In 2007, Mastodon earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance of “Colony of Birchmen” and played live on the 2007 MTV Music Awards. They have also appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” and performed “Cut You Up With a Lineoleum Knife” for the 2007 “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters” soundtrack. In addition, they have toured worldwide with such artists as Metallica and Dethkok. Formed in 1999, the band released the EP Lifeblood in 2001, Remission in 2002, Leviathan in 2004 and The Call of the Mastodon in 2006, all for Relapse Records. They then signed with Warner Bros. Records and released Blood Mountain in 2006, followed by Crack the Skye and the EP Oblivion in 2009. Their music has also appeared in various popular home video games including “Madden NFL 2010,” “Guitar Hero: Metallica,” “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” “Saints Row 2,” and “Need for Speed: Most Wanted.”