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What do you do when Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the outrageous duo behind Crank and Pathology,walk away from directing your big screen adaption of a gritty, bloody, violent, adult comic book?  You pull a complete 180 degree turn and hire the guy who made Horton Hears a Who!

Obviously.

Warner Bros. has announced that their upcoming film version of Jonah Hex has found a director in Jimmy Hayward.  Hayward’s directorial debut was the animated hit from earlier this year featuring the voice stylings of Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell.  This will be his first live-action feature, but prior to adapting that Dr. Suess classic, he worked on several Pixar films including Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

Josh Brolin is still attached to star as Hex, the six-shooter wielding Confederate soldier who fights Union soldiers, Indians, ghosts, Mexican bandits, zombies, and H.P. Lovecraft-inspired denizens from beyond.  Hayward will reportedly keep the script penned by Neveldine and Taylor but is expected to “put his stamp on it.”  I’m all for director’s personalizing the material they’re putting to film, but I’m curious as to what exactly Hayward’s “stamp” is.

As interesting as the choice of Hayward is, it could have been worse.  Warner Bros. was supposedly also looking towards McG and Andy Fickman.  McG’s resume we’re familiar with, and while early footage from Terminator: Salvation is looking pretty damn good, we can’t forget that he also directed both Charlie’s Angels movies.  And what about Fickman?  She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes and The Game Plan with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson?  Yeah, I’d say the elephant wrangler deserves a shot.

What do you think of the choice of director?